UW Department of Familiy Medicine/Fuxing Hospital Faculty Exchange

This fall, the Madison Residency had the pleasure of hosting Qian Ning, MD and Hou Wu-Zi, MD, two family physicians who are on the faculty of the Family Practice residency of Fuxing Hospital in Beijing, China. This visit was the inauguration of a faculty exchange program between the Department of Family Medicine and Fuxing Hospital/Capitol University of Medical Science that was agreed upon this spring.

Through the program, the Chinese institutions will send two faculty members twice a year to Wisconsin to learn about our curriculum and teaching methods. While here, they will spend time at Madison Residency teaching centers and will also go to Park Falls, WI to observe Dean Funk, MD who is affiliated with both the DFM and Marshfield Clinic. We will also send faculty periodically to Beijing to work with the Chinese faculty on those same issues. Dean Funk, Ken Kushner, MA, PhD, Melissa Stiles, MD and Kathleen Walsh, MD will travel to Beijing in December for approximately one week. The exchange will also allow us the opportunity to send residents, fellows and faculty to China to get exposure to traditional Chinese medicine. The first such trip will take place either in the spring or fall of 2005.

Family Medicine is in a formative stage in China. The programs at Fuxing Hospital and Capitol University of Medical Sciences are among the first three-year Family Practice residencies in the country. The Chinese government's plan is to eventually train 1 million family physicians. We have the opportunity to help influence the quality of medical care for the largest country in the world as well as to learn more about acupuncture, herbal treatment and other methods of traditional Chinese medicine. On a personal level, the exchange also offers the opportunity to get to know colleagues from China and to experience the global solidarity of family physicians.