Clinical Exchange in Japan

Welcome to Japan and Nagoya University school of Medicine!

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Experience Report

Name: Jacob Todd
School: Tulane University School of Medicine, USA
Study Period: 4/3/2017 - 4/28/2017
Departments: Infection Control Team and Endocrinology

I am honored to have been able to take part in this program. It was a remarkable learning experience, and I could not hope for a better way to complete my final weeks of medical school. From the first day, I was consistently surprised by the warm welcomings and the effort taken to keep me involved. I hope that I was worthy of this effort.

For the first two weeks, I worked with the Infection Control Team. Dr. Yagi and his group were a pleasure to work with. My days were spent learning lab techniques in the microbiology lab, and visiting patients. Infectious disease physicians in Japan spend a lot of time in the lab and understand basic microbiology very well. The technicians in the lab were also very knowledgeable and very helpful. It was also interesting to see and learn about the precautions that are taken to combat the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. I was also genuinely impressed by how much the team members seemed to really enjoy working with each other.

The final two weeks at Nagoya University hospital was spent with the Diabetes and Endocrinology Team. Dr. Arima manages are large team and was able to provide a diverse learning experience. I spent a few days visiting patients on the general endocrinology team and sometime in the outpatient clinic. The volume of patients that I saw while on this team allowed me to seem some interesting and rare pathology. I also spent time mixing with Japanese medical students during this time. The medical students were a pleasure to work with. The few times that the Japanese instructors struggled with English, the students were there to translate for me.

Working in Japan was a great experience. I would recommend this program to other medical students interested in learning about the delivery of healthcare outside of the United States.

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