S-2-02-02
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION IN PHYSIATRY TRAINING: THE BAYLOR EXPERIENCE
Peter A.C. Lim (Baylor College of Medicine/Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, U.S.A.)
A program to enhance collaboration and relationships between Baylor College of Medicine and Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Republic of Singapore, was established in 1994. This affiliation includes a one-year clinical physiatry fellowship for TTSH, the only facility for such training in the country. The fellowship is tailored with a major rotation in the trainees' areas of interest and per requested needs of TTSH eg. spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, electrodiagnostic studies, and musculoskeletal pain. They are also exposed to a variety of practices and systems such as university hospitals, public county and veteran care centers. Administration, teaching, and research are mandatory activities. Details that needed to be worked out included eligibility for a U.S. visa, license to practice medicine, malpractice insurance, health coverage and other benefits. The first two fellows have returned to Singapore, have been promoted to Consultants and are in leadership positions. We are presently hosting the 3rd and 4th fellows. Two Baylor faculty have been to Singapore as visiting professor and external examiner, with two others on the schedule for later this year. There is also ongoing exchange of instimitional publications.
The fellowship program has been successful in providing high level physiatry training, and has been a factor in attracting excellent people to join the Department. The number of physiatry trainees in the country has been increased from one in 1992, to six in 1996. These trainees actively participate, present and publish in international meetings, seminars, and research journals.
S-2-02-03
International Cooperation in Rehabilitation Medicine Education
Ofelia L. Reyes (Santo Tomas University Hospital, Manila, Philippines)
The Regional Training Center for the Asia-Pacific Region of the World Rehabilitation Fund (WRF) based at the Santo Tomas University Hospital has been operational for the past 20 years and had graduated 55 physiatrists. One of the major strengths of this program is the international cooperative effort in continuously upgrading the educational program. This took the forms of: 1) training-the-trainor programs sponsored by both IRMA and WRF, in which foreign experts had been granted travelling grants for lectures, clinics, and hands-on skill transfer conferences; and, 2) participation in the computer-graded Annual Self-Assessment Examination (SAE-R) given by the American Academy of PM&R for residents in the United States and subsidized by WRF.
Statistical analysis of the SAE-R results showed that there was no significant variance between the residents of the regional training program compared to the American mean scores in the same level of training. These results had invariably improved the level of confidence of the graduates and was probably a major factor in the 92% positive seeding rate of these graduates in their countries of origin or places of assignment. This in turn had stemmed the manpower shortage produced by brain drain of physiatrists to Western countries.
