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| Dr. Shigeru Fukuda (left), president of the Kumamoto City Medical Association, presents Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, Health Science Center president, with a gift on behalf of the 17-member delegation that visited San Antonio. | |
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Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., president of the Health Science Center, and Rajam Ramamurthy, M.D., professor of pediatrics and president of the Bexar County Medical Society (BCMS), officially welcomed a delegation from Kumamoto, Japan, to the Health Science Center at a luncheon Aug. 20.
Dr. Cigarroa exchanged gifts with the delegation’s leader, Shigeru Fukuda, M.D., an ob-gyn physician who is chair of the Kumamoto University Medical School and president of the Kumamoto City Medical Association. Dr. Fukuda was accompanied by his wife, Kuniko, who is vice president of a medical corporation.
Kumamoto, a city of 2 million on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan, is a sister city of San Antonio. The 17-member medical delegation included six physicians, a hospital administrator, five medical students and a high school student.
The Japanese students received gift certificates to the Health Science Center bookstore to purchase any of a number of tools of the trade for future physicians.
Dr. Cigarroa presented Dr. Fukuda a book titled “San Antonio:
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| Dr. Donald Gordon, professor of emergency medical technology and director of San Antonio Emergency Medical Services, visits with Akiko Koburi (center) and Kaori Goto, who are fourth-year medical students at Kumamoto Medical School. | |
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The Soul of Texas,” while Dr. Fukuda reciprocated with an antique painting of a lotus.
James Humphreys, M.D., a pathologist at Southeast Baptist Hospital and member of the BCMS Board of Directors, coordinated the delegation’s visit and was present at the luncheon.
Dr. Ramamurthy recalled that she and Alice Gong, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, visited Kumamoto in 1995.
“What an honor to have the Kumamoto medical delegation visit our campus,” Dr. Cigarroa said. “Over the years, San Antonio has been so fortunate to have Kumamoto as our sister city.”
He encouraged the students because they are the future of medicine.
