"Twenty years ago, I went to Hannover Medical School in Germany for further study. Now, I am very happy to have you two from Germany as exchange students for internship." On February 23, Professor Yi Chengla of Trauma Surgery at Tongji Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) said during the morning round with the two German medical students.

One of the students is from the University of Tübingen and the other is from the University of Frankfurt. At the end of last year, they came to China to complete their three-month internship in Tongji Hospital through the Sino-German Clinical Internship Program run by Sino-German Medical Association and German-Chinese Medical Association. According to their own requirements and study program, the hospital arranged for them to rotate in "popular" disciplines such as Liver Surgery, Cardiac Macrovascular Surgery, Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and Traditional Chinese medicine.

"We observed the resection of hepatocellular carcinoma in Liver Surgery created by Academician Chen Xiaoping; which is the world's first cardiac rotary excision in Cardiac Surgery without opening the chest, stopping of heartbeat, or blood transfusion. This surgery has been successfully carried out in more than 500 cases, attracting counterparts all over the world. We are now studying in Trauma Surgery, and are very impressed by Prof. Yi's pelvic fracture reconstruction surgeries. He performs more than 300 pelvic fracture surgeries every year”, they said. The two German students also took the initiative to experience acupuncture in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine. They said that they have gained a lot from the three-month study, and they will bring the advanced technology learned in Tongji back to Germany, and they will also strongly recommend their schoolmates to study in Tongji.

It is reported that nearly 20 more German medical students will come and study in Tongji Hospital this year in batches.