Assist. Watcharapong Piyaphanee

M.D., Dip Thai Board of Internal Medicine, Dip Travel Medicine MFTM RCPS (Glasgow), Dip Thai Board of Preventive Medicine (Travel Medicine), Certificate in Travel HealthTM

Although Travel Medicine is a relatively new field of medicine, it is becoming increasingly more important especially in the era of globalization.

More than 800 million people travel internationally each year. Many travel medicine-related activities such as travel clinics, researches and educations are well established in the western world. But in Thailand, very limited activities have been done before.

Over the last few decades, number of travellers to Thailand has dramatically increased. Many Thai and International travellers visit our hospital for consultation about travel-related diseases especially in the preventive and diagnostic issues. The number of our client is increasing every year. Therefore, we have re-organized and set up our special clinic for Traveller since 2004. It is called, “Thai Travel Clinic” of Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Travel Medicine Research Unit has been established since October 2005. It is the part of Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine in faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. We are responsible in all areas of travel medicine including service part, education and also research activity. We aim to be a role model in travel medicine practice and care

Teaching (การเรียนการสอน)
        Our staffs teach various topics in the field of Travel medicine in our formal course in Mahidol University namely; D.T.M&H, M.C.T.M, M.Sc. and Ph.D. (Trop Med). From 2014, our hospital will be the first institute in Thailand that could offer the Residency Training in Travel Medicine for Thai doctors.

Research (งานวิจัย)
        The research focus of our unit is on travel medicine related field. We are interested in health problems among foreigners visiting Thailand and Southeast Asia as well as the incidence and impact of health problems among Thais who are traveling either domestically or internationally. As a part of Mahidol University, a leading research university in Thailand, one of our key missions is “Research excellence in Travel Medicine field in Thailand” Thanks to strong support from the Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine, the Hospital for tropical diseases and the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, since 2006, we were able to publish more than 70 articles in travel-medicine related field.

GEOSENTINEL and Thai Travel Clinic
     Since 2006, Thai Travel Clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases has been an active participant in a growing elite network of health care providers chosen to monitor the global spread of infectious diseases.

The recognition that travel is a leading player in the spread of diseases such as SARS stimulated the formation of a worldwide network of travel and tropical medicine clinics dedicated to following global patterns of illness. The GeoSentinel network now consists of 54 strategically placed clinics on 6 continents, and since 1995 has been a major initiative of its parent medical society, the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).
As a GeoSentinel surveillance site, Thai Travel Clinic of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases was chosen for their expertise in the evaluation and management of special groups of patients: returning travelers who are ill, immigrants, refugees and foreign visitors. Linking information regarding illnesses acquired from various geographic locations in certain time periods helps to define trends in the movement of diseases, and could help to identify new agents, or emerging diseases.

Recognition and Achievement of our unit

1. Our Thai Travel Clinic has been listed in the two main academic organizations in Travel Medicine/Tropical Medicine:
• International Society of Travel Medicine (www.istm.org).
• American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (www.astmh.org). The ASTMH provides the list of the physicians that offer consultative service in Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine.

2. Our Thai Travel Clinic is the certified Yellow Fever Vaccine administration center. We could give yellow fever vaccine as well as Yellow Fever certificate for international travelers.

3. Our Clinic is the training center for the Residency training program in Travel Medicine, the first program in the world

4. Our clinic offers many medical students/doctors from all around the world visit us to gain their experience in Travel Medicine

5. Apart from the formal courses, our staffs have been invited to be speakers in academic meeting in national, regional and international level.

For more information, please visit www.thaitravelclinic.com