Dear my future doctors Dear my patients
thank you
i am a cardiologist doctor taking care
of heart disease
twenty years ago i was
a masked writer
do you know the masked writer
the masked writer is a legendary
japanese hero
like spiderman or superman so to speak
am i kidding you no i’m serious
i have a son on the daughter
when they were little we used to play
together playing soccer
basketball football at the playgrounds
playing chess at home reading books
lovely
but at the same time i was a busy
cardiologist i was on call
i was on duty 24 hours seven days
every day no skips no thanksgivings
no christmas holidays no new year’s
holidays
i was often called from a hospital
hello dr camro we need you right now
we have a patient with a heart attack
he’s in shock
i gotta go i talked to my children
they repried come on dad why
are you leaving us alone actually they
cried
i felt terribly sorry for them
i felt guilty and talk to them
listen honey this is top secret
i never told you before
i am a masquerader
i gotta go see people from monsters
then the sad face is suddenly turned
into golden smile
hey dad are you sure are you a mass
brother
wonderful we’re proud of you go be the
monsters
since that day i became
a hero for my children
you will derive immense joy and
satisfaction
in helping others in the moment of
crisis
it is indeed rewarding
but the same time you will also
appreciate
the costs of this profession sacrifices
you make
that is altruism
giving others without regard to yourself
the mask rather is a perfect example
of altruism he battles evils
and risks his life not for payment
but because it’s just the right thing to
do
when i was a mask writer i felt exactly
the same
one other thing mask writer and i did
share
was we were both paid
zero nevertheless i was simply happy to
help people
and help my junior doctors
nowadays however the mask rider
in the field of medicine is under threat
the bigger threat is medical litigation
this slide shows the changes in the
number of legal actions
against physicians in japan
i stood my career in 1994
so i grew up in this
upward trend
i just remember my residency my senior
doctor used to tell me
a kill even if you make mistakes
don’t apologize to your patients never
say
i’m sorry
i just didn’t get what he’s saying
so i asked him sir uh may ask uh
what you mean he said
a q if you say i’m sorry
that means you admit your mistakes
and that means you will lose
in a lawsuit
in 2006 a japanese obstetrician was
arrested by the police
for criminal negligence
did he commit a crime no
he tried hard to save a mother and a
baby
but the mother died the mother
could have been saved in a bigger
hospital with
hundreds doctors but unfortunately
the incident happened in a rural
hospital where
the doctor was only of situation
talking about myself i have never been
sued
but i’ve been simply lucky
because i had so many close calls
now doctors face a substantial risk
of being sued according to recent
paul 10 of japanese doctors
have experience of malpractice
litigation i don’t mean to warn you
my young fellows if you look at the
united states
24 of surgeons are sued
in their career and they’re paying 30
000 for malpractice
insurance if you live
in a fear of being sued
you can’t really be a master rider
dr references and the colleagues have
done excellent
researches on this they recorded
conversation between patients and 124
doctors and try to find
specific communication behaviors
associated with
malpractice litigation
and they found striking differences
between
doctors who had been sued and who had
never
doctors who had never been sued they
were
more likely to be sociable
and have gentle torns in their voices
and spend longer time with the patients
but the difference is only three minutes
three minutes longer
i am doing operations called cardiac
catheterization
sometimes they’re risky and challenging
and sometimes
they are not perfect
interesting when my patients went home
they often told me dr gomura thank you
very much
for everything you did perfect job
even though my operation was not perfect
i failed
on the other hand when i felt my
operation was perfect
unexpectedly they complain
why does this happen
when i felt my operation was not perfect
i went to see my patients often and did
my best effort
to foster good relationship with them
but when i felt i did
splendid job probably i didn’t much
i didn’t pay much attention to my
patients and i
slept off so
if you have good relationship with your
patients
they are unlikely to complain they are
unlikely to sue you but if you have
no relationship they will be less
forgiving
when i was working in a university
hospital 10 years ago
i had 60 patients for 4 hours
crazy i could spend
just a couple minutes for each patient
my patients
were not happy i wasn’t happy either
i was exhausted
i couldn’t stand anymore i almost
burned out
as time went by i nearly lost
the happiness and the satisfaction which
comes
with this profession
i have an old friend he’s an american
he’s in 60s 12 years ago
he was brought to the hospital by ambers
he had a heart attack
i fixed his artery immediately and he
made the phenomenal recovery from the
edge of the death
but i just did what i got to do
recently he sent me an email
i’m surprised he still believes i am his
mask rider
our profession is special
patients are willing to disclose us
the secret personal information
they’re willing to get unrest in front
of us
they let us perform dangerous procedures
which could possibly do harm by trusting
us
they save their lives
they make our profession special
by saying thank you doctors and it is my
patients who make it possible for me
to be a mask rider
now what can we do
to make the doctor patient relationship
better and special
i believe there’s three things which are
important
number one communication
when i was a cardiology fellow in
beautiful town massachusetts united
states
i used to see patients in outpatient
clinic
i could spend as long as 30 minutes or
more for each patient
it’s really fun talking with them we
talked over
the family where they lived the boston
red sox came the day before
the story when my patient was a u.s
marine in okinawa
it’s fun and we were able to become
friends
easily
and second the tone of your voice
and the smile on your face if your
patients find you
comfortable nice and gentle
they will get much happier
young doctors
our job is not simply
to save people because
we cannot save every people
our goal our ultimate goal is to make
them
happy so
please be nice and gentle
if i could go back to my medical school
days
i would have applied for a part-time job
in a male host club
host club
yeah i’m serious
in my age i have no chance of being
hired as a male
host but you can do it
i believe it might have given me
the opportunity to learn about people to
learn
how i can be nice and gentle
right so please
and finally be sincere be honest
if you make mistakes apologize
don’t hide don’t escape
if you hide something your patients will
not forgive you
my senior doctors in my residency what
they told me was totally
wrong
my young doctors my future young doctors
please learn about people
love your friends people around you
i don’t believe medical school
curriculum
is the best format to learn all about
these
all about people okay
you’re still young there’s many things
which can be only
achievable while you are young
so try everything get out of the grass
down something outside of medical
science
and dear my patients give my friends
dear people
all around the world please know this
we doctors are not hundred percent
we cannot save everybody
but we promise that we do our best to
take away from the pain
and anxiety we promise that we do best
to make you feel better make you feel
happier please remember
the life is not eternal
so let’s enjoy our life as much as
possible
we will be we doctors will be
your lifetime pertainers and
once in a while we will become
your mask writers thank you very much
for attention
you