By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Five delegates from Beijing Medical University of China met with
UCLA administrators and faculty over lunch at the Faculty Center on
Aug. 14 to talk about the future relationship between the two
schools.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who was not present at the meeting,
signed an agreement with Peking University for an educational
exchange in February 2000, but a formal system to facilitate
interaction between the two universities has yet to be created.
“We want to establish a relationship between Peking
University and UCLA,” said Wang DeBing, president of Beijing
Medical University and chancellor of Peking University.
The delegates said they would like to establish a student
exchange program, starting with 20 to 40 students. In addition,
they would like to pursue a joint degree program between UCLA and
Peking University.
When lunch ended, both parties left interested in pursuing the
educational exchange.
Both UCLA and Chinese representatives acknowledged that students
and researchers could benefit from exposure to different methods of
practicing medicine.
“The principal difference between Chinese traditional
medicine and Western medicine is that (Western medicine) focuses on
the physical biological change,” said Huiying Yang, associate
director of the Genetic Epidemiology Program at Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center.
“The Chinese philosophy is looking at the whole person,
focusing on the balance between the Yin and Yang,” she
continued.
Students and researchers from UCLA interested in studying
traditional Chinese medicine ““ including acupuncture and
herbal medicine practices ““ could study at Beijing Medical
University, DeBing said.
Additionally, many methods of research, including population
studies, are easier to conduct in China, where the Chinese
population is large, and individuals don’t move around as
much as in the United States, said one UCLA researcher.
Further benefits would come to Chinese students interested in
experiencing the United States and gaining exposure to technology,
said representatives from both countries.
Students looking to gain clinical experience can travel to China
where they can work more closely with patients and with more
patients than is possible in the United States. Alan Robinson, vice
provost of medical sciences at UCLA, said students in China would
not have to follow the U.S. patient privacy laws ““ which
limits how much personal information a student clinician can have
access to if they are not a patient’s actual doctor.
Beijing Medical University has already established agreements
with the University of Texas at Houston and Johns Hopkins
University. The delegates said they were interested in establishing
ties with UCLA because the university is well-known for
medicine.
The meeting, organized by the UCLA International Visitor’s
Bureau, is just one stop the delegates are making during their tour
of universities in the United States, which also includes UC Irvine
and Duke University.
When lunch ended, both parties left interested in pursuing the
educational exchange.
“I hope something positive will come of it,” said
Maria Wrigley, director of the International Visitor’s
Bureau.