A group of leaders from Tongji University in Shanghai visited UNMC from August 21 to August 24.
The visitors were Liming Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., president of Tongji Hospital of Tongji University, Xiaoqing Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant dean for education of Tongji University School of Medicine, and Hua Jiang, M.D., chair of the Family Medicine Department of Shanghai East Hospital of Tongji University.
During their visit, they met with Chancellor Gold and leaders from across UNMC to discuss the state of current collaborations and how to extend those collaborations. Projects between UNMC and Tongji include medical and nursing student exchange, faculty training, as well as joint physical therapy and family medicine programs.
Brad Britigan, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine, said, "I was very excited to meet with our colleagues from Tongji University last week. We have worked with Tongji for many years in student exchange, family medicine, and medical education. We are happy to share our expertise in areas that are critical to China’s health care and educational reforms. During the visit we discussed our updates to the College of Medicine’s curriculum and residency programs, and how these ideas might be translated to Tongji. We hope to continue these collaborations and develop other joint programs in the future."
The delegation also had an opportunity to catch up with current Tongji students participating in the summer research program and Tongji alumni who are now working toward a Ph.D. or health professions degree at UNMC. One of the summer research program students, Han Li, was excited for the visit because she had worked in Dr. Zhang’s laboratory and this was an opportunity to reconnect. Dingfeng Liu, another summer program student, enjoyed the meeting because "we could exchange our thoughts about research and clinical medicine with our professors," she said.
Another highlight of the visit was a trip to iEXCEL and the simulation labs. The delegation members were impressed by how the iWall, 3D CADWall, and iBench enhance education, research, and patient care at UNMC.
UNMC has had a partnership with Tongji University since 2010. In that time, UNMC faculty have taught at Tongji and Tongji faculty have come to UNMC for training in medical education. Furthermore, 53 students have traveled to UNMC for medical exchange, nursing exchange, and research rotations and 21 UNMC students have gone to Tongji for medical and nursing exchange.