SUMC hosts 20th National Telemedicine Educational Symposium
2016-12-13
On December 6, the 20th National Telemedicine Educational Symposium, supported by Ministry of Education, National Health and Family Planning Commission, Li Ka Shing Foundation and China Education Television, was held at the Lecture Hall, Science Building of Shantou University. This year, the symposium was jointly organized by Shantou University Medical College, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and University of Michigan Medical School. The Symposium was live-broadcasted on the internet; audience could watch it on line by clicking those links on the web. China Education Television also broadcasted the Symposium on its Network Television website.
Two experts, Prof. Eliezer Shalev from Technion and Dr. Joseph C. Kolars from University of Michigan Medical School, delivered lectures in “Medical Education” at the symposium. In his speech “‘My Physician Model’- Educating Physicians in Technological Institute”, Prof. Shalev pointed out that we urgently need to make innovative reforms to bridge medical education with medical technologies, and need to create a tailored-made physician training model that will be based on the faculty’s Vision, Values and Mission Statement. He further stated that Clinical Skills, Innovation and Research, Medical Leadership, Medical Professionalism and Emotional Intelligence as well as Technology Literacy are five pillars of the model. Afterwards, Dr. Kolars gave a talk on “Training Better doctors: New Approaches to Medical Education in the U.S.”. Dr. Kolars stressed that with the rapid turnover in medical knowledge, it is more important that students learn how to ask the right questions and where to seek out the answers rather than on the excessive memorization of facts. “It is important that students are prepared to have crucial conversations with patients, where difficult diagnoses are discussed and a growing variety of care options are navigated”, he further said. As Dr. Kolars introduced, a completely new curriculum being developed in the U.S. enables students to develop creative abilities and prepares them to be the change agents that are necessary to transform the healthcare system in the U.S. that is in need of improvement, and a series of new assessment tools that measure the effectiveness of students in these new attributes are being added to the traditional knowledge based test scores.
The Symposium concluded with an active question and answer session. Both the on-site and online audience actively participated in the discussions through internet-based BBS.
To date, the “International Visiting Doctor Program” of Li Ka Shing Foundation has generously sponsored 19 previous national telemedicine symposia. The symposia have helped to promote international academic collaborations and to disseminate advanced medical knowledge/skills in mainland China.