Medical Education Building, the only one building that build for support medical study with high technology , IT system . In this building will have CAI support system, Virtual classroom , Anatomy Museum and other. Now it's under construction and will be finish in late 1997.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a new diagnostic imaging machine which, unlike other imaging modalities, uses only magnetic fields and radiowaves. There is no ionizing radiation as is required by both conventional radiograph and CT. MRI is able to show more details of anatomy and pathology because its multiple planes and high resolution image quality. However, despite these advances there remains a substantial number of patients who cannot undergo an MRI for a variety of reasons. These reasons consist of claustrophobia, the inability to remain motionless for the duration of the study, and, most importantly, indwelling metallic and/or mechanical devices. The MRI in the Diagnostic Division, Department of Radiology has a magnetic field strength of 1.5 Tesla and has been in service since May, 1996.

The Thai Red Cross Society has established The Red Cross Eye Bank, Songkhla Branch since December 29, 1989 in the Department of Ophthalmology, Songklanagarind Hospital. On August 27, 1996, the Thai Red Cross Society expanded the Red Cross Eye Bank, Songkhla Branch to Red Cross Eye Bank Region 12 including the 7 provinces of southern Thailand. Those provinces are Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwas, Satun, Trang, Phatthalung. The main objective of this eye bank is providing services and conducting cornea transplants for free.
In October 1996, we had a list of 401 cornea donors, 23 patients on the waiting list and 5 cornea transplant patients. To honor those people who have passed away and given their corneas to transplant patients, the Thai Red Cross Society gave a privileged membership to the Society to one of the donor’s relatives.

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) is a new form of treatment for stone disease of the urinary and, sometimes, biliary systems. The main purpose for this kind of treatment is to transmit powerful, shock waves, from an extra-body source to the stone site and cause fragmentation without violating body tissue. The small fragments of stone pass out spontaneously along with urine. This method has many advantages over conventional surgery such as changing the means of treatment from major surgery to a non-invasive procedure. The patients also do not require hospital admission and can resume work immediately. There are still some contraindications for using ESWL such as pregnancy, coagulopathy, small children and certain stages of chronic renal failure. The ESWL Unit of the Songklanagarind Hospital is the only referral center for treating stone disease in the south, opening for service in December,1995. Since that time, 395 new patients have been treated with the total of 807 of sessions. We are proud to be part of improving the well being and quality of life of people in southern Thailand.

Cooperation between the Faculty of Medicine and overseas institutions occurs under agreements at the university level. Overseas universities which have a faculty of medicine or medical school exchange program operate within the framework of the agreement to offer staff and student exchanges and joint research projects. In 1996, the faculty is collaborated with the following universities:

• Australia -
• University of Queensland
• University of Western Australia
• Monash University
• University of Wollongong
• Mcquarie University
• University of Sydney
• University of New South Wales
• Royal Children’s Hospital
• Royal North Shore
• University of Adeliade
• Malaysia
• Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
• Universiti Sains Malaysia
• Japan
• Miyazaki Medical College
• Kobe University, School of Medicine
• Germany
• University of Ulm
• USA
• University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville
• Mongolia
• National Medical University of Mongolia

The Faculty itself has no formal agreement with any medical institution overseas, but informal contacts take place regularly for study visits, short training programs and exchange of information related to academic and research matters.

The concept of Quality Assurance was implemented among academic staff in the Faculty of Medicine in 1993. It was the first program instituted in Thailand to assure and improve the quality of teaching and learning, the quality of hospital services and the accountability of management. In 1995, the Faculty Quality Assurance Committee announced quality assurance policies in aspects of:

1. Teaching and Learning
• organize student learning activities according to curriculum objectives
• continous staff development in medical and professional education
• teaching and learning media developments
• eliable and valid evaluation of medical students' education
2. Research
• systematic research team development
• set standard for quality health care and patient record system
• responsibility for quality and ethical research
3. Hospital services
• increase the efficiency of out-patient, in-patient and emergency-patient services.

There were five Quality Assurance progress report meetings on the following themes:

• December 16, 1994, under- and post-graduate education, methods of evaluation by students and peers to assure quality of staff.
• March 31,1995, medical care services, presentation of methods for monitoring and improving patient care, such as setting OPD service time, auditing medical records and OPD cards.
• December 15,1995, quality management accountability presented by the administrative team, presentation by department chairpersons on their functions: teaching and learning, services and academic activities.
• March 29, 1996, quality assurance in the Pharmacy and Nursing Services Divisions. QA measures in the Pharmacy division were aimed at increasing staff development and patient satisfaction by monitoring patient waiting time, medication errors, quality of pharmaceutical production and inventory control. Nursing Services Division established a QA Committee and Ward QA Team to ensure effective and efficient utilization of costly resources and to assure high quality of care. They validated more than 20 volumes of nursing standards, reviewed clinical procedure manuals and carried out the monitoring of 6 patient outcome indicators. Those indicators consisted of medication administration errors, patient falls, unplanned discharge patients, bedsores or pressure ulcers, nosocomial infections, etc.
• May 24,1996, improve medical records for teaching, services and research by auditing the completeness and accuracy of records in each department.
• August 30,1996, staff and academic development, presentation of the results of a seminar on QA in teaching and learning held at Haad Kaew Resort on April 18-19. The academic staff from all departments agreed upon guidelines, standards, check-lists and indicators to evaluate, monitor and develop the quality of input(students/ teachers), process (curriculum,extra-curriculur activity,media, etc.) and products (graduates).

New staff development guidelines:

• All new staff should train or study abroad (for at least 1 year) within 3 years of hire date.
• All new staff must receive training in Medical Education and Research Methodology.
• All new staff should receive training for advising medical students and be good ethical models.
• Senior staff or department chairpersons will advise new staff of good practice and departmental and faculty policies.

The Faculty will provide sufficient support to staff so that they will not have to earn any outside income and are able to work full time.