Code Alerts! Sign-up to receive email alerts on important electric code changes.

Welch Allyn and the Guangzhou Medical College, Guangdong Province, China, announced the opening of the Welch Allyn Guangdong General Practice Skill Training Center for Medical Practitioners, a facility to be used for training of general practitioners (GPs). The training center was established to help further the Chinese government's initiative to improve access to healthcare through the construction of more community and rural healthcare clinics.

"Welch Allyn is pleased to partner with Guangzhou Medical College in this exciting initiative to bring greater access to healthcare throughout China," said Julie Shimer, president and CEO of Welch Allyn. "The Guangdong General Practice Skill Training Center is another vital step toward putting more skilled general practitioners on the frontlines of healthcare, and we are eager to use our resources in diagnostic and general practice medicine to assist this critical effort."

This is the second of six training centers sponsored by Welch Allyn. The training centers will prepare approximately 900 GPs annually through a "train-the-trainer" program designed to educate the thousands of GPs expected to be needed to staff new primary care facilities planned across China.

"Increasing the number of community healthcare settings across China and staffing them with skilled general practitioners will help diagnose and treat common conditions before they become more serious and costly," said Shimer. "Building more community clinics, training more GPs, and supplying them with high-quality Welch Allyn diagnostic instruments is a significant step in improving the overall standard of healthcare in China. We are so pleased to be a part of an undertaking that will give Chinese citizens much greater access to better quality frontline healthcare."

The Guangdong Educational Training Center features Welch Allyn devices typical of those used in community clinics, including an integrated diagnostic system, ECG, ambulatory blood pressure monitor, and electronic vital signs devices. All medical devices used at the training center are environmentally friendly and 100 percent mercury free, demonstrating a determination to build a "green clinic."  Activities conducted at the training center will be used as case studies for the China Medical Doctors Association (CMDA) in its effort to establish national GP training standards.