To bolster international exchanges in medical education, PUMCH sent a 12-member faculty team from various departments such as internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and radiology to attend the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Annual Educational Conference in the U.S. from March 7 to 12. The delegation also visited Michigan Medicine. This trip provided valuable experience and insights for PUMCH to develop a training model for top medical talents with international competitiveness.
▲The PUMCH delegation at the ACGME conference venue
Themed “Meaning in Medicine”, the ACGME Annual Educational Conference, covered topics such as accreditation of training sites, professional development, and educational research. It attracted over 4,300 attendees from worldwide; among them, the 28 representatives from PUMCH and other units of the China Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals formed the largest international delegation.
▲The PUMCH delegation at a workshop
The conference greatly inspired and stimulated the PUMCH team. They had concrete discussions with ACGME President Thomas J. Nasca, CFO John Ogunkeye, and CEO of ACGME International James Arrighi on building residency training systems, accrediting training sites, and engaging in international cooperation, etc. Team members also had animated discussions with international peers in sessions like “Insights into the Accreditation Process: A Course for Program Directors”, “Advancing the Implementation of Outcomes-Based Medical Education through Research” and “Coordinator Forum”.
▲Group picture of the PUMCH delegation and the leadership of Michigan Medicine
When the Annual Educational Conference ended, the PUMCH delegation visited Michigan Medicine where they had nearly 30 seminars with its leadership team and department heads to gain insights into the development status and talent training experience of their respective specialties. They also exchanged ideas on further cooperation in curriculum reform, competency-based trainee evaluation, faculty training, mock training, and international exchanges.
▲Snapshots of interactions at Michigan Medicine
The visits and discussions were very informative and fruitful for the PUMCH delegation members. They believe that an all-round, large-scale and expandable medical education system is crucial to the success of medical education, thus an integrated whole-cycle training model needs to be designed. Top medical talents are the core force driving comprehensive development of the discipline, which necessitates deep integration of talent development with discipline development. Talents are the bedrock for high-quality development of hospitals. In light of this, the medical education system needs to go through innovative reforms to keep up with the latest educational philosophies and teaching methods and tools for the ultimate purpose of turning out competent inter-disciplinary medical professionals.
Written by Shi Yuxi, Zhang Shu and Guo Chao
Pictures courtesy of the Department of Education
Edited by Fu Tanpin and Xiao Xiong
Translated by Liu Haiyan
Reviewed by Wang Yao