Medical Staff also Play Active Roles! Medical Support for Kidney Failure in Cambodia
Although dialysis treatment is general in Japan, sometimes it cannot be implemented in some of the foreign countries due to lack of knowledge, skill and environment. A team led by Dr. Toshihide Naganuma, Lecturer of Department of Urology (Chairman: Professor Tatsuya Nakatani), Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University, has often visited the Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia as part of the activities of NGO UBPI (Ubiquitous Blood Purification International) to provide lectures and technical guidance since 2015.?
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JAC-DSC* seminar held at the School of Medicine, International University (in Khan Sen Sok, Phnom Penh) which has an academic agreement with OCU, is an intensive seminar on the field of kidney failure for medical students and interns in Cambodia. It is planned and promoted by NGO UBPI and participated by doctors, clinical engineers and nutritionists from universities and affiliated hospitals in Japan as lecturers. From OCU Department of Urology, Associate Professor Jun Uchida, Lecturer Toshihide Naganuma and Engineer Ako Hanaoka (a graduate student then) went there.
*Japanese Assistance Council of establishing Dialysis specialists system in Cambodia
An examination was given on the final day in the intensive lectures lasted for a few days. According to their system, those who have made excellent results can participate in the training in Japan. In addition to lectures, inspection of dialysis facility, guidance of how to purify water used for dialysis equipment and surgery guidance to the local doctors are implemented at the same time. This year the lectures were held on 22 and 23 August, followed by the 4th Annual Meeting of Cambodian Association of Nephrology.
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Lecturer Naganuma looked back and said, “It is not easy to provide support overseas when you have regular works at home, but what we have been doing here is challenging and worthwhile. In Cambodia, infrastructure such as water supply, medical systems and academic societies are somewhat still undeveloped. Unless domestic academic societies function, new technologies and research driving force will get weak, thus, it had a significant meaning to hold an academic meeting a day after the lectures this year. In this project not only doctors but also medical staff** have played active roles as instructors. As especially renal failure medical treatment is a team care across many fields, work environment needs to be made where medical staff of OCU University Hospital can easily participate in the future. Our goal is to provide sustainable international medical support with team power.”
**Medical staff refers to nurses and clinical engineering technologists who are not doctors
From 2015 up till today, Department of Urology has been to Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar and Vietnam to provide medical support for renal failure treatments. Also since 2016, OCU University Hospital has accepted doctors from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, and Indonesia and positively been involved in international exchanges.