FIDR Foundation for International Development / Relief

2015/02/02

Cambodian Pediatric Surgeon Awarded

The Ninth ASEAN Congress of Pediatric Surgery was organized in Myanmar last November. Among around 100 pediatric surgeons from all over Southeast Asian countries were the three doctors of Cambodian National Pediatric Hospital. NPH surgeon Dr. Ou Cheng Ngiep made a presentation on congenital billary atresia, to which the congress conferred an award as one of the four best reports.

Dr. Ngiep attended one-month training course at Osaka Medical Center and Research Institute for Maternal and Child Health in 2012 supported by FIDR and the Institute. During the training, Dr. Ngiep learned the operation techniques for congenital billary atresia; and after returning to Cambodia, he started to practice the techniques at NPH. His two-year experience bore fruits as the outstanding presentation at the congress.

It is honourable for not only Dr. Ngiep but also the project that the achievements of a Cambodian surgeon who had studied in Japan could receive commendation on the renowned international stage.

2014/10/08

Pediatric surgery expanding to rural Cambodia

Since May 2012, Dr. Pen Sophonnarith participated in the post-graduate program of pediatric surgery for two years. He currently works for the referral hospital of Takeo Province, which is two-hour distance from Phnom Penh by car. Now, making the best use of the knowledge and skills he gained through the program, he performs operations of pediatric surgery for more patients and of more severe cases than before.

Dr. Sophonnarith said, “Before I joined the program, I had to transfer some of the patients of pediatric surgery cases to hospitals in Phnom Penh because I could not operate them. Having finished the program, I can examine and treat them at Takeo Provincial Hospital now. It helps to reduce the burden on the patients. Also, I can see the child patients I performed operations getting better. I get encouraged by seeing their recovery.”

Aiming at promoting pediatric surgery over rural areas of Cambodia, in 2006 the project produced the professional medical training program of pediatric surgery---the first post-graduate course in this field of specialty approved by the Cambodian Ministry of Health. So far the program has trained seventeen doctors of local hospitals, including Dr. Sophonnarith, all of whom are now playing active roles in provinces. The scenes of their dedicating work would be the foremost evidence that practices of pediatric surgery have been taking firm root in rural Cambodia.

2013/06/20

Pediatric anesthesia - prevailing in rural areas

We conducted the evaluation on “Training for anesthesia staffs at rural hospitals”, one program in our project, in this February. We visited three hospitals in Battambang and Svay Rieng provinces and Poipet city where our former trainees completing the training program were working, and assessed their works. These visits were accompanied by anesthetists from National Pediatric Hospital (NPH) and Dr. Norifumi Kuratani, Japanese pediatric anesthetist we invited for this evaluation. Dr. Kuratani, after observing and assessing pediatric anesthesia procedures and techniques by former trainees, commented that they were immature before and there was a big obstacle to perform pediatric surgical operation in the hospitals, but they were now able to provide safe pediatric anesthesia.
Our project will continue providing pediatric anesthesia training for staffs of anther hospitals in provinces and also follow up the trainees periodically in order to maintain and improve their skills.