Clinical Electives in Asia & the Pacific

• All areas of medicine

The Yale-China Association founded the Xiang-Ya (Hunan-Yale) Hospital and medical school over 100 years ago.
Changsha is a medium sized Chinese city of about 7-8 million people. About 1-2 million individuals came to Changsha from the countryside to seek work. Students will be able to gain first-hand experience providing healthcare for this population and the environmental challenges of rapid industrialization.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a well-regarded independent department at the medical school. Medical students in China tend to be in an observer role rather than being actively engaged in caring for patients. Yale students should be prepared to round with the care team but not have weight-bearing clinical responsibilities.

Knowledge of Mandarin is useful in gaining a more complete understanding of the system of care but is not a requirement for the rotation. Xiangya will assign a medical student to assist non-Mandarin speakers. Rotations at Xiangya are 4 weeks.

Recent participants

2025

• Phoebe Chen
  
• Darius Mostaghimi
  
• Madisen Swallow

2024

• Gloria Chen
  
• Neil Zheng

• Ophthalmology

Students will need to complete the 4-week ophthalmology elective at Yale to be eligible for this opportunity.
Established in 1987, L. V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) is a comprehensive eye health facility and a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness.

LVPEI has served over 34 million people, with more than 50 percent of services provided free of cost regardless of complexity. LVPEI has reached nearly 12,000 villages, trained more than 20,000 eye care professionals, and published over 4,000 papers. It is one of the biggest corneal transplantation centers in the world.

The LVPEI’s mission is to be a center of excellence in eye care services, basic and clinical research on eye diseases and vision-threatening conditions, training, product development, and rehabilitation for those with an incurable visual disability with a focus on extending equitable and efficient eye care to underserved populations in the developing world.

The Institute is managed by two not-for-profit entities - Hyderabad Eye Institute (HEI) and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF).
Students will shadow a variety of subspecialties including Cornea, Glaucoma, Retina, Oculoplastics & Pediatric ophthalmology. Students can practice slit lamp skills during the clinical examination and may also shadow in the OR and observe surgery. Students may travel to outreach programs and satellite locations.

Recent participants

2025

• Patrick Demkowicz

2024

• Victoria Marks

• Yale Mentor – Dr. Viji Kurup

This four-week clinical elective is based at Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy (HUMP) and Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, one of Vietnam’s leading academic medical centers and a major referral hospital for the Central and Highland regions.
Founded over 70 years ago, HUMP is a national center for multidisciplinary training, research, and technology transfer in the health sciences. Students will train in a comprehensive tertiary hospital with approximately 700 beds, 6 specialized centers, and broad representation of major medical and surgical specialties, including traditional medicine, infectious diseases, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, intensive care, emergency medicine, rehabilitation, and subspecialty care.

Yale students will participate in supervised clinical activities, bedside teaching, case discussions, and academic conferences alongside Vietnamese medical students and residents. The hospital supports more than 250,000 outpatient visits, 10,000 surgical procedures, and 25,000 inpatient admissions annually, providing high-volume exposure to common and advanced clinical conditions.

A core focus of the elective is understanding global health systems, cross-cultural clinical practice, and traditional medicine, supported by a highly qualified faculty with extensive international training and active global collaborations. Students will gain experience in resource-variable care, interdisciplinary teamwork, and the social determinants of health in Vietnam, while contributing to a reciprocal academic exchange between Yale and HUMP.