2016 EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Mahidol University Siriraj Hospital
Bangkok,Thailand

Kobe University
Hiroyuki AsadaFrom 4 April to 29 April,I have been to Mahidol University Siriraj Hospital inBangkok,Thailand.

First 2 weeks,I had rotation in Trauma Surgery Department.After that, I rotatedin Applied Center Of Thai Traditional Medicine for 2 weeks.

In Trauma Surgery Department,I've seen many cases such as motorcycle accidents
and animal bites.
It's very different from Japan that many people get rabies or tetanus in Thailand.
During the rotation,I was very surprised that every medical students in Thailand
experiences procedure like suture and night shift in early like 4th year.
They were very skilled and hardworking so I got really inspired by them.
I've seen also an operation.The most interesting case for me was a child's ’severe
skin burn.
That was electricity burn so the damage reached to the deep.The doctors used thetechnique ‘micro graft transplantation’,which is to divide skin graft into small
parts and so they can cover more broad area of wound.

The doctors told me that if the wound is less than 1mm2,it can get healed byitself,so all they need to do is fill the gap with small pieces of graft.
All the doctors there were so kind to me that they explain about every patients in
English and let me ask any clinical question.

In Applied Center Of Thai Traditional Medicine, I learned about fundamental
concept of Thai Traditional Medicine.
They consider everything consists of 4 elements,earth,wind,water and fire.
So they think every morbidity state comes from imbalance of these 4 elements.
They use herbs such as lemon grass,spearmint and ginger to control thoseelements.
They organized the system in which they collaborate with farmers in rural areas
and get stable herbs supply.
In the storage,they have hundreds of herbs,not only plants but also minerals andscalps of animals.

I also learned about Thai massage.
They have 2 types of massage,the normal one and the one I learned this time,’courtmassage’.
What makes ‘court massage’ so unique is that they only use fingers and palms.(Asyou know,normal Thai massage uses elbows and feet and so on..)It requires very strong fingers to put enough pressure so I heard they do training
for fingers a lot.
I learned with practice,it was really fun.
People in Thai Traditional Medicine were all very nice and had a sense of humor.
They took me to sightseeing and showed me places I would never visit by myself.

I had lots of holidays during my stay,so I visited so many places.
For example,Thailand has their New Year ‘Songkran’ from 13 April to 15 April.
It's kind of water playing Festival and people play with water guns and buckets.
It was really fun to join them in central Bangkok.
I also visited Malaysia with Japanese friends.
The same Southeast Asia,but they had a totally different cultures.
I've visited many tourists spots in 2 days.
It was very satisfying weekend.

I met many exchange students come from Japan and United States.
I talked a lot with them about medicine,culture and politics
countries.
I'm so impressed how mature and smart all the students are.

in their own

Through this exchange program,I learned about things I have never studied before
in Japan and met so many great people.
I believe that this experience will help me someway in the future.

At last,let me say thank you to all the people helped me realize this experience.
Nothing could have done without your support.