Dr Ing | Dr Napatsorn Khamchum
Specialist physician in rehabilitation medicine
Rehabilitation medicine and cerebrovascular disease
"If we treat patients so that they come back to being able to do things, even their daily routines better, so that they can live their lives without feeling that they are a sick person, it is their hope that makes them able to improve through our treatment."
– Dr Ing
Dr Napatsorn Khamchum, or Dr Ing, a rehabilitation medicine physician, believes that the science she practises creates a real impact for the group of patients with cerebrovascular disease (Stroke), because it is helping them be able to come back to living their daily lives independently, reducing their being a burden, and having a better quality of life sustainably.
The inspiration for Dr Ing in choosing rehabilitation medicine began when she was a doctor working off her scholarship, and saw a great many patients in the group with cerebrovascular disease who had to lie bed-bound or stay in hospital for a long time. The question therefore arose: which branch of medicine could make these patients "better than they are at present"?
Rehabilitation medicine is therefore not only looking at the matter of treating a disease, but is returning capability so that patients are able to help themselves and reduce the burden on their carers, which is the important heart of what made the doctor decide to choose to study this field.
Restoring the nervous system in younger patients
Dr Ing explained that since at present there is a tendency for this group of patients to be younger, while the number continuously increases. The risk factors met often are chronic disease (such as high blood pressure), smoking, and a lack of exercise/moving the body. Rehabilitation medicine therefore comes to have an important role in helping this group of patients come back to living better, and having hope in going on living.
Holistic treatment and advanced technology
The role of the rehabilitation medicine physician in Stroke patients begins from assessing readiness to join the rehabilitation programme, and there is planning together with the multidisciplinary professions. At present a great deal of technology is brought in to help make the rehabilitation as effective as possible, particularly stimulating and building up the working of the nervous system, such as electromagnetic waves (Magnetic Stimulation), used to stimulate the muscles and reduce spasticity, as well as stimulating the brain in order to develop the nervous system, or robots that help in training (Robotics), for adaptation, and the mind is the important key
Dr Ing emphasises the importance of adaptation on the part of both the patient and the relatives. The first of these is understanding the disease itself and the scope of rehabilitation. After that it is planning the adjustment of the house and of the equipment used so that they are suitable, so that the patient is able to live better in their own home.