Current perspectives on medical education in China

Abstract

Medical education is important to China's large population. The undergraduate medical education system is being streamlined and national standards are being established. Innovations in medical education have recently been encouraged and supported, including the adoption of problem-based learning. It is important that the momentum is kept up so that the health care of a fifth of the world's population is assured.

Integrating traditional Chinese medicine into Chinese medical education reform: issues and challenges

“…The Chinese Ministry of Health stipulates that undergraduate biomedical universities must provide nationally standardized courses in TCM 4 . Scholars have previously noted the uniqueness of this pluralistic health care and medical education system 5 , 6 . But issues of limited mutual understanding between TCM and biomedicine persist, so we note the importance of integrating traditional Chinese medicine into medical education reform.…”

China’s Physician and Nurse Workforce

“…1 Medical education, like Chinese education in general, was rooted in Confucianism and the associated ethics of morality, self-control, and respect for human life. 2 TCM was widely used due to several factors: it was the only type of medicine available, it was inexpensive, and it was widely perceived by the population to be efficacious. TCM was seriously challenged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by western medicine by virtue of having a competitor that had relatively higher perceived efficacy in the eyes of coastal city inhabitants exposed to it.…”

“…The Chinese government began to establish its own western and TCM medical schools thereafter. 3 By 1914, the central government had two medical schools: Peking Medical Special College and Peiyang Military Medical College (Tientsin); several provinces operated their own schools as well. 4 Western incursions exposed the primitive state of domestic training in TCM, and by contrast, the modern revolution in germ theory and the curative effects of the allopathic approach.…”

A survey on financial support and research achievement of medical education research units in China

“…The Western model of establishing medical education research and development units as a means to improve health professions' training was introduced to China (Huang 1992). In 1978, the first medical education research unit was established in China's Shanghai First Medical University, followed by additional research units in other medical schools (Lam et al 2006). However, medical education research has not substantially influenced policies and practices like that of developed countries (Majumder 2004), in part, due to the status of medical education research.…”