This spring saw the return after three years of international students and physicians to the campuses of the Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine (SAHZU).

Louie Wang, a medical student at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), was the first medical student that registered for a medical elective at SAHZU. He swiftly booked a flight to Hangzhou.

The Department of Emergency Medicine at SAHZU, which is ranked fourth in emergency medicine in China, is where Louie Wang decided to complete his elective. Louie dealt with a lot of instances when he was here that are uncommon for an emergency room in a U.S. hospital. He gained knowledge of emergency tracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation, the management of severe trauma and acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and even had the chance to perform under supervision actual procedures like central venous line placement, lumbar puncture, and bedside ultrasound. He witnessed the use of 5G technology for the first time in pre-hospital settings, hospital emergency rescue and intensive care, and drone blood delivery. The creation of a pre-hospital emergency care network between the United States and Mexico is Louie's desire, and his experiences at SAHZU have left him feeling inspired and motivated.

Louie provided an unexpected response when asked why he selected SAHZU for his medical elective out of all of UCLA's international exchange programs:  I decided to enroll in the UCLA School of Medicine when I learned that they have an exchange program with SAHZU since I'd already received medical care from SAHZU doctors. Louie grew up in Hangzhou, and his mother would take him to SAHZU to visit a doctor whenever he was ill, it turns out. He was able to go home for a visit because of the medical student exchange program between UCLA and SAHZU.

Together with Louie, Victoria Chen, a fellow UCLA medical student, also joined the program. Victoria, a medical student and an oral surgery resident, was interested in the work that her coworkers at the SAHZU department of oral and maxillofacial surgery were doing.

Victoria had the opportunity to take part in numerous operations during her stay, including the radical resection of oral cancer, free flap reconstruction, and complex maxillofacial fractures. She also helped with the design and creation of KISS flaps, which she had never seen before. Victoria cited one of her most impressive experiences as the fact that more than 20 radical oral cancer surgeries were conducted at SAHZU Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in just a few weeks, as opposed to just two such surgeries each week at UCLA. She also saw a number of cases of oral tumor and maxillofacial fascia space infections that she had only read about in textbooks.

Apart from Louie and Victoria, the Malaysian anesthesiologist Dr. Lim Shin Hoei and the Indian cardiologist Dr. Sujai Nikhil are enrolled in training programs at SAHZU concurrently. Dr. Lim Shin Hoei will spend 6 months at SAHZU Anesthesiology honing her skills in cardiac anesthesia and Trans-esophageal Echocardiography while Dr. Sujai Nikhil will spend 3 months at SAHZU Cardiology concentrating on interventional cardiology procedures and structural heart problems.

Source: The Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine