The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University has long been committed to actively promoting international academic and personnel exchanges and cooperation. It has established friendly partnerships with institutions in countries and regions such as France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. The hospital has hosted a series of international academic conferences, including 11 editions of the Sino-French (International) Advanced Breast Cancer Forum, 7 editions of the International Uveitis Symposium, 6 editions of the Chongqing International Gastrointestinal Surgical Forum, and 5 editions of the International Forum on Mood Disorders and Suicide and Self-Harm Crisis Intervention Research. A total of 23 visiting and adjunct professors from abroad have been appointed.
In the past decade, the hospital has received 1,045 visits from international (including regional) guests for academic exchange and observation. Meanwhile, 113 staff members have traveled overseas for exchanges and visits, and 130 staff members have undertaken further training abroad. The hospital has admitted 36 postgraduate students from 21 countries, including Nepal, Palestine, Indonesia, and Canada, as well as 9 international undergraduate students who were awarded Chinese Government Scholarships. Additionally, 29 medical students from Belgium, the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom have participated in summer clinical internships at the hospital.
The hospital has engaged in Sino-French medical exchanges for 30 years. Since 1994, it has signed cooperation agreements with several French medical schools and hospitals. Notably, its agreements with the University of Strasbourg’s Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, as well as with Toulouse III University and its affiliated hospital, have been renewed multiple times. In 2017, with support from the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission and the French Embassy in China, the Sino-French Emergency and Disaster Medicine Cooperation Center was established to enhance collaboration in emergency, critical, and intensive care medicine.
To date, 162 doctors, teachers, and administrators have been sent to France for study and clinical training through Sino-French medical exchange programs, while 143 Chongqing Medical University students have gone to France for clinical and laboratory internships. The hospital has received 6 French Ambassadors to China, hosted 165 French experts and professors for academic exchanges, and welcomed 81 French medical students for summer clinical internships. It has successfully organized 22 Sino-French medical academic conferences, including 11 editions of the Sino-French Advanced Breast Cancer Forum and 13 editions of the Chongqing Sino-French Breast Reconstruction Workshop, which have become well-known academic events in the field of breast cancer in China.
Since 2017, the hospital has also actively promoted Sino-European exchanges, maintaining frequent collaboration with Germany and Italy. In 2017, it signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Thoracic Hospital of Heidelberg University in Germany. Since 2021, two editions of the Sino-European Respiratory Forum have been held, and in 2023, a cooperation agreement was successfully signed between Chongqing Medical University and the University of Florence in Italy.
The hospital has organized four international training programs under the “Belt and Road” initiative, including the International Minimally Invasive Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Clinical Training Program and the Belt and Road Anesthesia Advancement Program. It has dispatched 7 medical teams to Papua New Guinea and 4 medical teams to Barbados, and received 11 visiting doctors for training at the hospital.
