Changes in contemporary society and families have had immense impacts on lifestyles, adjustments, and mental health. Particularly, medical students could have accumulated stress from study, unachieved academic performance, and other problems or factors, including   family, social, personal, and economic issues. These could also include interpersonal issues, which affects mental health of students and in turn reflects on their academic achievement.

Recent statistical data shows mental health problems among medical students are increasing. The number of medical students who received mental health therapy in 2018 and 2019 increased by 1.57 and 1.92 times over 2017, respectively. The Division of Academic Affairs, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University is therefore initiating the MedMind KKU project to address the mental health problems of students in the faculty via early detection and early management.

Project objectives

1. To provide counseling assistance for mental health problems and self-management for students in the faculty.
2. To strengthen knowledge about mental health for students and relevant personnel (adviser, administrative personnel).

Service Model

1. Individual counselling and therapy by psychiatrists and psychologists for students with mental health difficulties and academic pressure.
2. Counselling in partnership with family for students with complicated problems or repeated academic hardships.
3. Integration with teaching and learning processes by opening new course “Life management” for medical and other students.
4. Networking and engagement with students—e.g., encouraging medical students to participate in early detection and submitting articles to share their life experiences.
5. Development of e-leaning course “counselling” for instructors.   

Access to services

Students will be able to directly contact the staff of MedMind KKU. In addition, the service can be provided for students on recommendation and referral by advisers; and by proactive search based on academic performance of medical students.

Khon Kaen University doctor proposes the research work from which the Government authorizes reduction of medical expense for patients with cerebral aneurism. Patients can now have more access to treatment. Cases of disabilities from the disease or death will decrease.

Cerebral aneurysm is the disease that urges the patient to visit the doctor when they have cerebral hemorrhage, which is a condition requiring immediate treatment, for the hemorrhage risks recurring that can lead to death or disability. Treatment may involves operation for clipping the aneurism or coiling, depending on each patient’s lesion. Nowadays, treatment can be done by placing spring coils, which result in good outcome and leave a small cut, as well as more possibility to be done in difficult area; however, with relatively higher expense.

Up to now, the patients having the gold health security card in Thailand cannot be reimbursed for the treatment of this disease. Therefore, these patients do not have access to treatment by spring coiling owing to limitations in terms of budget. This means the operation has to be done by skull opening, which may not be effective as expected. Moreover, this kind of operation risks disability and death.

Srinagarind Hospital of Khon Kaen University, by the Center of Excellence for Cerebral Aneurysm has produced research work on the worthiness of treatment with coiling for this disease. The project has been supported by the Health System Research Institute (HSRI). The researchers collected retrospective data from the patients in Thailand for over 10 years and the data of Srinagarind Hospital patients for over 5 years. The qualitative research analyses were conducted and the result showed that the treatment of the disease with coiling is worthwhile and can reduce the rates of disability and death.

Doctor Pitchayen Duangthongphon, a neurological expert of Srinagarind Hospital related, “The research team of the study project on the worthiness of treatment with coiling for this disease analyzed the data before Assoc. Prof. Amnat Kitkhuandee, M.D. presented the result at the National Health Security Office that the study verifies the worthiness of the treatment with this method. NHSO thus approved the project and now authorizes the patients holding the gold health security card to receive medical treatment fee for operation with coiling as of October 1, 2021. NHSO’s announcement says that the coiling can be reimbursed at an amount of more than 10,000 baht per coil. One patient needs 4 coils and so the reimbursement amounts to over 50,000 baht. Formerly, patients holding this card could not be reimbursed and had to pay over 100,000 baht for the overall treatment.”

