With many important contributions to the Vietnamese health sector, Vu Anh International Hospital has become a leading hospital in Vietnam. Contributing to this success is a contingent of experienced and enthusiastic doctors who always share both joy and pain with patients. A Vietnam Business Forum reporter had an interview with Claude R.Cahen–the US’s leading doctor, who is now working at the Hospital’s Internal Medicine Department.
The hospital’s outstanding strength is doctors’ capacity, particularly a contingent of experienced and devoted doctors from the Internal Medicine Department? Could you give you comment on this?
Most of the department’s doctors have received special training courses abroad, especially the one year or two year courses in France. Through the courses, they have brought lots of valuable medical experience to Vietnam. The department’s biggest contribution to the hospital’s development is radiography division which is installed with modern equipment such as Doppler imaging equipment, cardiogram, CT-scanner; magnetic resonance imaging, the most modern health equipment in the southern region of Vietnam. This equipment has helped the doctors to diagnose diseases accurately.
The solidarity among doctors is also another strength and pride of the department. We have shared knowledge and also helped each other in research and providing medical check-up and treatment for patients. Therefore, we are proud to affirm that the Internal Medicine Department is a team of whole-hearted doctors. It is the solidarity that creates strength for us to overcome difficulties and fulfill our tasks.
Which difficulties have all doctors in general and foreign doctors in particular faced when working at the hospital?
The Vietnamese population is rising at a rocketing pace, bringing about the appearance of many strange diseases which are threatening people’s health. This has raised a big challenge for doctors, requiring us strong effort to find out effective remedies. As I know, American doctors or those from EU encounter a range of strange tropical diseases that they do not have deep knowledge of, such as parasitic diseases and hepatitis. Thus, doctors have to quickly adapt to the situation to discover effective treatment methods for people.
One of things that encourage me to work in Vietnam is high expectation of Vietnamese patients of doctors. They almost put all their faith and even their life in doctors and hope a miracle from them. This is a driving force for us to try to research and dedicated to work.
Which medical achievements have you and your colleagues at the department won over the past time? During the time at the hospital, several colleagues and I have carried out a scientific survey project which includes different subjects. These include how to raise local population’s life expectancy; how to detect cancer early by imaging diagnosis; whether phytotoxin can become a solution to maintain youthfulness’ whether Laze treatment is the most optimal urinary treatment method. With the practical and useful research works, we expect to partially contribute to the research of the effective treatment methods for dangerous diseases, protecting people’s life.
Before working at the hospital, you had lived in Vietnam for a period of time. Did the period leave you unforgettable memories?
My mother is the French and is daughter of a high-ranking official at French domination time. Therefore, she used to live in Hanoi. During my childhood, we lived with Vietnamese baby-sitters, but, I never learnt to speak Vietnamese. In 1975, I arrived in southern Vung Tau city as a volunteer under the programme “Doctors without Borders”. But Vietnam left the deepest impression on my mind was in 2000 when I made a trip through Vietnam by Yamaha 100 cc scooter from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. This was a very interesting journey. I felt very happy to be the pioneer who discovered the adventurous tour. From the event and a trip to the country in 2003, I love Vietnam and its people and want to devote to the country’s development. After that, I managed to find a stable job in the country as I had just completed the 18th year of the special anaesthetisation research at UCLA Health Centre at Santa Monica, California state.
In 2006, I took over the position of professional director at Columbia – Asia and after a time stayed in the US, I came back to Vu Anh Hospital as a foreign doctor of the Internal Medicine Department. Here, I brought all experience, knowledge and the US’s most modern medical treatment methods to the hospital. And until now, I do not hesitate to affirm that never before have I been happier than this time “I love Vietnam and Vu Anh Hospital and wants to give treatment to Vietnamese people”.
Reported by Bich Thuy
Vietnamese
