Chuanzhu Lv, M.D., president of Hainan Medical University, and Changsheng Wang, president of Chinalink Medical Investment Inc., met with UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., on May 19 to sign a collaboration agreement between Hainan Medical University and UNMC.
Dr. Gold called the signing “the beginning of yet another really important relationship we have with the people of China.
“We have had well more than a decade of very effective exchange programs for students, research and clinical care, and this is just the beginning of another journey together.”
Dr. Lv called it a “great honor” to visit UNMC, which he called one of the most famous universities in the world.
“It’s our honor to be in partnership with you,” he said. “I agree with what Chancellor Gold just expressed . . . We wish we can deepen and broaden our collaboration in the future.”
Dr. Lv and Wang were part of a delegation which spent five days visiting UNMC facilities and meeting with campus leaders to discuss further collaborations in medical research, education and training, and patient care.
The signing is the latest step in UNMC’s relationship with the Hainan Medical University (HMU) and Chinalink Medical Investment Inc.(CMI).
UNMC established a Sino-U.S. Lymphoma Center at the HMU Hospital in 2011. Several UNMC faculty have visited HMU, and UNMC has provided pathology consultation on many clinical cases and helped training of several pathologists and oncologists from HMU.
A few years ago, based on HMU/UNMC collaborations in lymphoma clinical care and research, the HMU Hospital’s Department of Hematology/Oncology was recognized as one of China’s key national departments in hematology/oncology.
UNMC also signed an agreement with HMU, Chinalink Inc., and Wenchang City Council in 2013 to help build a state-of-the-art international hospital in Wenchang City, Hainan, funded by CMI and to serve as a teaching hospital for HMU. UNMC will play a vital role, mainly through consultations and training, in the initial plan/design, construction and the future operation of the hospital. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 2015, and the hospital will open to the public in 2019.
Beginning last year, UNMC helped in the training of the faculty and staff from HMU. To date, 15 faculty members from HMU have received three-month medical education training at UNMC. Also, there are currently three senior medical students completing their rotations in various departments.
Kai Fu, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Office of International Relations at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, credited Don Leuenberger, former vice chancellor for business and finance, and Deb Thomas, interim vice chancellor of business and finance, with important roles in establishing the relationship with HMU. He added that Brad Britigan, M.D., dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, and Gerald Moore, M.D., senior associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Medicine, helped with the HMU faculty education and medical student rotations at UNMC.