Stories; Students, Faculty, Alumni

A wide range of medical care for all genders, ages and organs

I am running a clinic as a family physician in my hometown of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, though the concept of family physician is not yet common in Japan. A family physician provides a wide range of medical care to patients and local residents for their health problems regardless of their gender, age and organ of concern, and I take care of all general ailments from internal medicine and pediatrics to middle ear infection, minor injuries, and even mental diseases such as depression and dementia. In between the outpatient hours in the morning and afternoon, I visit patients at their homes once or twice a month according to a plan and see them on request if they suddenly feel sick.

Encounter with family medicine

When I was a 1st year student at ICU, I participated in the Study English Abroad (SEA) Program. I lived in a student dorm of the University of Victoria in Canada and took classes in the morning and did voluntary work at an old-age home in the afternoon. I made friends with a local medical student doing voluntary work and asked her about one of my family members who became ill at that time: "When a person is sick both physically and mentally and suffering from multiple physical illnesses, he has to consult with specialists for each disease and visit a psychiatry department for mental problems. What can we do in such a situation?" She then told me that we should consult with a family physician in such a case, and this is when I learned about family physician for the first time. As we spoke more, I learned that a family physician provides medical care to all physical issues irrespective of which organ it is and he/she also takes care of mental issues, and that he/she supports the community from children to senior citizens reflecting its needs. Actually, my father was a gynecologist but I did not intend to become a doctor. However, when I learned about family physician s, for the first time I felt that I also wanted to become one, and decided to become a family physician who offers medical care necessary for the new era by medically examining the local people and the entire community.

In the hope of building a local community where people live in peace

After graduating from ICU, I joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, and after graduation I received training as a family physician at the Hokkaido Centre for Family Medicine. This training is Japan's first residency program and I was the 20th graduate. The training system of the academic society, which started with this program, is the original form of general practitioner, a newly established medical specialist under the new medical specialist system from this fiscal year.

It was the time when no one knew the phrase family physician and no one was studying family medicine to start one's clinic, so when I started it the response from both patients and local medical personnel was like "What's that?" Patients gradually, and more or less smoothly, accepted, "So, you see patients for internal medicine, pediatrics and all departments". The medical personnel, however, had a stronger feeling that they were not sure who a family physician was. I, therefore, made efforts to earn their understanding and trust. Building a track record is the only way to win trust. A family physician is an independent medical specialist and collaborates with all other medical specialists. Family physician is not only about assigning patients to other doctors; we provide medical care to patients who we can treat and introduce those who require specialized treatment to relevant specialists at appropriate timings and follows up on them. I build relationships of trust one by one by accumulating the record of this introduction and reverse-introduction. Today, we have more patients returning to our clinic saying, at the hospitals we have referred them to, "Hachinohe Family Clinic's referral meant the patients would be well looked after," which makes me realize that we have successfully built a relationship of trust with medical personnel as well as patients.

In 2015, I started up a community collaborative project in home medical treatment called "connect8." Medical institutions, pharmacies and welfare facilities involved with patients receiving home medical treatment in Hachinohe utilizes Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to share patient information and facilitate smooth collaboration of a wide variety of specialists by enabling all members to view information regarding one patient. Connect8 has grown into a scheme where more than 500 staff members of various categories at various entities in Hachinohe collaborate and support a total of about 1,400 people and it has 1 million annual accesses to its collaboration tool. In 2016, it was introduced as one of 10 advanced cases in Japan in a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and in August 2018, it was selected as a field for a demonstration project for standardizing medical and nursing care ICT collaboration by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. In addition to the integrated community care system to support elderly citizens, we also established an incorporated nonprofit organization Reconnect in fiscal 2017 for activities to establish inclusive community where all generations and groups including children, differently abled and those who are rearing children help each other, and the city has commissioned the operation of connect8 in this framework. It goes without saying that it is important to care for each patient, and we would also like to contribute with medical care to develop the community so that we can leave behind a community where people can live peacefully, a community where people can grow children and nurse elderly comfortably while working and a community that is easier to live in for children in the future.

Medical field where the learning at ICU comes to life

I was originally interested in the humanities and especially wanted to study philosophy, so I joined ICU known for its educational capability. I studied philosophy with students from various backgrounds and realized that what I really wanted to do was to work in a field where I come in contact with people. I remember very clearly that in my final year I once again thought I would become a family physician.

Now that I have become a family physician, one memory etched in my mind is the ELP (current English for Liberal Arts Program) classes which students take soon after joining the college. Euthanasia was the theme of discussion. I gained the ability to think by discussing a deep ethical topic that does not have a clear answer and I learned how to obtain information, how to judge it, to learn and think on my own and how to implement it through critical thinking and writing, the very fundamental matters that are useful in study and work in any fields. In retrospect, I now realize that it was an education in which I gained the ability to think various things on my own and implement them.

I also think that my background of studying at the College of Liberal Arts enabled me to spontaneously, and without resistance, incorporate ideas from various fields and study and cooperate with people from other fields in building local collaborations, and writing and giving lectures as well as seeing patients as a family physician. If I had joined a medical college and become a doctor straight from the high school like most people do, it might have been difficult to do the activities I am currently engaged in. The experiences at ICU are supporting me comprehensively in various activities.

Find what I want to do, expand the possibility, connect with various people without resistance and cooperate. ICU is a valuable place for learning, which without fail gives us an opportunity to bring out respective personalities and expand possibilities.

Profile

Kazunari Ogura
1996 B.A. in Arts and Sciences (Humanities)
Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, in 2003

After graduating from the Division of Humanities, College of Liberal Arts, Ogura joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, with the aim of becoming a family physician and graduated in 2003. Subsequently, he completed the initial training at Medical Corporation Caress Alliance Nikko Memorial Hospital in Hokkaido, finished the specialized program for family medicine at the Hokkaido Centre for Family Medicine, worked at Yuge Medical Clinic in Shiga Prefecture and opened Hachinohe Family Clinic in Aomori Prefecture in 2010. In 2015, Ogura established connect8, a network in which general hospitals, clinics, visiting nurse stations, home nursing care support offices and nursing care facilities in the Hachinohe area participate. Since 2017, he has been serving as the chief director of incorporated nonprofit organization Reconnect.