SIS and Fifth Affiliated Hospital of SYSU Hold Inauguration Ceremony for Practice Base of International Medical Language Service Program and Appointment Ceremony for Cross-Disciplinary Teaching Tutors
At 3 p.m., on September 24th, 2020, the School of International Studies (SIS) and the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) held an inauguration ceremony for the practice base of international medical language service program.
Guests who attended the ceremony included Chang Chenguang, Dean of SIS, Wang Cheng, Party Secretary of SIS, Zhou Hui, Deputy Dean of SIS, Huang Aicheng, Deputy Party Secretary of SIS, Lin Weiting, Party Secretary of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital, and Su Zhongzhen, Vice President of the Hospital. Representatives of teachers and students from both sides and relevant section chiefs of the Hospital also participated in the event. The signing ceremony was chaired by Dr. Su Zhongzhen.
Reviewing the close cross-disciplinary collaboration over the last year, both sides acknowledged the achievements made in various aspects of international medicine such as language services, professional cultivation, cross-disciplinary teaching, international academic communication, etc. Both of them expected that their cooperation can be strengthened by establishing the practice base, which was rooted in the demand of socio-economic development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and answering to the need for the language service industry from economic globalization and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The base also aimed at cultivating professional translators and interpreters with interdisciplinary expertise.
At the ceremony, Dean Chang Chenguang pointed out that this internship program was forward-looking and nationwide pioneering, whether from the perspective of cross-disciplinary and comprehensive professional cultivation or academic cooperation. During the pandemic, SIS and the Fifth Affiliation Hospital established close cooperation and carried out in-depth collaborations in language services for multiple times, contributing to the collaborative fight against COVID-19 and international medical development. This program was the fruits of the closer cooperation between the two sides, laying a solid foundation for cultivating specialized, inter-disciplinary and application-oriented masters of translation and interpreting.
Party Secretary Wang Cheng extended enthusiastic congratulations on the periodic fruits of the cooperation. He stated that the language service program of international medicine provided an idea for the comprehensive reform of postgraduate education of SIS. The collaboration highlighted the professional characteristics of SIS’s Master program of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) and was of great significance for practicing and optimizing cross-disciplinary education. The program helped both sides exploring the cross-disciplinary education model of international medical language service, enabling the two sides to take the lead in cultivating cross-disciplinary professionals in the Greater Bay Area.
Deputy Dean Zhou Hui applauded the specialists and teachers from both sides for their hard work in teaching international medical language service program over the past six months. She indicated that the substantive cooperation between the two sides had presented SIS with a new path to inter-disciplinary cultivation of professional translators and interpreters and helped attract high-quality SIS applicants from inter-disciplinary educational backgrounds. The cultivation mode of “translation plus medicine” merited our constant conclusion and improvement and the serial courses of international medical language service program would be developed into quality courses of master programs. She also asked the postgraduate interns to seize this precious opportunity to hone their professional skills, and follow a constant study cycle that goes through learning, thinking, acting, and comprehending.
From the perspective of student affairs, Deputy Party Secretary Huang Aicheng pointed out that the cooperation would help cultivate comprehensive and knowledgeable professionals and assist students to build up a comprehensive knowledge framework. Both sides would provide wholehearted support to ensure the program to progress smoothly. He hoped that all the interns could treasure this valuable opportunity, observe the rules and regulations of the hospital, and actively learn from the medical situations, which was good for their career development.
Party Secretary Lin Weiting appreciated the hard work that both sides did for cross-disciplinary collaboration and visualized the win-win results of establishing the practice base from the perspective of medical development and medical humanities. He pointed out that the base was an excellent platform to provide specialized training for language professionals. Only by focusing on professional cultivation could the Hospital provide better healthcare services to more foreign patients. Therefore, the cooperation between the two sides should be profession-oriented and aimed at cultivating excellent students with abilities, moral integrity, charisma, and eagerness to serve their country, so as to showcase SYSU students’ graceful image, behavior and manners. Meanwhile, the cooperation met the present demand for medical development, moved in step with the trend of the times and conformed to the development and changes of the new ideas of healthcare.
Vice president Su Zhongzhen reviewed the journey of international medical teaching that the Fifth Affiliated Hospital and SIS had made over the past six months and recognized the great significance of the cooperation. He indicated that through the translation cooperation during the pandemic and the online courses of medical translation in the spring semester, many specialists delivered expertise and diagnosis and treatment process in various teaching methods. These programs strengthened students’ awareness of medical health and translation norms and improved their comprehensive skills of translation and interpreting. This internship program was undoubtedly a step to consolidate and deepen the teaching cooperation between both sides, which would help cultivate comprehensive professionals and contribute to the development of the Greater Bay Area.
Professor Yang Chengshu, the initiator of the program of international medical language services, attended the ceremony through a video link. She compared this cross-disciplinary collaboration to a long journey, “On reaching the last leg of a journey, you are only halfway there” and the official establishment of the practice base marked the “last leg”, a critical step of the cooperation in professional cultivation of both sides.
Representatives of both sides heatedly discussed the in-depth collaboration and keenly visualized the future. Meanwhile, directors of both sides held the inauguration ceremony of the practice base of international medical language services program.
The official establishment of the practice base
Then, Professor Chang Chenguang, Dean of SIS, Wang Cheng, Party Secretary of SIS, Lin Weiting, Party Secretary of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital, and Su Zhongzhen, Vice President of the hospital and other leaders offered the letter of appointment to those specialists of the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of SYSU who had joined the team of cross-disciplinary teaching and took a group photo to mark the occasion.
After concluding the ceremony, Professor Chang Chenguang and other leaders, accompanied by the hospital employees, visited the multi-disciplinary comprehensive clinic and general wards of the Phoenix International Medical Center and learned the international medical service process in detail.
Other attendees included Dr. Xie Guixia, Executive Director of the MTI Center, Ms. Wang Mengxue, Office Director, Dr. Guo Cong, the project coordinator, and postgraduate interns.
Group photo of the participants from the two sides
