While U.S. athletes netted 110 medals at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, the USC School of Medicine scored success there, as well, with a long-term opportunity to share medical expertise with Chinese hospitals.
“Our mission has been to provide a local and regional resource for sports medicine in South Carolina and the Southeast, and now we’re moving beyond that,” said Jeff Guy, MD, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery who was part of an American team of sports physicians for Team USA during the Beijing games.
Guy also is director of the School of Medicine’s Division of Sports Medicine, a partnership between the departments of Orthopedic Surgery and Family Medicine that provides health care for USC athletes, as well as for professional, high school, and recreational athletes.
While in Beijing, Guy worked with the Urgent Orthopedic Program that provided emergency care for U.S. athletes and other members of the American delegation. He and other team physicians also worked in the emergency room of the Beijing United Hospital and took part in a series of free lectures for members of the Chinese medical community.
The Urgent Orthopedic Program was created by a U.S.-based firm to provide western medical services for Americans and other nationalities living in China and other countries. After the games, the Olympic collaboration led to development of the Institute for Western Surgery in China to further advance medical relationships with the Chinese and serve international patients living in China.
As part of the institute’s work, Guy returned to Shanghai and Guangzhou this past March to help set up surgical procedures at Guangdong Provincial Hospital System. American doctors have visited the hospital for two-week visits, consulting with international and Chinese patients, performing surgical operations, and providing education to the hospital’s physicians and staff members. Visiting physicians have also worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Guy was followed in April by faculty colleague Christopher G. Mazoué, MD, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and fellow USC team orthopedic surgeon, who came away from the experience with a new appreciation for the differences in U.S. and Chinese health care systems.
“It’s important to learn about other cultures’ systems as we move forward with the obvious challenges in our own system,” said Mazoué, who spent three months in Norwich, England, during his residency where he developed his first impressions of health care systems outside of the United States.
As may happen in China, a burgeoning private insurance system was developing in England separate from the government-run national health care system due to demands of the market. I greatly value the opportunity to see the differences in health care systems in Europe and the Far East.”
Guy returned from his second visit to China with the realization that in comparison to American high schools, sports medicine coverage in Chinese high schools is woefully inadequate. As a result, he and Mazoué were instrumental in the start-up of a new program in August that is sending four recent Carolina athletic training program graduates to work in four American high schools in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
The effort has drawn on the expertise of James Mensch, Ph.D., a clinical associate professor in the USC College of Education’s Department of Physical Education. Mensch is the program director for athletic training who traveled to China to help with program development. The Darla Moore School of Business at USC also helped with guidance in getting needed travel documents and collaboration in areas like language support.
“We’re really excited about the outside training aspect of this program as well,” said Guy, a graduate of the Harvard School of Medicine and a fellow of the American Sports Medicine Institute. “It’s going to be a tremendous resource that will continue to grow.
“The exciting thing for me about this is that I spent very little of my training overseas and just being in a different country has been a great experience.
“Part of our mission at the medical school is expanding relationships and collaborating with other people and entities that are involved in similar care. This has been a great way for us to provide sports medicine care while at the same time branching out to work with other parts of the University.”
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