Global Scholars Reflections

Dr. Jae-Woo Ju, 2016

"I am a senior resident from Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea. I had an opportunity to observe clinical anesthesiology in November 2016 with the help of Dr. Aman Mahajan, the chair of the UCLA Anesthesiology Department.

During my stay, I observed cases in the main OR of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. As I was a resident and did not decide my subspecialty yet, I observed various fields of anesthesiology, including Cardiothoracic Anesthesia, Liver Anesthesia, Neuroanesthesia, and outside OR anesthesia. I was lucky because it helped me to see a lot of new and different materials and anesthetic approaches, which highly deepened my understanding of anesthesiology. I asked to attendings and residents numerous questions, but they were very friendly and kindly answered to every one of my questions. I was impressed by their academic and dedicated attitude.

I also attended simulation sessions at UCLA Simulation Center, and it was the most exciting experience during my stay. During the sessions, residents used state-of-the-art manikins to experience very rare and critical cases. I really wished to have this cool, amazing program in my home hospital.

Thank you for letting me to visit UCLA Anesthesiology and have this wonderful experience. Please send my regards to everyone, especially Dr. Aman Mahajan, Dr. Jure Marijic, Dr. William Alexander Edwards, and Ms. Shevaughn Marchese".

Dr. Jae-Woo Ju
Senior Resident Anesthesiologist
Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine,
Seoul National University Hospital,
South Korea

Dr. Manoel de Souza Neto, 2015

"Last year, I spent two amazing and interesting weeks at UCLA. During this time, I had a chance to be with spectacular anesthesiologists and friendly medical residents. It was a nice experience to learn and exchange experience with them. It's a really a good place to be".

Dr. Manoel de Souza Neto
Hospital do Coração
São Paulo, Brazil

Dr. Vesna Durnev, 2014

"I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my sincere thoughts about my two-month educational visit to UCLA Department of Anesthesiology. It was a great pleasure to be part of your department and learn more about your health and educational system. I was really impressed with the facilities and all the program activities with your residents. You offer so many benefits and opportunities to your students and it was obvious you are dedicated to excellence and committed to your outstanding program".

"I greatly enjoyed talking to my colleagues. Residents were very friendly, answering all of my questions and helping me to accommodate more easily. The courtesy from the staff I greatly appreciate. It was very interesting and beneficial to visit the Wednesday Grand Rounds and Resident Lectures, and all these high quality activities for upgrading clinical skills and knowledge. Thank you again for offering me the chance to visit your program and meet with you and your fellow faculty and residents. Please pass along my gratitude to them especially to Prof. Barbara Van de Wiele".

Dr. Vesna Durnev
Board Certified Anaesthesiologist
University Clinic of Anaesthesiology, Reanimation and Intensive Care
Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Dr. Pimwan Sookplung and Rungruedee Jansin, 2013

"We are Dr. Pimwan Sookplung, an anesthesiologist and Rungruedee Jansin, a nurse anesthetist working at Prasat Neurological Institute, a tertiary care hospital with 300 beds in Bangkok, Thailand. Besides the service, we also provide an academic setting such as residency training in neurology and neurosurgery. We applied to be visiting clinical observers in Neuroanesthesia for 3 months during June - September 2013. After the activity, we realized that the UCLA Anesthesiology Department is one of the best places practicing advanced Neuroanesthesia, intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) and anesthesia for interventional neuroradiology".

"We met Dr. Johanna C Schwarzenberger, Dr. Barbara Van de Wiele, staff anesthesiologists, fellows, residents and all the department secretaries. Everybody was very kind and nice to us. We mainly observed in the OR of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with Dr. Barbara Van de Wiele focusing on anesthetic management in brain tumor surgery, endoscopic pituitary surgery, epilepsy surgery (awake craniotomy), neurovascular surgery (clipping aneurysm, EDAS), deep brain stimulation, microvascular decompression, spinal surgery with intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM), and interventional neuroradiology. Furthermore, we visited the UCLA Medical Center Santa Monica campus to observe more on spinal surgery with intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM)".

"When we arrived back at our institute, we shared these experiences of advanced anesthetic technique and monitoring with our colleagues and adapted the protocol of anesthetic management for better patient care. It was really a great experience and hope we can have a good opportunity like this again soon".

Dr. Pimwan Sookplung
Anesthesiologist

Rungruedee Jansin
Nurse Anesthetist

Prasat Neurological Institute
Bangkok, Thailand