Department of General Medicine

Head of the Department: Noboru Saito MD, PhD

Message from the Head of the Department

      The Department of General Medicine at Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center was established in April 2016. Our department is characterized by providing a wide range of medical care to patients who have not been clearly diagnosed by approaching them in a cross-cutting manner without being bound by the framework of organs. Treatment of only symptomatic organs may not solve the original problem, and it is necessary to comprehensively treat the body, mind, and social background. In addition, our department provides better medical care according to the patient's condition by taking an oriental medicine approach (Japanese traditional medicine, Kampo) as well as a western medicine approach.

Activities

1. Appropriate initial approach to physical problems: Total number of outpatients 6,182 (610 new cases, 5,572 revisits) April 2019 to March 2020.

  • Receive referrals from local medical institutions for cases for which it is unclear in which medical department should be treated.
  • Diagnose and treat patients with various symptoms as a whole body and explore what kind of problems exist.
  • Continue medical treatment if our department can handle it. Consult with specialized clinical departments as necessary.

2. Integrated Patient Support Center Home Medical Care Section

  • The target patients are family members of this hospital, and visit medical care is provided at the request of the main clinical department.
  • Supporting patients' home care by visiting regularly and providing medical care under planned medical management
  • Previous cases: Severe psychosomatic disorders, ALS, Parkinson's disease, malignant tumors that make it difficult to visit the hospital, etc.

3. Education
School of Medicine:

4th year General Practice
Practice on Public Health [Clinical Pathway]
5th & 6th year Clinical Clerkship
General Medicine

Research Field

General medicine  
Primary care  
Clinical reasoning 
Geriatrics
Oriental medicine  
Home medical science 
Telehealth

Academic Society Activities

Japanese Society of Hospital General Medicine
Japan Primary Care Association
The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine
Japanese Association for Home care Medicine

Faculty

Head/Professor and Chairman: Noboru Saito, MD, PhD
Associate Professor: Takamasa Ishii, MD, PhD
Lecturer: Koichi Asahi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor: Hajime Tamura, MD
Assistant Professor: Miho Konuma, MD
Assistant Professor: Bairai Li, MD

In addition to the above, the Department of General Medicine have part-time staff, residents, and secretaries.

Characteristics of the section

     This department provides appropriate initial response to health-related issues. We will look at patients with various symptoms as a whole and explore what kind of problems they have. When the problem requiring treatment is not clear, we will try to reduce anxiety.

We will mainly provide medical care to the following patients.

  • When it is difficult to make a diagnosis at local medical institution
  • When the symptoms are complicated and it is not possible to identify which specialty is best for medical treatment
  • When it is difficult to direct medical care with a single clinical department, because of multiple illnesses