The University of Ottawa’s (U of O) faculty of medicine has formed the first medical partnership with a Chinese university based on the North American medical system.
The partnership involves several shared research opportunities between U of O and Shanghai’s Jiao Tong School of Medicine, according to Daniel Figeys, director of the Institute of Systems Biology at U of O.
Professors from each university will travel back and forth to teach at the corresponding school.
Collaboration with Jiao Tong School of Medicine is a huge asset to research opportunities at U of O because of Shanghai’s population of over 14 million, Figeys said.
The efficiency of Chinese hospitals to accommodate such a large population as well as the larger pool of medical case studies offer U of O students learning opportunities that can’t be matched in Canada, where the medical system is often criticized for its long waiting periods, he explained.
The benefit for Jiao Tong School of Medicine basing the partnership on the North American medical system comes from the hyper-specialization of the Chinese medical system.
Patients must often diagnose themselves with the problem before seeing medical professionals that are only trained in specific areas of health, and can’t help if their problem does not fall into that person’s specialty.
Figeys said it is up to the patient to decide where to seek treatment.
The Canadian system offers more general help to patients and operates specialized sectors of the medical system through patient referrals.
The program will mostly be funded by Shanghai’s municipal and state government, according to Figeys.
“This will create a lot of opportunities to engage people in the networks with new ideas and new projects,” Figeys said.
He referred to students at both universities as well as researchers involved and the citizens in each country that can benefit from both medical schools learning from each other.
Figeys has been involved in the partnership since its roots were formed five years ago.
He said since then, the process of getting the partnership started has involved a large amount of networking and forming a relationship of trust between the institutions.
Figeys said he has travelled to Shanghai frequently for the past 10 years.
“We’ve been establishing a strong, solid relationship,” he said. “That does take time.”
Part of the relationship between China and U of O stemmed from Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune’s work in China before he died there.
The historical attachment was a factor in prompting Jiao Tong to collaborate with Canada.
Figeys said this partnership opens doors for many more partnerships in field like biotechnology.
He said the cultural differences between Canada and China are not a very significant challenge because “what we’re dealing with over there are eye-level people.”
“They’ve been around the world, and they know how things work,” he said.
