Continuing from 2020, the YCU School of Medicine keeps offering online international exchange opportunities for YCU’s medical students. As a part of this effort, we held an Online Clinical Case Discussion program regarding a pediatric abdominal pain case on July 16.

As a facilitator, we invited Dr. Bustos Villalobos Itzel from Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University. She is one of the experts of international medical education, and she gave participants a very interactive and energetic session.

As for participants, we invited four students from Shanghai Jiaotong University (China) and one from the University of Strasbourg (France) which are both our partner institutions. If not for the COVID-19 pandemic, we are supposed to visit each other on clinical clerkship programs in person. It is unfortunate that in-person exchange cannot be achieved this time, but together with 3 YCU students, everyone enjoyed exchange through an online format.

In the session, a clinical case about a child who claims abdominal pain was shown at the beginning of session. Students started by interviewing the facilitator who plays the child’s mother’s role to make a differential diagnosis. The session included several small group discussions in breakout rooms where students exchanged opinions and questions very actively while receiving new information such as examination results and relevant images. Dr. Bustos gave appropriate feedback at key points. The session proceeded at a good pace. We believe students learnt from Dr. Bustos that “if you do not look, you cannot find it”.

Even though an online program cannot fully cover every aspect that students can enjoy from an in-person style program, YCU hopes and believes that this experience could raise the students’ motivation to study medicine and participate in international exchange.