Director’s Message

　　The Department of Family Medicine was established concurrently with the inauguration of the NCKU Hospital in 1988. Since its establishment, under the leadership of Professors Chang Chih-Jen (張智仁), Lu Feng-Hwa (盧豐華), Yang Yi-Ching (楊宜青), and Wu Jin-Shang (吳晉祥), the Department has become distinguished as the preferred institute for teaching, research and training in family medicine among aspiring medical professionals and students in Taiwan. As members of the Department, we are fully aware of our responsibility to keep up with its reputation and to continue to strive for its sustainable development in the future.

　　 In 1989, I began to work in the Department. Over the last 30 years, I have seen the Department progress to its current status. At this juncture, in my capacity as its director, I pledge to continue the sound administration in the Department and make plans for its future development in consistent with the blueprints designed for the development of the College of Medicine and the NCKU Hospital under the leadership of Professors Shan Yan-Shen (沈延盛) and Shen Meng-Ru (沈孟儒).

　　 Currently, the Department is staffed with 25 attending physicians, 24 residents, and dozens of teaching attending physicians, working respectively for the NCKU hospital, the NCKU hospital Douliu branch, and other cooperative institutes (International Medical Center, Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, and Hospice and Palliative Care Center). With such a large talent pool, we are looking forward to a promising prospect for the establishment of an NCKU hospital for the elderly and the promotion of national long-term care and hospice care.

　　 In the future, medical science will face numerous challenges. So will the Department. But as Charles Darwin wrote, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.” Hopefully all colleagues and I will work together to improve and progress amid inevitable changes so that the Department will continue to develop and maintain its sterling reputation in the medical community.

Director Wu Chih-Hsing
Department of Family Medicine
College of Medicine, NCKU
August, 2019