THE United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with local health officials, yesterday inaugurated the Shanghai Maternal and Child Health Center that will carry out studies on pregnancy and child development.

Different from a maternity hospital, the center will play an important role in policy making and research, guideline, talent training, domestic and international collaboration and exchange and data collection.

“The center will become a platform to collect data on growth of children and set up standards on healthy living and developmental disorders like attention deficit hyperactivity which is not available now,” said Dr Jin Xingming, a child care expert.