Benjamin Haggeさん（ドイツ・ビュルツブルグ大学 第6学年次）

My name is Benjamin Hagge and I am a 4th year medical student at the Julius-Maximillian’s University of Würzburg, Germany. One month ago, I finished with a fellow student my clinical internship at Hyogo College of Medicine in Nishinomiya, Japan, as a part of an international exchange program between Hyogo College of Medicine and the Julius-Maximillian’s-University of Würzburg.

After arriving at the Kansai Airport, Ms. Torii picked us up at the airport and brought us to our residences. Due to the fact that there were three Croatians exchange student with us at the same time, I had a room in very close students’ dormitory while Katrin Spiller the fellow student from Germany had a room in the guesthouse of the university.

At the morning next day Ms. Torii introduced us to the head of the departments that we could freely chose. So my first rotation was the Department of Urology where I was warmly welcomed. They explained to me that they are having operations every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday they were taking care of outpatients and on Thursday it was students’ day when I could see outpatients in the morning, take some time for studies and in the afternoon, there was a practical training.

As I am highly interested in becoming an Urologist, I was very excited to see how the treatment here in Japan might differ from the routine in a German hospital. Most of the patients in the department were cancer patients, especially Prostate cancer and kidney cancer were quiet often. Maybe due to the fact that in Japan the nutrition is very different, and obesity is rare, but in the two weeks in which I observed there were only very few patients with Nephrolithiasis.

One of the most interesting cases was a kidney transplantation from a living donor. Organ donation from living donors are quite usual in Japan because the law in Japan is very different from the one in Germany. Besides that case a lot of operations were performed robotic assisted. So, I could observe a lot of that. At one of the students’ days I could even try it myself in the simulator. This was definitely one of the highlights during the internship in the department of Urology.

My second rotation was in the Department of Pediatric surgery. The team was quite small but very friendly. Here again they explained me that there are operations on Tuesday and Friday where I could observe, on Wednesday I could attend outward patients and on Thursday they made it possible that I could observe operations in Osaka City General Hospital. At another day where there were no operations, they brought me to the University Hospital of Osaka to observe the operation techniques in this university. Most of the patients had a Hernia and the doctors were using a special technique that they invented 15 years ago and is now widely spread in Japan. After the first week of observing I could even actively participate in some of the operations and learned a lot from that. But apart from the routine of hernia operations I was able to see operations in some very interesting cases too.

Most of the time in the departments there were also attending Japanese students in their 5th year. So in many situations, when the doctors and the professors were examining the patients or discussing a case the students could translate and explain the situation for me.

In retrospective I am really happy that I decided to come to Japan for a clinical internship. I learned a lot during my rotations in Urology and Pediatric surgery and the doctors in both departments took very good care of me and explained everything to me. Besides learning a lot about medicine and the Japanese healthcare system I became good friends with some of the students and doctors, so I had small glimpse at the authentic Japanese culture and way of living. At this point I want to thank Hyogo College of medicine with all the Professors, doctors and students that were so friendly and open, giving me a great time in Nishinomiya. I think my stay and all the unique experiences I made will be a lasting impression on my future life not only as a doctor.