Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital was founded in 1946. Its first president, prof. Li Tingan, graduated from Peking Union Medical College, and obtained a doctorate from Harvard University. At the beginning of the hospital’s establishment, he gathered dozens of experts who graduated from Peking Union to work in GDPH and carry out teaching work. English was used in teaching, ward round, and writing medical records. The college’s teaching philosophy, “basic theory, knowledge, and technique, along with rigorous requirements, well-connected organization, and prudent attitudes”, was implanted into the hospital at that time.

In 1978, GDPH was recognized as a conferral unit for master’s degree in clinical medicine and in 1981, for doctoral degree in cardiovascular medicine. In 1998, Guangdong Provincial Department of Education issued a document identifying GDPH as a teaching hospital. GDPH have signed a teaching cooperation agreement with Southern Medical University in 2004. Since then, as provided in the agreement, the hospital teach 50 undergraduates who major in clinical medicine from the university clinical theory and provide clinical practice for them each year. There are 15 undergraduate theoretical courses including internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, neuropsychiatry, medical imaging, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, rehabilitation medicine, emergency medicine, otolaryngology, dermatology and venereology, general medicine, stomatology, and clinical skills. In addition, it is responsible for the clinical practice teaching for 80 undergraduates from Southern Medical University each year.

In 2014, GDPH signed an agreement with South China University of Technology to jointly build South China University of Technology School of Medicine (“SCUT School of Medicine”), which has required the hospital to undertake the teaching task of clinical theory courses for all undergraduates in the school since 2015. To be specific, starting from the same year, it began to offer 21 undergraduate courses for those who study medical imaging, including introduction to clinical medicine, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, diagnostics, neurology, medical psychology, lemology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, stomatology, psychiatry, medical psychology, imaging diagnosis, ultrasound diagnosis, nuclear medicine, interventional radiology, imaging technology, doctor-patient communication, evidence-based medicine and clinical research methodology. Since 2019, it has provided 23 undergraduate courses for those who study clinical medicine, such as introduction to clinical medicine, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, diagnostics, neurology, psychiatry, medical psychology, lemology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology-head and neck science, general medicine, stomatology, medical psychology, doctor-patient communication, emergency medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, dermatology and venereology, rehabilitation medicine, evidence-based medicine and clinical research methodology, emergency medicine, and anesthesia medicine. Besides, it embarks on the task of teaching clinical practice for all students who major in medical imaging or clinical medicine. The hospital seeks to integrate theory with practice in the theoretical courses of clinical medicine, requiring teachers of clinical practice to take it as a full-time job.

Moreover, GDPH has undertaken the clinical practice teaching for students from a number of universities, including South China University of Technology, Southern Medical University, Guangdong Medical University, Guangzhou Medical University, and Shantou University, training about 320 interns every year. It is committed to promoting “GDPH program” and exploring “nighttime ward rounds by interns”.