Best of both worlds

TU to bring occupational therapy to Shanghai

TU and Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine have partnered to introduce a brand new concept to China: occupational therapy.

Last summer President Robert L. Caret was part of a Maryland Higher Education Commission-sponsored delegation of Maryland college presidents that met with the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. One of the discussion topics was a proposal for the Shanghai government to contribute land for and to construct a Maryland higher-education campus in Shanghai's Pudong District.

More immediately, TU agreed to help Shanghai University of Traditional Medicine jointly establish an occupational therapy program. “It makes sense for TU to introduce this concept to the region,” says College of Graduate Studies and Research

Dean Jin Gong. “The Master of Education program we introduced three years ago to the Xuhui District—another first in China—has made TU known around Shanghai.”

Two physicians from the Shanghai faculty came to TU last fall to pursue their doctorates in occupational science. Maggie Reitz, chairperson of the occupational therapy and occupational science department, says the doctors will complete their studies at TU in about three years. TU’s Occupational Sciences department will evaluate the program after the Chinese students complete their first year of study to determine when additional cohorts should come to TU for training.

When the TU-trained physicians return home they will be part of a group that develops an occupational therapy curriculum jointly with TU. Reitz says it will be “a joint discussion between the two universities” because the East and the West view health and well-being differently. “The doctoral graduates will start crafting their views with our feedback. Some aspects of their curriculum will be the same as ours, but because it will be built on an Eastern perspective, other aspects will be different.”

Reitz says having doctors from China participate in TU’s occupational science program also provides TU’s doctoral and master’s students with insights into different philosophical ideas. “It’s an opportunity to broaden our students’ education by exposing them to different approaches towards health,” she says.

Gong says he hopes the visiting scholars will teach traditional Chinese medicine while at TU, so that students on both campuses benefit from the exchange of ideas.

“I’m very excited that we can play a role in the bridging these two great universities,” says Gong. “We’re bringing the best of both of their health practices to the next generation of Chinese and American students.”

Story by Stuart Zang/Photo of Sonia Lawson and Jun Hu, M.D., by Kanji Takeno

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