University Times

The School of Medicine and UPMC Health System have signed an agreement to assist Teine Keijinkai Hospital in Sapporo, Japan, to establish and operate a U.S.-style residency training program in internal medicine.

"This program is the culmination of two years of work and becomes one of only a handful of programs in Japan to use a U.S. model," said Arthur Levine, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine.

The Japanese philosophy of educating and training physicians has been based on students learning both from didactic experiences and from closely observing a senior mentor and professor. This philosophy has extended into residency training that tends to follow an apprenticeship model in which Japanese residents have relatively less direct patient care experience than their counterparts in the United States.

By contrast, U.S. programs work with a formal curriculum that identifies specific skills and knowledge areas that graduates must master, with a mandatory evaluation process. In addition, there is a greater expectation for direct hands-on learning. Progressive autonomy is encouraged by increasing patient-care responsibility, beginning in the first year of residency.

Under the agreement, medical school and UPMC Health System officials will advise program facilitators at Teine Keijinkai Hospital on goals, staffing and teaching materials. The program will be co-directed by Asher Tulsky, assistant professor of medicine at Pitt, and Hironori Murakami, at Teine Keijinkai Hospital.

The pilot program will run for three years, after which it will be evaluated by a team from the School of Medicine.