Japan-Russia Pediatric Society

Abstract

In March 1990, medical interchange between Japan and the Soviet Union began with a letter from the local health bureau of Khabarovsk. We visited Khabarovsk three times and Kamchatka once, and saw many hospitals and patients. Russian doctors of pediatrics visited Japan. Medical information was exchanged and discussed. The Japan-Russia Pediatric Society was established to perform interchange of medical information, technology and staff such as doctors, nurses and technicians between Japan and Russia, especially the Far East district of Russia. The Society meeting has been held three times: Tokyo (1991), Khabarovsk (1992) and Niigata (1993). It is necessary to continue the interchange between the two countries.

PIP: In 1990, a local health bureau in Khabarovsk in the former USSR wrote a letter to the National Children's Hospital in Tokyo, Japan, requesting help in making a diagnosis of an 8 year old girl with an incurable neurological disease. 2 physicians and a nurse visited Khabarovsk to see patients, to examine the medical and nursing conditions, and to discuss medical treatment with physicians. They visited 2 children's hospitals, an emergency hospital, a medical school, a rehabilitation center, a nursery school, an ophthalmic hospital with modern equipment, and a private home for handicapped children. Medical equipment and medicines were out-of-date and inadequate. Basic medical supplies (e.g., gauze, syringes), antibiotics, and drugs to fight cancer were very scarce. A patient had to fly to Moscow or Leningrad for a computed tomography scan. Society rates the medical profession low. Physicians' wages are much lower than those of a general worker. There are few foreign medical journals. Few physicians know a language other than Russian. The team organized a society for a pediatric exchange between Japan and the USSR. The Japan-Soviet Pediatric Society first met in Tokyo in March 1991 and meets once a year in alternate countries. Five Japanese pediatricians delivered lectures to the Regional Practical-Scientific Conference of the Institute of Mother and Child Health Protection in the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in Khabarovsk. The 1992 meeting of the Society addressed allergic diseases and screening of congenital errors of metabolism. Since 1991, the hospital has admitted 7 Russian children. Poverty affects medical treatment in Russia. Staff rarely maintain patient charts. Hospitals had no nursing records. The large financial gap between the 2 countries does not allow Japan to support Russian patients. Routine exchange of medical information and acceptance of Russian pediatricians, health care administrators, nurses, and examination technicians into Japan for study and training are likely.