First day in the office. It is rather handy to be staying and working on location at the hospital where we have our programs. Still suffering from jet lag, I was up at 3a and out running at 5:30a. Even caught a bit of the solar eclipse at 6a. Already a productive day.
Most of the work day was spent in meetings with various visitors from the US to talk about safe medicine practices in China. The first group was from a pharmaceutical donor and it was very fascinating learning about the complex subject. Everything from monitoring ingredients, to hospital handling of medicines, to patient awareness raising to establishing feedback and tracking mechanisms were covered. Contamination, counterfeit and fake medicines are major concerns as far as patient safety as well as damaging reputations of using safe medicines. Even now in China, the health care system is fighting to change the population's perceptions of proper medical care. For example, the parents of children who come to this hospital don't feel they've been properly treated unless the child receives an IV, when really most medication can be taken in pill form at home. (Photo is HOPE founder Dr. Walsh - a statue on the hospital grounds)
As part of our meeting, we took a short tour of the hospital, visiting two critical care units, a patient floor and the pharmacy. Later we met with a US gov't official who works on the same subject matter. A very different kind of meeting.
Although fading fast, Connie and I ventured out this evening to experience a bit of the city finding ourselves at a nearby shopping mall where we had a decidedly disappointing dinner and did a bit of shopping. Unfortunately I had to stay up for a 9:30p conference call and then promptly fell asleep.
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