Southwest Medical University in Sichuan province has taken a significant step in its international medical education offerings, with five of its English-taught courses recently added to the Belt and Road International Medical Education Alliance's cloud-based online courses, the university said.

The courses are now accessible to students and educators across 46 overseas universities in 26 countries, according to the alliance.

The alliance was initiated by China Medical University and jointly founded in 2018 by 48 medical education institutions from 15 countries, in line with the Belt and Road Initiative. It aims to share global medical and health resources, improve medical education and promote mutual benefits.

Since its launch in March 2021, the alliance's cloud-based learning platform has rolled out 93 courses, drawing about 2,000 students from member institutions, it said.

The five selected courses are Medical Cell Biology, Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Science of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Science of Chinese Tuina and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Tang Lirong, deputy head of the science and education office at SMU's International Education School, said the courses were developed based on the university's established massive open online course programs and cover its key disciplines.

The Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery course is a national-level MOOC course, while the Medical Cell Biology course is provincial-level, Tang said.

The other three courses, offered by the university's College of Integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, incorporate its extensive TCM theory and clinical expertise.

"Our faculty has rich experience in international education as our university has a large number of international students. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they further enriched online teaching experience through livestreamed classes for overseas students," Tang said, adding that this has laid a solid foundation for developing English-taught online courses.

Lei Lei, head of the academic affairs office at the College of Integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, said each selected course from her school involves seven to eight faculty members with extensive experience teaching international students.

"Through these courses, we hope to provide students and medical practitioners in Belt and Road countries and even around the world with access to TCM knowledge and clinical skills," Lei said.

Lu Bo contributed to this story.