Top Los Angeles diabetes doctor Shen Yang joins China’s Westlake University

Recognised as a ‘top endocrinologist’ in southern California, Shen will be first US-licensed clinical doctor at the Chinese medical school

On July 21, Westlake University in Hangzhou announced that Shen Yang, a top endocrinologist in Los Angeles, had joined its medical school.

Shen’s move is striking because of her credentials, which include over 16 years of clinical experience in the United States, board certifications in internal medicine and endocrinology, and a thriving practice in southern California.

Before returning to China, Shen was named a “top endocrinologist in LA” by Los Angeles Magazine for several consecutive years. For this honour, she was nominated by her peers and selected from among thousands of doctors in southern California.

Shen took an unconventional path to studying medicine in the United States. As an undergraduate at Fudan University in Shanghai, she studied sociology rather than medicine or related disciplines. In the late 1990s, China was in a period of social transformation, and she was attracted to the theory of community work at the time.