Gastroenterology – September 2017
Benign Hematology – October 2017

Being born and raised in Germany with Chinese roots, intercultural exchange and influences have always been important to me. Thanks to the opportunity I was given, I was able to not only experience world-class medicine at the prestigious NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital but also to enjoy the multicultural and open-minded city of New York.

I found it highly inspiring how patients originating from numerous countries throughout the world were treated by international and interdisciplinary teams of doctors and nurses. Both of my rotations were consult services with many different cases, and I was given the responsibility to oversee my own patients, do physical examinations and present them to highly professional teams. Furthermore, I attended grand rounds, special clinics like the clinic for chronic inflammatory bowel disease, multi-disciplinary conferences and presented a paper at the coagulation journal club and was therefore able to deepen my knowledge in several fields. I was deeply impressed by the extent of digitalization in the American health care system, which is far more advanced than I ever experienced and by the highly improved productivity in the working place. Due to the American teaching system, I learned new approaches and different ways of problem-solving. The demanding and also supporting way of teaching was very helpful, and I am convinced that my future patients will benefit from the skills I gained.

During my rotations, I was able to grow both personally by making new friends and meeting potential future colleagues and professionally by working on challenging and rare cases – some of them diseases I thought I would only encounter in textbooks and never in real life.

My time in New York was exceptionally memorable and educative thanks to the physicians and hospital staff who went out of their way to make me feel welcome throughout my entire stay by treating me as part of the team and who always took their time to answer any questions I may have had thoroughly. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to the team of the Global Health Office, especially Dr. Finkel and Dianne Young, who aided me in the organization of my stay and were always available if ever I needed advice or help.