Department of Forensic Medicine

Forensic medicine is considered as an active and promising subject which could bridge natural science and social science. The Department of Forensic Medicine at Tongji Medical College, which is one of the first six departments of Forensic Medicine in China, was founded in 1985. It has been approved by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health. It not only recruits undergraduate and graduate students, but also offers the on-the-job training to forensic experts for the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. Additionally, it has been accepted as the continuing education training base for forensic practitioners of Hubei Provincial Department of Justice.

In 1957, the forensic medicine teaching team was founded by Professor Huang Guangzhao.

In 1980, the teaching and research office of forensic medicine was established.

In 1985，the Department of Forensic Medicine at Tongji Medical University was founded and approved by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health. It started to recruit undergraduate and graduate forensic medical students.

In 1998, the department was entitled to confer the Doctoral degree and began to recruit doctoral students.

In 2002, the Tongji Center for Medicolegal Expertise in Hubei Province was established, affiliated to the Department of Forensic Medicine.

Currently, Department of Forensic Medicine at Tongji Medical College has one undergraduate education program and five divisions, including the division of forensic pathology (mainly involved in medico-legal death investigation), the division of clinical forensic medicine, the division of forensic biology (mainly involved in personal identification and parentage testing) , the division of forensic toxicology and the division of forensic psychiatry.

The department is equipped with the most advanced technical and teaching facilities, including a variety of multi-media classrooms, multi-functional laboratories, experimental animal house and autopsy room, etc. They will ensure the high-quality teaching and scientific researches. The department library owns the most updated collection of books and academic journals that equips the faculty and students with an ample supply of resources for both teaching and research.

In Sept.2001, “Tongji Medicolegal Expertise Center in Hubei” was officially approved by Hubei Province Judiciary Department . The center is appointed by Hubei Province, Wuhan City Judicatory Evaluation Committee and Board of Health as the authentication institution which is in charge of the medical tangle and disability evaluation in traffic accident. Forensic Medicine Department accepts all cases of autopsy, parentage analysis, living body injury, jurisdictional identification of mental diseases and toxicological analysis from inside or outside Hubei Province. The department involves civil dispute, criminal cases, traffic accidents and settlement of insurance claim, etc.

In the past 30 years, the Department of Forensic Medicine of Tongji Medical College has evolved into one of the most influential forensic institutions nationwide, and it has been making great contributions to the forensic medicine education and research in China.