Clinical Exchange in Japan

My name is Viet Duc Bui and I am 6th year medical exchange student from Germany, currently enrolled at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg. Taking part in the Nagoya University Program for Academic Exchange, NUPACE, in winter semester 2019/2020, I have been attending a Clinical Elective Program and completing a Research Internship at the Nagoya University Hospital. In the following, I am going to recapitulate my experiences during my internships at the Nagoya University Hospital in a chronological order.

In the second week of December 2019, my two-week clinical rotation at the Department of Neurology at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine has begun. I was introduced to director Prof. Masahisa Katsuno who presented me an individualized schedule encompassing theory and practice. Every morning I received one-to-one lectures about up-to-date research performed at the department: I learned about nowadays’ theory about pathogenesis of various neurological disorders on a molecular biological level, but furthermore I had the opportunity of discussing new research approaches with experts in the respective field on a confidential basis.

Subsequent to the morning lectures, I was assigned to accompany physicians during the daily patients’ visits performing treatments or diagnostic measures such as lumbar puncture and electrophysiological investigations. In addition, I attended conferences where the medical history of each patient were summarized and further decisions were discussed. Thanks to Prof. Katsuno’s endeavor translating the key words into English, I was able to connect the clinical image of the patient with the presented medical history during the Ward Round which was guided by the chief physician.

During the second half of December I have completed a clinical clerkship at the Department of Neurosurgery. For each week I was given an operation schedule with one single surgical intervention performed per day. Every procedure was discussed in-depth pre- and postoperatively within the surgical team. During weekly conferences, the results were then presented to the whole department and crosschecked by the chief physician and the other surgeons. Further on, the week’s schedule was divided into the following neurosurgical subfields:

Monday

Cerebrovascular Disorder (Aneurysm, Vascular Malformation etc.)

Tuesday

Functional Brain Disorder (Epilepsy, Parkinson’s Disease etc.)

Wednesday

Spinal Cord Disease (Degeneration, Fractures, Tumor etc.)

Thurs/Friday

Brain Tumors (Glioblastoma Multiforme, Meningioma etc.)

Visiting the operation theater, I was shown recent opportunities of brain mapping before and during surgery using highly precise robotic-assisted “Neuronavigation” surgical support systems including intraoperative MRI, navigation systems and Neuromate. Depending on the surgeon in charge, I was permitted to attend and assist the operation while the surgeons endeavored to explain the surgical procedure step by step.

In the end, I am fiercely convinced that taking part at NUPACE is in all respects beneficial to my academic career and additionally my personal development. どうもありがとう!