29th Asian Medical Students’ Conference Days 3-4
Today we hear from Chris Yu (UK delegate) and Peter Mulyono Wijaya (Indonesia delegate) about their experiences of days 3-4 of AMSC 2008.
Tokyo University Lecture Theatre
After 4 hours of sleep, day 3 began with a coach journey to Tokyo University for the paper presentation competition. The UK team of Joon, Myles, Min Hui, Kai Yuen and myself were delighted at the random allocation of being second to present after Pakistan.
The lecture hall was beautiful with its antique style decoration. It was also very spacious for the audience of over 400 people. Anticipation was building up as all the delegates had a copy of each delegation’s paper and were scrutinizing them for the question and answer session. Our presentation went better than anticipated and we were glad to have pulled it off within the 10 minute allocation time!
For the rest of the day, the remaining 13 countries presented their papers. The presentation by the Hong Kong delegation was particularly interesting as it focused on repetitive strain injuries and how this affected a sizeable portion of office workers. The whole experience has been enlightening in how much work is required to make a good presentation, which I hope to take with me to the medical and surgical grand rounds!
-Chris Yu (UK delegate)
On the third day of the AMSC 2008 we had the paper presentations at the historical Tokyo University. The main hall was full of delegates coming from 22 countries. The presentation topics ranged from cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus to thought-provoking topics such as repetitive strain injuries and virgin coconut oil. It was a great opportunity to hear the different perspectives of the delegates and the actions that had been taken to try and address the problems and challenges.
Having been in Tokyo for a few days now, there are still many things that I am trying to get used to. For example, it has certainly been a cultural experience having showers in the Japanese style bathrooms!
Tama Municipal Kawasaki Hospital
On day 4 we had our hospital visit to the Tama Municipal Kawasaki Hospital. The building was well equipped with an anti-earthquake foundation, helipad and paperless management system to say the least. A more unique point about the hospital was its public-private partnership. We had a few lectures before being given a tour of the hospital. It was interesting to note something that one of the speakers mentioned. He said that the combination of a Western diet (over nutrition) and traditional Japanese diet (under nutrition) equated to the modern Japanese balanced diet. Indeed, nutrition is something that we often take for granted yet has such a big impact on quality of life.
Discussions during the hospital visit
So far, the activities of the conference have been very enlightening for me from the speech given by Professor Kiyoshi Kurokawa to the many cultural experiences including the very early morning visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market. There is much food for thought and we should be thinking globally and acting locally to solve many of the problems regarding non-communicable diseases.
-Peter Mulyono Wijaya (Indonesia delegate)
Photos courtery of Kai Yuen Wong
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