Source: Education Development & Alumni Affairs Office
Written by: Education Development & Alumni Affairs Office
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On the afternoon of October 15, 2015, Prof. Chen Chunsheng, Chairman of the University Board of SYSU and Secretary of SYSU Party Committee, met with four medical alumni of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) who are working in the United States: Dr. Quinn Li (Quanhui Li), Dr. De Tan, Dr. Tracy Jonelis (Yi Zhang) and Dr. Xin-Nong Li. The attendees of the meeting also included Ms. Li Hanrong, Director of Education Development & Alumni Affairs Office, Prof. Li Guanhong, Associate Dean of Zhongshan School of Medicine, and Mr. Wang Shaoxin, Director of Continuing Medical Education Center.

During the meeting, Prof. Chen Chunsheng extended a warm welcome to the alumni and thanked them for their support and contribution to the healthcare in our country. He introduced the recent development of the University and the development planning for North Campus, and discussed with the alumni on topics such as the reform of medical system.

The alumni expressed their excitement after seeing the tremendous change in the alma mater, especially the development in medical sciences. They would give lectures to the training class on general practice and have discussions with medical students of Zhongshan School of Medicine.

Quinn Li (Quanhui Li), MD, PhD.

He had dreamt of being a doctor since childhood. After graduated from the prestige Zhixin High School in 1980, he went across the street to attend the Medical School of Sun Yat-sen University. He graduated from the “All English Class” in 1986. He stayed in medical school and continued his post-graduate study in the area of Tumor Immunology under the supervision of Professor Jian Jihan. He received the Master Degree in Medicine in 1989. In 1990, he received a full scholarship to attend the doctoral program in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), USA. He has done extensive research in the field of Immunology and viral pathogenesis. He received his PhD from UMDNJ in 1995. In 1996-2000, he did his clinical training in an affiliated hospital of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Pediatrics.

Dr. Li is a very experienced primary care physician in the US and well known to the local community. He is also an expert in medical practice management. He is the CEO of a healthcare business company, Lincoln Sterling Investment Group. He has successfully founded and managed multiple outpatient medical facilities in California. He tries his best to help the people in need.

The nine-year student life in the Medical School of SYSU is the most important part of his life. It has not only taught him the medical knowledge, but also a good philosophy to practice medicine. It has been positively influencing him throughout his career.

Dr. De Tan

De Tan, MD, is an attending physician certified in both Internal medicine and gastroenterology in US. He is a current consultant gastroenterologist in the Methodist Hospital of Sacramento and the Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California, USA. He graduated from the All English Class of the Medical School of Sun Yat-sen University in 1984. He got his Master of Science under the supervision of Professor Wenwei Peng in 1987. He worked as a physician in the department of Infections diseases, the third teaching hospital of Sun Yat-sen University for 3 years before going to the PhD studying in the department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong in 1990. He went to work as a postgraduate visiting fellow in the division of Transfusion Medicine in the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, US in 1994. He spent two years as an ORISE research fellow in the department of blood-derivatives in the Foods and Drugs Administration between 1997 and 1999. He passed the USMLE board examinations and went to the Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri for the residency of Internal Medicine and the Fellowship of gastroenterology between 1999 and 2005. He and his family moved to California since 2005.

He has been very grateful to the excellent education he received from the Sun Yat-sen University and he had been back to the university for conducting clinical teaching rounds to the medical students as well as academic exchanges with the colleagues in the department of infectious diseases of the third teaching hospital and in the department of gastroenterology of the first teaching hospital over the last few years.

Dr. Tracy Jonelis (Yi Zhang)

Dr. Tracy Jonelis (Yi Zhang), graduated from Sun Yat- sen University Zhongshan Medical School in 1986. In the 1990's, while working as a scientific researcher at the basic research branch of Hoffmann-La Roche, she co-authored a patent introducing the technique of HPV detection in cervical swabs using polymerase chain reaction. She was an NIH fellow working in Howard Huges Institute-UCSF prior to resuming clinical practice. After an Internal Medicine residency in Kaiser Permanente (KP) and a Nephrology fellowship at Stanford University, she joined The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG). Currently she is the Chief of Nephrology in KP-San Francisco, Chair of Chiefs of Nephrology in KP-Northern California, and is one of the key members in TPMG Nephrology Operations.

Dr. Xin-Nong Li

Xin-Nong Li, MD, FACP was born in Guangzhou, P.P. China. Dr. Li attended Zhongshan Medical College in 1977 as a first generation college student following the Great Cultural Revolution. When he graduated from Zhongshan Medical College in 1982, Dr. Li worked at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, the second affiliated hospital of Zhongshan Medical College. Dr. Li also attended graduate school at Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences in 1985 and graduated with a master's degree in surgery in 1989. From 1991 to 1996, Dr. Li was a postdoctoral fellow and research fellow in the Cardiovascular Institute of Basel University in Switzerland and the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, USA, where he was honored as a distinguished young researcher. Dr. Li was matched to the residency program in medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 1996 when he passed the UCMLE board exam. In 1999, he finished his residency training and was certified by the American Board of Medicine. He has been practicing medicine in Sacramento, California since 1999. He also became a clinical associate professor and a full professor of medicine at the University of California at Davis's School of Medicine. In 2005, Dr. Li was elected to be a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Li has also been one of the governor's council members of the Northern Chapter of the American College of Physicians since 2012. Dr. Li is also a member of American Medical Association and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. Dr. Li served as the president of the Chinese American Medical Association of California from 2012-2014. Currently, Dr. Li advocates personalized medicine, especially promoting the clinical study and application of pharmacogenomics on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other chronic diseases.