Exchange Program 2014
Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand
Aya Satoh1. Introduction
First of all, I want to thank all the people who helped me having such a
wonderful opportunity in Thailand. I spent only 4 weeks in Thailand, butthese 4 weeks were filled with a lot of fun and excitements. I spent 2 weeks
in Infectious disease department and the other 2 weeks in Family medicine
department. This experience really inspired me and gave me a chance not
only to reconsider about the health care system in Japan but also to think
about medical education in Japan.
2. Ramathibodi Hospital
Ramathibodi hospital is one of the biggest hospitalin Bangkok, which is a university hospital of
Mahidol university. There are more than 3 buildings.
It was so big that I would be lost
if I was alone. It serves at least
5000 patients a day.
Some parts of the hospital
didn’t have any air conditioning
because of tuberculosis. Somefacilities were very new, but theothers were old and they usedmany

different

things because Thailand doesn’t have a lot of money for
healthcare (this is what I heard). One of the different thingsat Ramathibodi hospital is that there is a place to pray.
There are many good facilities like a sport gym, a cafeteria,a ground for futsal, basketball, volleyball, and so on. There
are also library and PC room.
I stayed in the dormitory. In the room, there were a refrigerator, 4 beds (foronly me!), a shower (no hot water!), and TV (but I had no idea what the TV
show is about).

3. Infectious disease department
In ID department, I joined Professor Ken’sround with 2 other students everyday.
Doctors in ID department explained aboutpatients in English for us, so we could
understand what they were doing or what
they were thinking. There were a lot of
patients with tuberculosis or HIV. In eachround, Professor Ken gave us questions which were really hard to solve.
Sometimes, we couldn’t answer, so we went to the library to research. He andother doctors were so nice that they taught us a lot. We had a really good
opportunity to learn about ID.
4. Family medicine department
Date

8.00- 9.00 AM

9.00-12.00 AM

1.00-4.00 PM

21 April

Orientation

ObservePalliative topic

22 AprilInteresting case

Thalassemia clinic

Geriatric assessment clinic

23 AprilHome care conference

Lecture – HCS

Geriatric conference

24 AprilSelf Directed Learning

1:1 OFM teaching

Brief intervention clinic

25 April

Morning report

Home visit

FM academics

28 April

Morning report

5thyr.OFM -Home visit

29 April

Final presentation &Interesting caseFeedback

Free time/Sport day

We had a conference in English or in Thai every morning. When it was inThai, some doctors translated into English for us. In the conferences and thelecture,

doctors

gaveusmany

opportunities to talk about what wethought about the topics. This was myfirst experience to attend to palliative
care conference or to observe in brief
intervention clinic. In brief intervention
clinic, doctors help patients to lose theirweights or to quit smoking.

What I was really surprised in this department is 5th year students’ medicalskills. They listened to patients, examined them, diagnosed, and prescribedsome medicine by themselves. I found how much I didn’t know and how hard
I need to practice. They inspired me so much!
5. Life in Thailand<Food>For breakfast, we went to the cafeteria orbought some bread in the convenience store.
For lunch, we went to the cafeteria. There
were many good and cheap Thai foods. Forsupper, we went to many places with Thai
medical students. They took us to many goodplaces we’d never could find by ourselves.
Most of the Thai foods are really spicy but some are not spicy.
<Holiday>
Since we went to Thailand in April, there
were so many holidays! Thai students took ustomanytemples

andotherplaces

forsightseeing. We joined in the traditional
festival “Songkran festival”, which is thecerebration for Thai’s New Year. In the festival,
we threw water to many people. That was sofun!
6. Conclusion
Again, I thank all of you who supported me to have this great experience. I
met so many wonderful people through this program and they inspired me somuch.
I’m sure that this program will be a precious experience for everyone! I’dlike to be any help for who wants to join in this program, so feel free to sendme e-mail: aya.satoh.0721@gmail.com