Feedback from Dr. Ashok Srinivasan, MD
Feedback From Dr. Ashok Srinivasan, MD
It was my pleasure and honor to be selected as the 2017 ASNR international outreach professor for Thailand. My gracious hosts contacted me right away and suggested that my visit should be in October after the rainy season had ended. So, we mutually agreed on the last week of October and the 1st week of November 2017 as the two weeks that I would spend in the host country.
My stay in Thailand was split in two parts – the 1st week was spent in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand and the 2nd week was in Bangkok. After landing in Bangkok, I flew to Chiang Mai the very next day to start my outreach experience. Chiang Mai University is one of the older Universities in Thailand and is located in a scenic place amongst the hills. The weather in Chiang Mai during my trip was gorgeous with little rain and pleasant temperatures. I visited the Chiang Mai University hospital on three days during the first week (the other two days were official holidays due to the cremation ceremony of the former King of Thailand) and delivered two lectures on each day. Subsequently, we had discussions on unknown cases (unknown to me but known to them) for a couple of hours every day. My afternoons in Chiang Mai were free and I got opportunities to explore an elephant camp, Chiang Mai night safari and visit the Wat Doi Suthep temple. The faculty and residents in Chiang Mai were excellent hosts, very knowledgeable and kept me on my toes at all times!
For the second week of my trip, I returned to Bangkok and spent five days at two top notch hospitals that included the King Chulalongkorn hospital (3 days) and Siriraj Hospital (2 days). At both hospitals, I delivered two lectures every day and spent the afternoons discussing unknown cases. Bangkok is the major hub for radiology fellowships in this part of the world and all the neuroradiology fellows I met were superlative and meticulous in their approach. The lectures in Bangkok were transmitted live online (according to them, this was the 1st time they were attempting this) to many different Universities across Thailand and the reception was very positive.
The faculty, fellows and residents at both hospitals in Bangkok went out of their way to make my stay comfortable and were my local guides. In both Chiang Mai and Bangkok, I witnessed an eagerness to continue this collaboration with ASNR and a willingness to pursue further avenues of learning. It would be an understatement to say that I learnt a lot on my trip and have immensely benefited from this experience. I would like to thank the ASNR and the hosts in Thailand for making this possible and believe strongly that this collaboration will be mutually beneficial for a long time to come.
