29-June-2011
Another day in the outpatient clinic today with Dr. Wu, Wen-Chiu in the morning and Dr. Wang, Yi-Jen (Dr. 王怡人) in the afternoon. I am starting to like the relaxing pace of the outpatient clinic. Dr. Wu is a dedicated teacher and always goes over each patient with us. The most valuable experiences were when Dr. Wu would let us listen in on lung sounds on the peds patients; I would have never imagined that the wheezing in the doctoring labs recordings. In the afternoon with Dr. Wang, Sandy and I had more time to talk about the current affairs in pediatrics in Taiwan including the declining birthrate, clouding agent problems and more. In particular Dr. Wang’s research on the clouding agent problem seems to be in full swing, she collected about 50 urine samples last week and has a total about 6000 or so samples and is ready to be analyzed. With previous urine analysis samples as controls I am sure something interesting will come out from her efforts. On our side Karen and Bor-Han will be helping her on Friday to tabulate the latest samples and I am looking forward to seeing the results when they are available.
30-June-2011
We all had a wonderful time, in Yeliu for the beginning of the day. Got to see some natural land and rock formations that seem to be ever changing due to different effects of corrosion. After which we all went to the Shenkeng District Public Health Center for a tour and information session. It is comforting to see that Taiwan seems to have a good amount of money put into public health, judging be the size the number of people that they have on staff, in many offices in the United States it seems there are too many budget cuts in this area. The center has integrated health screenings for different age groups during different set times, a mobile unit and many other services such as tobacco cessation. As expected there is an extensive screening program for TB there is an increased incidence of cases in Taiwan. Overall I felt the presentation the center gave was a good review of all the basics I learned from the MPH program at Touro and it was great to learn about some of the issues that Taiwan has in the public health arena.
1-July-2011
Today was the final day in Taiwan. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. In the morning after the meeting we ended up following Dr. Wu around the ward, it was good to see that the scarlet fever patient that we saw at the beginning of the week was much improved due to his treatment with Penicillin G. After a quick run the rest of the morning we spent in the outpatient clinic with Dr. Kuo, I-Ting (Dr. 郭怡廷). Dr. Kuo always seemed to spent extra time to talk about every case and gave us lengthy detailed answers to every question that we asked. One of the most fascinating discussions with Dr. Kuo was about a condition known as horseshoe kidney, a congenital disorder that, where the patient has their two kidneys fused resulting in one super kidney. Being a rather rare condition I feel that we were very lucky to be able to see a patient with this condition that was here for a return check-up. In the afternoon we finished our rotation with Dr. Wu. The most interesting highlights included more breath sounds including more wheezing and ronchi both of which are very much like the recordings from lab and a visit to the wards to see a premature baby (30 weeks). Overall I am very happy with the experience I have had in Taiwan and hope that one day I will get to return for some more exchange. It was a pleasure and I will cherish everything I learned.
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