Fostering Medical Exchanges with the World
Christopher Mow, MD (l) spends almost a third of his time in Asia, treating patients, educating young physicians and fostering medical staff exchanges between his Stanford colleagues and his counterparts across the Pacific. He is pictured here with Chief of Staff Ann Weinacker, MD (r) at the opening of the first level one trauma center in northeastern Thailand.
As a result of the ongoing fellowship Christopher Mow has built with colleagues and health systems in Asia, he and Chief of Staff Ann Weinacker, MD were invited to the opening of the first level one trauma center in northeastern Thailand. Weinacker and Mow attended the grand opening of this new facility last December as the guests of Bangkok Hospital, the largest private hospital group in Thailand with twenty-nine hospitals in the region. Located in Udon Thani near the Laotian border, the new hospital provides medical care in a previously underserved area, including neighboring Laos.
"Asia is the most dynamic part of the world right now," says Mow, deputy chief of service for orthopaedics. The opening of a medical center in a vastly underserved area is a small example of how southeastern Asian countries are rapidly modernizing and upgrading their infrastructures in health care, both in terms of their facilities and expertise.
"Our role has been to help facilitate these modernizations through medical staff contact and exchange for training, research and academic collaboration," says Mow. "We hope to continue to foster connections and promote collaboration, collegiality and goodwill in a world where such international relationships are increasingly important."
This was Weinacker's second trip to Asia with Mow, and what strikes her most about these exchanges is the similarities that exist between two very different cultures. On each of her trips, she toured the hospitals, gave lectures and talked with her counterparts abroad about medical treatments, facilities and patient quality and satisfaction. On this most recent visit to Thailand, Weinacker, a trained intensivist, shared her experiences about critical care and polytrauma patients as part of a symposium on medical evacuation, emergency care and trauma.
"It's interesting to think that everyone across the world is dealing with the same things in an attempt to make medical care the best it can be," she says. "Although there are lots of differences in the way we do things, there are a lot of similarities in terms of the things we’re trying to do right."
It's interesting to think that everyone across the world is dealing with the same things in an attempt to make medical care the best it can be.
Promoting international exchange to other specialties
Mow is the director of the international program of the department of orthopaedic surgery. Through this program, he brings several bright young orthopaedic surgeons from throughout Asia to Stanford for advanced training and research work each year.
"Dr. Mow has been instrumental in allowing sponsorships of students and other physicians from Asia to come here and conduct observerships and fellowships," says Weinacker. "It's really been an effort to make the world a smaller place in terms of education and community."
Trips to Asia by Stanford faculty and administration are becoming increasingly common. Last August, Orthopaedics Chair William Maloney, MD, accompanied Mow to Thailand for the first-ever Stanford Bangkok Hospital Hip and Knee Intensive Course. Maloney co-chaired the symposium with Bangkok Hospital's Chief of Orthopaedics Suthorn Bavonratanavech. During the two-day symposium, Maloney and Mow were able to share techniques and ideas with more than 300 surgeons from all over the region. Because of the success of this educational exchange, the two Stanford physicians are planning a second symposium in the coming year.
Mow is also working hard to expand these trips in the months and years to come to include medical staff from more specialty areas. But these invitations take time, he says, and a lot of personal phone calls, dinners and face-to-face meetings. They don't happen after a simple email exchange. He has also involved Stanford nursing in the past and is working with the Thailand Nursing Association and Thai nursing schools to bring Stanford OR nurses to visit later this year.
"When I'm over there, I have discussions with representatives of the National Ministries of Health, medical societies and major academic institutions to continue our dialogue to maintain, nurture and grow these relationships so that our program can involve more of the medical staff across our many specialties," he says. Medical staff exchange with Asian countries offers numerous opportunities for two-way education. For clinicians like Mow, the types and severity of cases that exist in Asia are much more advanced and rare than the cases seen in the U.S. "The pathology that we see is very challenging," he says, "and in that regard, it is very stimulating."
The health care world is small, reiterates Mow. "Any two people can get together from any two countries in the world and have a meaningful discussion that both parties will learn from," he says. "We all speak the universal language of patient care and improvement of our processes and expertise, and that’s what we're seeking to facilitate."
By Grace Hammerstrom