Professor MUDr. Petr Pohunek, CSc. regularly attends the Janská Lázeň symposia. He works at the Pediatric Clinic of the 2nd Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and at the Motol Faculty Hospital and his specialty is pediatric pneumology. Immediately after the end of the XII. Janská Lázeň Symposium, we asked him for an interview.
Professor, you said that you were interested in how important it is for a rehabilitation worker to know what is happening with their patient from the perspective of another professional. Why?
"Interprofessional cooperation is important in that we are able to provide physiotherapists with objective data on how to conduct physiotherapy. They can build on what we have achieved, for example, by suctioning the patient's mucus plugs, clearing the airways, and reaching a limit beyond which we can no longer go. Then they come and work with the patient using techniques that help cough up mucus that is not commonly available for instrumental treatment. Our interaction therefore leads to the patient's lung function quickly improving, their oxygenation is better, and their quality of life is also improved."
I am very happy that this is how things work for us at Motol. Physiotherapists come to watch our endoscopic procedures, they are with us during them, or we show them videos from the recording and we talk about how to best use our mutual knowledge and help to make physiotherapy more effective, more targeted and therefore faster and more efficient. Because without that objectivity, a physiotherapist is essentially working blindly.
So you record all the procedures?
We have a policy that all bronchoscopic procedures are videotaped. There is not always obvious pathology. Often, during the examination, we describe a normal finding and then after some time a patient comes in with a problem in the airways, we do the examination again and suddenly it is clearly visible. Then we go back to the original video, review it again and find that there were already some signs of the problem. The recordings also give us information about how the disease develops over the course of a year, for example.
What did you take away from the symposium?
A nice experience of meeting a number of friends and acquaintances. I took away a few new perspectives, for example on swallowing disorders, which was an amazing block where I learned a lot of new things. I have to throw ashes on my head, until now the involvement of a speech therapist in swallowing disorders has not seemed so important to me. Suddenly I see a speech therapist as one of those who can be key in that help. I listened to lectures on swallowing disorders, on food processing, communication, the relationship between swallowing, food intake and speech development. It is to some extent new to me that a child who does not take food by mouth will not develop speech. I heard that for the first time, it is an amazing experience for me that has enriched me. I think I will look at these problems a little differently. And not only me.
What theme are you planning for next year?
Next time I would like to present one of the topics in the block on bronchopulmonary dysplasia and the consequences of neonatal respiratory problems. I would like to take away that multidisciplinary view of what to do with children in the context of what physiotherapists, neurologists, and occupational therapists do with them. They all integrate beautifully with each other in Janské Lázně. As a "doctor", I will be like the curious observer, I will listen, and I will try to modify the practice.
In my practice at the outpatient clinic in Motol, I work with about a hundred newborns with neonatal pneumopathy. We do not accurately perceive the connections in all of them when we primarily focus on lung problems. That is why I am looking forward to the next symposium bringing me that comprehensive view.
Can you explain to laypeople what neonatal pneumopathy is?
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a lung and airway disorder that is related to the fact that a child is born immature, premature, in the early stages of lung development. They are not fully prepared for their duty and function, namely oxygenation - oxygenation of the organism. Under these unfavorable conditions, intensive care, high oxygen concentrations begin, and all this interferes with the further development of the lungs. If the lungs are damaged, the child's development is disrupted, and this entails a whole range of damage. We focus on preventing this from happening. Fortunately, we have the advantage that development and growth work with us, which helps us a lot, nature is simply powerful.