Assoc. Prof. Amnat Kitkhuandee, M.D., an expert in neurological surgery of Srinagarind Hospital said, “Srinagarind Hospital established the Center of Excellence for Cerebral Aneurysm with an aim to bring the utmost benefit to the people, for each year there are more than 100 cases of patients with this disease coming to Srinagarind Hospital, who need to be operated on. Only 10% of these patients can receive treatment by coiling, for the surgery expense is roughly 100,000 baht. This is a problem if the patient cannot afford it, and it means some patients do not have access to medical treatment. This limitation was the rationale behind the research project, and the outcome shows the worthiness of the treatment of this disease by the coiling method, especially when thinking in terms of the disability or death the disease may cause. One part of this research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, which has the Q1 Impact factor of 5.836.”

Therefore, patients holding the gold health security card can from October 1 this year be reimbursed for the operation with coiling. The research on the worthiness of cerebral aneurysm treatment with coiling is truly useful for patients who have constraint in health coverage. Thanks to the National Neurological Surgery College under the Royal Patronage for the support of the project.

Support content : https://www.kku.ac.th/12067

Thailand Scientist and University Rankings 2021 by AD Scientific Index show 2 MD-KKU scientists are among the Top 25 in Thailand;

1. Professor Banchob SRIPA, PhD, ranked 15^th
2. Professor Paiboon SITHITHAWORN, PhD, ranked 25

These rankings are based on the work 2,306 scientists from 135 institutions in Thailand.

https://www.adscientificindex.com/?country_code=th&fbclid=IwAR0HkIyzbXikneIRczfqhvYIiygJQUdt1kUqI9OoumhHj34ry3LJ4CdeIk0

Biography

Professor Banchob Sripa

WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Control of Opisthorchiasis (Southeast Asian Liver Fluke Disease) – Tropical Disease Research Center, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand. Tel: +66-43-363113, E-mail: banchob@kku.ac.th

Professor Banchob Sripa is a Senior Research Scholar, the Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Control of Opisthorchiasis (Southeast Asian Liver Fluke Disease), and Director of the Tropical Disease Research Center, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Currently, Dr.Sripa is a panel member of the WHO Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG2). He got a highest doctoral degree in Tropical Health from the University of Queensland (Australia) and experienced several post-graduate trainings in pathology and global health.  He has been working as lecturer both undergraduate and graduate study for >30 years with over 50 MSc and PhD under his supervision. His research focus is mainly on human liver fluke in several aspects including its related cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), the bile duct cancer as well as other tropical diseases. Dr.Sripa is a world expert in pathology, pathogenesis and control of liver fluke infection and CCA. His integrated liver fluke control program named “Lawa model” is one of the two showcases with success helminth control of WHO/NZD4 (2015).  Dr. Sripa has >260 research articles, viewpoints, editorials and reviews in peer reviewed international journals and book chapters recently in Nature Genetics, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Trends Parasitology, Cancer Science, Hepatology, Proteomics, PLOS Pathogens, Scientific Reports, Advances in Parasitology and elsewhere with high citation index, h = 50.  He was ranked as world expert in cholangiocarcinoma (2019), Helminths (2019) and Opisthorchiasis (2019-2021) by ExpertScape and among world top 2% scientists in Mycology and Parasitology by Stanford University (2020). He sits on the Deputy Editor of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Associate Editor of Tropical Medicine & International Health, and editorial boards of Infectious Diseases of Poverty (BMC Journal), Acta Tropica (Elsevier), J. Helminthology (Cambridge) and Tropical BioMedicine.  He is a Chief Guest Editor/Volume editor for 5 Special Issues on liver flukes in Acta Tropica (2003), Parasitology International (2012), Parasitology International (2017), Advances in Parasitology (2018), and Acta Tropica (2021). He has received several scientific research awards, the most prestige the Thailand Outstanding Scientist Award from the Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Technology under the Patronage of H.M. the King – the King Award (2013) and the Thailand Research Fund Senior Research Scholar (2013).  Dr.Sripa is a former panel member of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) panel of experts for biological agents of cancer, Disease Reference Group on Helminths (DRG), Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG1), WHO advisers, and ex- President of the Regional Network of Asian Schistosomiasis and Other Helminth Zoonoses (RNAS+).