Betty Kong,MD Class of 2011
Capital Medical University
Global Partner Institution
Beijing, China
Summer 2008 
The global health program at Capital Medical University has been a valuable and informative experience all around, both in clinical education and global immersion. All the individuals who made this program possible- from the people at Capital Medical University who hosted the student abroad program to the educators at the hospital who arranged my schedule to the numerous physicians who took me under their wing for a day or two-- every individual was incredibly helpful and concerned with my academic experience and overall well-being.
My time spent rotating through the various departments at Xuan Wu Hospital has allowed me to acquire anecdotal evidence for diseases and procedures I have previously only learned about in textbooks and lectures. It has also given me the opportunity to compare and contrast the numerous facets of medicine as practiced in China and in the United State. For the purposes of a global health program, I believe both are invaluable objectives.
Getting to observe the daily operations of a healthcare system half way around the world in a society whose cultural traditions and population needs are so different from our own helped me put into perspective and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our medical system. We take for granted the absolute requirement of patient privacy and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment we possess for ensuring the best standard of care, but these are mere luxuries in a nation with so many people, and so many patients. I watched the efficiency of the physicians as they saw more patients in a single morning that some doctors here do in a week. There is much to be learned from both systems, and I hope to gain further appreciation for their intricacies through future opportunities for collaboration, and utilize my understanding to provide the best quality care possible for my patients.
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