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A School head has received a rare accolade by being made an Honorary Director in a Chinese university department. It is the first move of its kind for the department.

Winthrop Professor John Newnham, Head of the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health, is now an Honorary Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School.

“They have never done anything like this before apparently,” he said. “It is an honour. And it means I have access to their research data.”

Professor Newnham said some of the things he had achieved in China had probably led to the appointment.

He has set up a research collaboration with the Nanjing University Medical School. The first study will compare the incidence of preterm birth and the factors leading to it in populations in WA, Hong Kong and the Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital.

“We are looking at the differences in our populations as regards pre-term birth and hoping to find clues as to how we can prevent it in our population,” Professor Newnham said.

“No-one has known the incidence of pre-term birth in China and they don’t have any national data so they have now provided us with the province data.”

The School has also fostered the exchange of senior staff between the two universities. The Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Nanjing came to King Edward Memorial Hospital for a month this year and two young obstetricians visited for three months.

Similarly, medical students from the Faculty School have been to Nanjing.

Professor Newnham has also organised an international workshop on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) as part of China’s 10th national conference on obstetrics in Beijing next June and has lectured extensively in China.

Professor Newnham said the School’s laboratory manager, Mr Shaofu-Li, who trained at the Beijing Academy of Science, was playing a major role in helping with the Nanjing collaboration.

“Shaofu single-handedly has made a huge difference, I believe, to the School’s linkage into China,” he said. Perth and Nanjing are sister cities and the Faculty has forged strong ties with the Nanjing University Medical School, thanks to the initiative of Faculty Dean Winthrop Professor Ian Puddey.