It was only for a week that I had stayed at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), but I really enjoyed everything and learned a lot. Although I want to share all of my experiences, it's a long story, so I talk about the differences of medical systems and students between Japan and America.


First of all, I was really surprised at the difference of health insurance systems. In Japan, there are two major types of insurance programs: Employees Health Insurance and National Health Insurance, and we are required to take out one of them. This is Universal Healthcare System. Due to this system, all of the people in Japan only have to pay at most 30% of medical expenses. In America, however, health care system relies on private health insurance. In other words, the quality of health care depends on income: rich people can receive medical treatments as desired and poor people cannot get enough. To solve this problem, government started Medicaid system that some of poor people can get some money for medical care, but there are still many people who cannot receive the treatments. I realized how this reality is sad and how Universal Healthcare System is good through my practice.


Secondly, I was very impressed with aggressive attitude of students in America. They are highly-motivated persons to be full-fledged doctors as soon as possible, and have responsibility for their patients. Under the guidance of attending doctor, they examined patients, assessed medical conditions and decided plans to treatments. So they had much more medical skills, knowledge, experiences than us. In America, unlike Japan, many patients think it natural for medical students to do medical treatment. This cultural background leads to educate good doctors. It is very difficult to do the same things in Japan, but I felt we need more opportunities to learn what we actually must do in future.


Finally, thanks to this five-days practice, I could expand my horizons and enrich my mind, and consider more concrete vision for my future. I'm really appreciate the grateful support of Dr.Ishimura, Dr.Sato, Dr.Lau, Dr.Majdan, Ms.Radi, Ms.Iijima, Ms.Sakurai and all the people I concerned through this program. Thank you very much!!