As a doctoral student of Lanzhou University, I had a chance to study at Texas Medical Center (TMC) in America. It is the largest medical center in America and home to dozens of research institutions with distinctive features, including the prestigious MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD), University Texas (UT), Methodist Hospital, Rice University and Baylor college of medicine (BCM), etc. To be specific, MD is famous for its clinical treatment and cancer research. UT medical research and basic education are well-known while the heart center and children’s hospital of BCM top in the United States.

    There are lots of cooperation among these institutions. For example, BCM and UT have established a heart research center together. The TMC Foundation Research Building and office building were established by several universities. A shared free library was set up also. Therefore, TMC has basically achieved shared development in terms of resources, personnel, information and technology. Once the second phase of construction completed in the future, TMC will become the world’s largest medical center.

    The development pattern of TMC is worth learning. We have the largest population in the world, the largest number of patients and medical institutions. How to achieve win-win cooperation with other institutions and units under the premise of developing our own characteristics is what we need to study and explore. I believe that learning from each other is a powerful method of Chinese medicine and requires the efforts of every one of our medical staff.

By Zhang Yu/ Lin Juanzhen

Edited by Office of International Cooperation and Communication