January 30, 2020

Kakada Ou, MD, is a physician from Cambodia who wants to establish the first Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Program in his country. He has spent several months working with Robert Negrin, MD, Division Chief of BMT at Stanford Medicine, to accomplish his goal.

Ou’s journey to Stanford began when he met Dr. Negrin at Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he works as a hematologist and oncologist. Dr. Negrin, who visits Cambodia annually for a medical mission, spoke with Ou about training opportunities and agreed to serve as a mentor to him. Using the American Society of Hematology (ASH)’s Visitor Training Program (VTP), Ou was able to secure funding for 12 weeks of training in blood and marrow transplantation at Stanford.

Ou wants to use the medical and scientific expertise gained during his time at Stanford Medicine to go back to Phnom Penh to help set up a BMT program. Currently, patients must travel to Vietnam or Thailand if they need a transplant. Calmette Hospital—which serves as the country’s flagship hospital and Cambodia’s only cancer center—is working to renovate their facility to accommodate transplants.  The hospital has established 8 rooms for autologous transplant and has supported the training of the nurses and technicians who will help to provide care.

For Ou and his collaborators, one of the biggest challenges of creating a BMT program involves addressing the inherent limitations of the healthcare industry in Cambodia. There is only one apheresis machine in the country, and diagnostic imaging tests like PET scans are not readily available due to high cost. Currently, obstacles for Ou and his team include finding the $1M funding to renovate their facility for critical HEPA filtration and determining financially viable ways for patients to cover the cost of treatments.

Ou is grateful for knowledge he’s gained so far at Stanford. “I’ve been deeply involved in the Stanford BMT Program for two months. I rounded with Dr. Negrin on the inpatient service during the first month. I learned about taking care of the patient after transplant, including side effects of medication, or other complications like GVHD,” he said.

Growing up, Ou wanted to fulfill his mother’s dream that he become a doctor—he studied internal medicine at the University of Health Sciences in Phnom Penh where he decided to specialize in oncology and hematology. He then trained in Thailand, Vietnam, and Australia to enhance his understanding of solid tumors, bleeding disorders and hemophilia as well as stem cell transplantation.

Ou describes his time here as a period to learn and absorb as much as he can. Some of the valuable lessons he’s taken from his time at Stanford include learning about advances in stem cell transplantation methods and treatments, as well as exposure to the latest treatment and diagnostic methods for hematologic diseases. When Ou he returns to Cambodia, he plans to implement his experiences at Calmette Hospital to benefit the patients being treated there.