Trainee publication highlights success of US-China agricultural injury research training project

As a collaboration of the Colorado Injury Control Research Center, the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the School of Public Heath, Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the USA-China Agricultural Injury Research Training Project was created in 2004. The project aims to provide training to Chinese scholars, expand collaborative research activities between the injury control research centers and researchers in China and provide training and continue development of human subjects research ethics. Through the project, several Chinese scholars have received research training in the U.S. and have been awarded funding to further their research projects in China. Huiyun Xiang, MD, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, mentored Limin Wang, MD, MPH, during her U.S. research training in 2008. Dr. Wang's research project was one of the nine mentored injury research seed projects selected for funding by the lead investigators of the training project. Findings from her research on alcohol consumption and work-related injuries among Chinese farmers in the Heilongjiang Province were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Dr. Wang's research revealed, contrary to previous thought, that there was not a significant difference in injury prevalence between farmers in the ethnic minority group and the ethnic majority group in the Heilongjiang Province.

"Training scientists in the United States has been an important part of the success of the USA-China Agricultural Injury Research Training Project," said Dr. Xiang, also the Director for International Programs in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "By working with U.S. faculty members, Chinese researchers obtain first-hand knowledge regarding injury research study design, data collection and statistical analysis, report and manuscript preparation, IRB procedures and other ethical issues in the responsible conduct of injury research." Since her training under Dr. Xiang, Dr. Wang has been promoted and now serves as the Director of the Department of Chronic Disease Surveillance at the Chinese Center for Disease Control.

Source: Nationwide Children's Hospital