Dr. Manola Souvanlasy-Abhay is an internationally recognized expert in integrative Western and Chinese medicine, an acupuncture clinical scientist, and a clinical educator. Her medical education began in Laos in 1973. She later pursued advanced studies in France, receiving rigorous training in modern Western medicine at leading European medical centers, including the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rennes and Paris VI University at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. In 1984, she successfully defended her doctoral thesis at Trousseau Hospital in Paris, obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in general Western medicine, and formally began medical practice. As a medical thinker with profound reflective insight and a cross-cultural vision, Dr. Souvanlasy-Abhay, following a deep personal life experience, resolved to move beyond the limitations of conventional Western scientific medicine and embarked on a journey of more than two decades of research into Eastern traditional medicine and spiritual exploration. She has long been committed to the deep deconstruction and integration of Western clinical medicine, biology, and Eastern holistic medicine, making historic contributions to the construction and standardization of the knowledge system of traditional acupuncture in Europe.
As one of the core promoters of the localization and development of Chinese medicine in Europe, Dr. Souvanlasy-Abhay’s research and clinical practice focus on acupuncture, Chinese internal medicine, and Chinese gynecology within the dual theoretical systems of Chinese and Western medicine. To overcome the bottlenecks of cross-cultural medical research, she began intensive and systematic study of Chinese medicine in 1987. From 1987 to 1989, she conducted in-depth studies in acupuncture at the Asian Medical Research Association; from 1990 to 1993, she received systematic training in Chinese medicine at the École Supérieure de Médecine Chinoise in France; and from 1994 to 1997, she completed advanced studies in Chinese internal medicine and gynecology at Institut Chu Zhen in Paris. During this period, she also served as a key bridge for long-term international academic exchange with leading Chinese medicine experts from China. By closely integrating modern neuroscience, psycho-oncology, and the meridian theory of traditional acupuncture, Dr. Souvanlasy-Abhay has developed a rich clinical paradigm in integrative medical interventions for major diseases and in the field of psychosomatic medicine.
In medical education, academic community building, and the international recognition of Chinese medicine, Dr. Souvanlasy-Abhay has demonstrated outstanding leadership. Since 2004, at the invitation of the renowned French physician Dr. Denis Colin, she formally joined the teaching team of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris XIII University in Bobigny, where she has comprehensively led and promoted higher-degree education in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine within the medical school. Over more than two decades of university teaching, she has guided a dynamic international teaching and research team, actively promoting the legislative recognition, scientific validation, and standardized teaching of traditional Chinese medicine in France and across the European Union within the framework of modern clinical medicine.