Our University Hospital was selected as a candidate organization for the Improvement Project of Core Hospitals for Clinical Research on April 19th by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. With the goal of creating Japan's first innovative medical goods and medical equipment, etc., the purpose of this project is to improve Core Hospitals for Clinical Research that assume central roles in international standard clinical research, investigator initiated trials and post-market clinical research, etc., and 10 domestic organizations, including our University Hospital, were selected on this occasion.

As a Core Hospital for Clinical Research, our University Hospital will be establishing a network for pediatric / rare intractable diseases in the next 5 years. It will be assuming a central role in the support of research that is hard to implement if it were not a doctor initiative clinical trial, and international standard clinical research. Specifically, it will utilize the network between the foundation hospitals in the Chugoku / Shikoku regions and immediately conduct large-scale clinical research and trials at hospitals that have over 200 beds, a total of 83 facilities. Further, it will improve its organization so that it can contribute to society through links with pharmaceutical development regulatory agencies, and by training personnel who will be conducting research for drugs aimed at pharmaceutical approval, working on the early practical application of Japan's first medical goods and medical equipment, and urging the acceleration of the industrialization of medical care in Japan.