Pediatrics course

旭川医科大学Pediatrics Course was established in 1974, the year after the university was founded. This university was established as the northernmost medical university in Japan, but due to its regional peculiarities, patients with serious or intractable diseases in northern and eastern Hokkaido are concentrated. For this reason, in collaboration with the university, related hospitals in northern and eastern Hokkaido, newborn medical care at Asahikawa Welfare Hospital NICU, medical care for children with developmental disabilities at the Prefectural Asahikawa Physically Handicapped Children Comprehensive Care Center, and medical care for physically and mentally handicapped children at Hokkaido Nursery School. We have formed a comprehensive pediatric medical center and are engaged in education, medical care, and research activities.

Asahikawa Medical University was founded at the behest of the national government in November 1973 as the first national medical university to be established to improve regional medical services and welfare, and reduce urban/rural medical-care disparities. Since it was founded, Asahikawa Medical University has produced 4,393 graduates from the Medical Course and 1,377 graduates from the Nursing Course, many of whom are employed at the vanguard of community medicine, research institutes, and administrative bodies.

It is estimated that the population in Hokkaido will continue aging, and due to a declining birthrate, decreasing more rapidly than any other part of the country. That implies that public hospitals should be integrated and their medical functions made clear. Our university, as a national university hospital, follows the national policy, and supports these public hospitals. In order to achieve the mission, in 2019, we established the Center for Integrated Medical Education and Regional Symbiosis to nurture medical individuals who will work closely with local communities. The facility will prove highly beneficial to our medical students, 60% of whom are from Hokkaido, and to our clinical trainees, 56 of whom are from our university this year, which means we have the highest number of university graduates wishing to stay at their own university for clinical training in Japan.