China

Collaborations in China

 

The Intern Health Study

The Intern Health Study is a longitudinal cohort study that assesses stress and mood in medical interns at institutions around the country, enrolling over 3,000 new interns each year. The Intern Health Study is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the University of Michigan Depression Center and the Taubman Medical Institute. Dr. Srijan Sen, Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Professor of Depression and Neurosciences with the Department of Psychiatry, leads this study.
In a pilot arm of the project involving 70 incoming intern physicians at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the team found promising participation rates (74 percent), and an increase in depression rates with internship comparable to U.S. interns. These findings were based on Chinese interns serving in 2015-16. In the next stage, collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Peking Union Medical College, the team is using the internship model to identify mobile electronic signals that predict depressive mood under stress. This work addresses interns serving between 2016 through 2018.

Improving Outcomes for Adults with HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse in China

In 2010, the Joint Institute for Translational and Clinical Research was launched to foster collaborations between Michigan Medicine and Peking University Health Sciences Center (PUHSC). In the fall of 2017, Drs. Frederic Blow and Mark Ilgen received funding from the Joint Institute for the first project to focus on mental health. This research will build on the shared expertise in both institutions on drug and alcohol research and will examine new strategies to improve treatment outcomes for adults with HIV/AIDS, substance use and chronic pain. The new project has the dual goals of generating novel pilot data on intervention strategies for HIV/AIDS patients with substance use disorders and pain in both countries while also developing an infrastructure to support future collaborations between the University of Michigan Addiction Center and PUHSC on addiction-related research.