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Medical Education and Practice in People's Republic of China
- TSUNG O. CHENG, M.D., F.A.C.P.;
- LLOYD AXELROD, M.D.; and
- ALEXANDER LEAF, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Abstract
A dramatic adaptation of medical education to meet indigenous needs and circumstances has occurred in the People's Republic of China in the context of a highly structured health care delivery and medical referral system, entailing a reduction in curriculum length from 6 to 3 years. Although general directions and guidelines are set centrally by Peking, considerable autonomy and flexibility exist in individual schools. The innovative approaches used include training medical students in the countryside and factories as well as medical schools, combining traditional Chinese and modern Western medicine, opening hospital-run medical schools, and using unconventional methods of producing medical doctors. On graduation the students generally return to the communities from which they came. Although the total number of medical graduates still falls short of national requirements, the problem of maldistribution of physicians has been alleviated in China. Medical care is now readily available in rural areas, where 80% of the population resides.
Article and Author Information
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▸From the Departments of Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine and Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
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▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Tsung O. Cheng, M.D., George Washington University Medical Center, 2150 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037.
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- Received August 8, 1975.
- Accepted August 22, 1975.
