Teaching hospitals have three major tasks: medical research, service and education. To achieve these three important tasks, high-quality clinical education, for the purpose of nurturing the fledgling generation into future competent experts, is of vital importance to lay a solid base for everlasting growth and development of medical sciences and techniques.

Taipei Veterans General Hospital, as one of the best medical centers in Taiwan, is to open our arms to invite international students and professionals for mutual learning and sharing of experiences. The international programs of Taipei Veterans General Hospital have grown into a very important part of medical education and healthcare training of the hospital with the number of participants increasing from not more than 30 in 2004 to 240 in 2019.

With the outstanding medical progress in Taiwan that attracts more and more international learners, the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the government has since 2010 established guidelines as a national policy to steer the planning of international training programs provided by medical center or teaching hospitals in Taiwan, which has helped us a lot in promoting and designing the related programs.

According to these guidelines, the programs we offer to the international trainees are basically observership training in nature, either for students or for medical staff.

1. International students should have achieved the required years of courses equivalent to our local counterpart of courses before the students can enter into clerkship training. The total length of the elective programs should not exceed two months.
2. International medical staff should have proof of more than one-year working experiences issued by the institution the applicant is presently affiliated with. The length of the training should not exceed two years, but can be postponed another two years.