Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In the 1970s when Japan was in the midst of The EUSM graduated its 34th class this year,
high economic growth, regional disparities in producing about 3,400 physicians in total. How-
health care services surfaced as a national prob- ever, the percentage of the graduates who work
lem. In order to redress this issue, medical schools in Ehime after graduation is 30 to 40% overall,
were established in prefectures throughout Japan and many graduates return to their hometowns
under the government policy that every prefec- or move to urban areas to work. This resulted in
ture should have at least one medical schools. In shortage of physicians in current Ehime, increas-
Ehime Prefecture, the Ehime University School ing the work load of the physicians working in
of Medicine (EUSM) was established in 1973, the prefecture. The EUSM was established to
followed by the Ehime University Hospital in address the problem of regional disparities in
1976. The Ehime University Graduate School of health care, but after 40 years of establishment
Medicine subsequently opened in 1979. the problem still remains. The disparities were
The EUSM is located in Toon City about once successfully reduced at one point, however,
15km west of Matsuyama, the prefectural capi- recently it is rather increasing. This is a major
tal. Rice fields mostly surrounded the area when problem not only in Ehime but also in many
founded, but houses being built one after another universities and cities in non-metropolitan areas.
have made the scenery look more urban. Even All non-urban areas throughout Japan are suffer-
so, the EUSM area still remains inconvenient ing from the shortage of physicians.
in terms of accessibility. There are public trans- To address this problem, the national and
portation available such as buses and street cars, local governments established community health
but cars were generally used to commute to the care revitalization plans and provided funds to
schools and the hospital. As a result, although medical institutions to secure a necessary num-
the EUSM has large parking areas compared to ber of physicians and emergency medical services
others, the spaces sometimes run short because in local areas. With the help of these funds, the
employees and patients are recently increasing in EUSM established the Department of Commu-
number. The parking lots, which were once free nity and Emergency Medicine and the Depart-
of charge, have been changed to a charge system ment of Regeneration of Community Medicine
a few years ago. to support health care systems in the southern
and western regions of Ehime Prefecture. How-
ever, this has not contributed to a fundamental
solution to the physician shortage.
*1 Associate Professor, Department of Integrated Medicine and Informatics, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan
(okura@m.ehime-u.ac.jp).
*2 Director of Ehime University Hospital, Ehime, Japan (jhigaki@m.ehime-u.ac.jp).
Translational Research Center was also estab- study group meetings for this purpose. The pub-
lished to serve as a bridge to smoothly link the lication and management of the Ehime Medical
results of basic studies to clinical applications. Journal issued twice a year is the EUMAs main
activity, in which research achievements of the
Ehime University Medical Associations researches at the EUSM and the valuable cases
Efforts observed at the Ehime University Hospital have
been reported. The invitations to lectures and
The Ehime University Medical Association study groups held by the Ehime Prefectural Med-
(EUMA) was established 35 years ago, in April ical Association and Matsuyama City Medical
1977. Currently, the EUMA has 228 members, Association are e-mailed to the EUMA mem-
and Professor Jitsuo Higaki, director of the bers as needed, providing the up-to-date health
Ehime University Hospital, is serving as the pres- care information. We hope the EUMA to become
ident since 2012. The EUMAs basic purpose is more active so that the continuing medical edu-
to provide physicians with continuing medical cation for all members will be enriched and the
education, and the Ehime Prefectural Medical number of new members (meaning new resi-
Association also regularly offers lectures and dents) will further increase.