Doctor Voke | Dr Wisarut Sakulpapthong
a physician specialised in internal medicine of the heart and the blood vessels
A physician of internal medicine of the heart and the care of patients as a whole
Dr Wisarut Sakulpapthong (Doctor Voke), an expert in the field of internal medicine of the heart and the blood vessels, has given a point of view concerning medicine, that every branch is able to change the well-being of humankind
"We treat people; we do not treat the disease alone"
– Doctor Voke
For Doctor Voke, the inspiration began from the days of childhood, when Doctor Voke was once ill and had a personal physician who was able to treat him so that the symptoms improved and were completely cured. The feeling like a "marvel" that one person is able to make another person who is ill become well made Doctor Voke feel that this profession requires high ability and an understanding of the human body, and he wanted to be like that doctor
The progress from the past to the present
Doctor Voke points out that technology has come to have an important role in medical diagnosis and treatment clearly. If it were in the past, in order to listen to the sound of the heart one had to put the ear against the chest, but at present there are advanced instruments such as the Stethoscope, EKG (measuring the electrical waves of the heart), and Echocardiography (ultrasound to look at the structure and the working of the heart), and it is these very things that make the diagnosis quick and of great benefit to the patient
Working together with rehabilitation medicine
As a physician of internal medicine of the heart and the blood vessels, the duty is to look after diseases of the heart that do not require surgery. Working together with the team of restoration is therefore very important, because the patients who come in do not have only one disease, but may have other accompanying diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease
Doctor Voke has explained his own role towards the team of restoration, which begins both from assessing the state of the heart of the patient at that time, as to how much they can exercise or exert force, through to filling out the care and controlling the other accompanying diseases, so that the patient is able to do physiotherapy comprehensively and even more safely
In order to see the picture more clearly in the role of Doctor Voke towards the team of restoration, Doctor Voke gave the example of a case of a patient with ischaemic heart disease, saying that at first the patient could not exercise heavily; the team of heart physicians would assess the limit of exerting force, and then the team of rehabilitation medicine would design a programme of training that suits the state of the heart of the patient
And in the case of a patient of young age who has cerebrovascular disease and has accompanying diseases, such as blood pressure or diabetes, the heart physician comes in to emphasise the importance of controlling these diseases, in order to prevent the chance of a Stroke arising again in the future, and to consider searching for other heart diseases that may be a joint cause as well
The development of medicine
Doctor Voke believes that if medicine in the field of the heart develops continually, it will make patients reach better treatment, and have a better quality of life following on from that. But that development must depend on one another in every system, whether it is the side of the service in treating patients (Service), the side of education (Education) in giving knowledge to medical students, nurses, and resident physicians, so that they can build on it and take it to treat other patients onward, which is a way of expanding and developing the medical system, as well as the side of research (Research), the creating of new treatments, and innovation (Innovation), in the position of a teaching physician in a medical school
The importance of prevention
"We do not want to treat the disease of every person; we want every person to be able to know the way to prevent the disease that will arise beforehand, rather"
– Doctor Voke
Although the happy feeling of seeing a patient become well and improve still remains, Doctor Voke leaves a final word that the patient having better behaviour and giving more attention to health will really be able to help prevent the disease from arising