Nearly 7,000 miles separate the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in Beijing, but the two institutions have been intertwined for more than a century.
In 1921, the Rockefeller Foundation sought to establish a world-class medical school in China, and it tapped Franklin C. McLean, MD, SB’07, SM’12, PhD’15 — an Illinois native and the son and grandson of physicians — to help set up the college.
Two years later, McLean drew on his experiences at PUMC when blazing another trail: directing UChicago’s brand-new medical school.
Today, Pritzker and PUMC are linked via myriad programs that foster cross-continental collaboration and travel among students, residents, fellows and faculty — a rare arrangement for medical schools, said J. Michael Millis, MD, a Professor of Surgery at Pritzker.
The efforts help teams on opposite ends of the world discover “new and different ways to address illness and health,” Millis said.
This story appeared in Medicine on the Midway magazine. Read the Spring 2025 issue here.
‘Life-changing experience’
For a few weeks each year, Pritzker hosts about 15 senior medical students from PUMC to complete their rotations at the University of Chicago Medicine, an exchange in place since 2008. Two years ago, PUMC began hosting about 15 senior medical students from Pritzker.
“The students we took from Pritzker last year felt it was a life-changing experience,” said Millis, who is also Vice Chair of Global Surgery for UChicago Medicine. “Similarly, the students who come here from PUMC enjoy learning how the U.S. healthcare system works and how we teach.”
Millis holds conferences at PUMC once or twice annually where UChicago Medicine residents and fellows give talks and, in some instances, conduct clinical research. Pritzker also hosts PUMC residents and fellows who observe UChicago Medicine’s clinical operations and also pursue their own clinical and academic interests.
Zain Talukdar, MD, a second-year resident in pediatrics at UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, spent time at PUMC last spring. The staff there, he said, were “gracious” in helping translate handouts and conversations for visiting clinicians.
The cultural differences were also notable.
“It was interesting to see how outpatient clinics allowed multiple extended family members to actively participate in well-child checks, as well as the cooperation from families and young children during more academic processes, such as attending rounds,” Talukdar said. “I learned there are many ways patients view their health.”
PUMC sends about 10 faculty members to Chicago each year to spend three weeks observing how Pritzker educates its medical students. Some Pritzker faculty members attend conferences and spend time at PUMC.
“I learn a lot from my PUMC colleagues and they learn a lot from me about different diseases and different presentations of diseases both in China and the U.S.,” said Millis, noting that PUMC is generally regarded as the top medical school in China.
“Our intertwined history and strong working relationship make accepting each other’s students easy.”
Long-term impact
Several exchanges focus on the executive level.
The Clinical Leadership Development Fellowship hosts faculty from PUMC and other elite teaching hospitals in China for an academic year at UChicago. With coursework in clinical medical ethics and hospital management, the intensive program offers a certificate in clinical trials management and regulatory compliance.
The fellowship, established in 2018, “dramatically impacts the scholars’ careers in their home institutions,” Millis said. “It allows them to gain leadership positions and increases their confidence in their leadership when they go back to China.”
A similar mission guides UChicago’s International Medical Educators Program (IMEP).
During two weeks in Chicago and three months virtually, Pritzker faculty help clinical educators from China hone their teaching skills — covering effective ways to give lectures, conduct small-group discussions and design courses. One-third of spots go to PUMC faculty; the rest are given to faculty at other Chinese institutions.
“A lot of participants are in positions of leadership, so they have an outsize influence on how education is conducted at their hospitals,” said Jonathan Lio, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Pritzker, who established IMEP in 2019 with Renslow Sherer Jr., MD, Professor of Medicine, and H. Barrett Fromme, MD, Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Faculty Development.
“There’s a robust exchange,” Lio said. “We show them our best — our newest, most innovative teaching techniques. And we help them develop new curricula for medical students and residents, so the program impacts countless trainees down the road.”
Evolving partnership
The modern era of the Pritzker-PUMC relationship dates back more than two decades.
In the early 2000s, China began modernizing its liver transplant system, and over a decade ago, the country standardized its medical training and residency programs. Physicians from both PUMC and Pritzker played critical roles in these processes.
Millis and his PUMC colleagues helped establish regulations for liver transplants as China stopped using organs from executed prisoners, for example. Lio and other Pritzker physicians helped PUMC implement competencies for training residents — including patient care, communication, teamwork, teaching and professionalism.
“We’ve seen a number of institutions pull back from their interactions with China because of geopolitical issues,” Millis said. “Fortunately, our leadership has continued to support these interactions.”
One sign of PUMC’s standing in China today? Many of the Chinese government’s health appointees are PUMC faculty members, Millis said.
