International Affairs

After fifteen years of educational and medical exchanges with China, Five Branches University formally established its Center for International Medicine and Education, with a mission to promote cultural and professional exchanges in Traditional Chinese and Integrative Medicine, Education, and Administration. The Center brings together experts and students in the U.S. and China, and organizes international conferences and programs in the fields of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Integrative Medicine and Medical Administration.

The Center’s most continuous activity is its Study in China program where students and practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Five Branches visit TCM and Integrative Medicine hospitals associated with Five Branches’ sister colleges in China: the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou near Shanghai, and the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Tianjin near Beijing. Master’s and Doctoral level students, and visiting practitioners, receive specialized training from leading doctors in the medical departments at the hospitals, and make time to meet friends and learn the local culture. After training, many participants take the opportunity to travel throughout China and Asia.

In April, 2004, the Center for International Medicine and Education co-hosted the First International Conference, Treating Difficult Cases with Integrated Medicine, with the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University in Hangzhou, China. The Center invited leading doctors from Stanford University and the University of California San Francisco in the U.S., to join leading doctors from Europe and China in Hangzhou. Five Branches traveled with a delegation of six representatives including eminent doctors of both Western and Traditional medicines, and presented three research papers. Also in 2004, the Center organized, with the Director of the Center for Education in Family and Community Medicine at Stanford University, a series of seminars on modern hospital administration in China. The seminars were presented to leaders of hospitals in Foshan, Chongqing and Shantou.

In 2008, the Center’s major activities focused on inviting leading practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China to participate in the Doctoral program, teaching and practicing at Five Branches as well as establishing specialized medical centers, around their renowned expertise. In Fall of 2008, Five Branches is inaugurating both a Diabetes Center with Dr. Gan Ma of the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University Diabetes Center, and a Head Acupuncture Institute with Dr. Shunfa Jiao, the developer of Head Acupuncture in China.

For assistance or information on the Center for International Medicine, please contact Vice-President of Academic Affairs Joanna Zhao, L.Ac, or President Ron Zaidman at (831) 476-9424.