The Fourth Mongolian Doctors Trainee Team celebrated the completion of their program at Taiwan's International Medical Training Center (IMTC) yesterday.
Since 2003, the IMTC at the Department of Health's Taipei Hospital has played host to medical professionals from Mongolia and other nations to further hone their skills.
The group of 11 Mongolian doctors was the largest ever to graduate from the six-month training program.
Gonchigsuren Enkhtsetseg, head of the department of neurology at Central Clinical University Hospital in Ulan Bator, said that overseas training programs were a popular choice among Mongolian medical professionals who wished to take their expertise to the next level.
"We have opportunities to go to Japan, [South] Korea, the US and Germany among other countries, as well as Taiwan, if our English is good," Enkhtsetseg said.
The Mongolian contingent communicated with local doctors in English, although some took Chinese lessons during their stay here.
"My field is neurophysiological diagnosis and I learned a lot in Taiwan," Enkhtsetseg said. "The field is different here and in many ways more advanced."
Enkhtsetseg said she had worked with diagnostic equipment in Taiwan that Mongolia has yet to import.
For Mungun-Ulzii, a 25-year-old trainee-doctor, the trip to Taiwan meant more than professional advancement.
"We learned from different physicians and in different hospitals, but the experience is also important because we learned about a different culture," Mungun-Ulzii said.
Batchimeg Migeddorj, the representative of Ulan Bator trade and economic office in Taipei, hoped that the local people also learned something from their visit.
"We hope that by introducing our doctors to Taiwanese, we have changed their perception of `Mongolian doctors,'" Migeddorj said.
The term "Mongolian doctor" in Chinese is a derogatory term referring to a "quack."
The doctors will return home later this month.
"I miss snow, I miss winter, I miss my whole country," Mungun-Ulzii said.
In addition to the doctors from Mongolia, the training center has hosted medical professionals from Brazil, Austria, the US, Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands.
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