Administered by Global REACH, the Global Executive Education Program brings participants to Ann Arbor for three weeks to learn from clinical and administrative leaders across the organization. The most recent session, which ran Sept. 30 thru Oct. 18, focused heavily on medical education.
“Learning more about the teaching of American medical students and the US curriculum allows us to further think about the optimization of Chinese curriculum by comparing the similarities and differences between the two systems,” said Xincan Zhou, MPA, an Administrative Officer from the International Cooperation Office at the Central South University Xianya School of Medicine, a longtime UMMS partner school. “The experience has encouraged me to develop myself in both my career and personal life.”
The session included participants from the Xiangya School of Medicine, in Changsha, which for years been sending some of its top medical students to UMMS to learn research, as well as Peking University Health Science Center, a longtime Michigan Medicine partner in the Joint Institute research collaboration program. All together, the 24 participants comprised the largest-ever Global Executive Education Program cohort.
“Engaging partner institutions in the program ensures that they return to their home institutions with a good understanding of Michigan Medicine, the physical spaces, the people and the culture. This sets the stage for successful collaborations into the future,” said Amy Huang, MD, MHSA, Global REACH Director of Asia Programs.
The three-week session included individual presentations on medical education curriculum development for both the classroom and clinical environments; US medical school accreditation; student assessment; graduate medical education; and much more. Presenters included Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education Louito Edje, Lyle. C. Roll Professor of Medicine and former UMMS Dean James Woolliscroft, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education J. Sybil Biermann, and many others—more than 30 UMMS faculty and administrators in all.
“This program would not be possible without their support,” said Huang. “The lessons and insights they share are truly invaluable, and we are so very grateful for their willingness to share their time and expertise.”
In additional to topical presentations in the classroom, participants also had the opportunity visit some clinical spaces, observing how faculty engage learners in the hospital setting.
“I learned new ways to educate students and junior residents through improved communications and establishing a reasonable structure,” said Yang Chen, an Associate Chief Physician in the Obstetrics Department at Peking University Third Hospital. “One lesson for me was that, in the future, treatment options should be discussed with residents before bedside rounds each day.”
Medical schools in China are in the midst of a transformation, with the widespread implementation of competency-based education, new emphasis on formalized assessments and an increased use of simulation-based assessment and more.
“Participating in this program helped me to understand the attempts made by UMMS in these areas to reform the system,” said Liang Han, Deputy Chief Physician of ophthalmology at Peking University Third Hospital. “It helped me to learn how to design a curriculum system that is adapted to the mission and career needs of our future physicians in China.”