For Dr. Robert Monaco, who is board-certified in sports medicine, family medicine and musculoskeletal ultrasound, treating patients means going the extra mile — or in one specific case, the extra 9,052 miles.
In the summer of 2022, Monaco, who works with private patients at Atlantic Medical Group Sports Medicine at Bridgewater and who teaches workshops around the world, traveled to Phuket, Thailand, to train physicians from all over that country in musculoskeletal ultrasound.
As part of the seven-day project, which was supported by a $5,000 American Medical Society for Sports Medicine Global Humanitarian Grant and the medical office staff at Morristown Medical Center, he and his four-member team treated patients at Vachira Phuket Hospital.
The regional hospital, which trains doctors for the School of Medicine at Walailak University, has 600 beds and a daily outpatient roster of 2,500. There are only two arthroscopic orthopedic surgeons and three physical medicine and rehabilitation physicians. What’s more, there are no sports medicine doctors in the hospital — and in the entire province for that matter.
“Sports medicine is a new area of practice in Thailand,” says Monaco, who has volunteered to teach workshops there for several years. “It’s a different medical system: The hospital is very busy. They do some things well, but they don’t have all the resources and technology that we’re accustomed to in the United States.”
Having the opportunity to diagnose and immediately treat patients — many of whom were indigent — and to train physicians in new techniques and technology, was, he says, gratifying.
“There was one athlete who could not jump without pain,” he says. “We gave him an injection of an orthobiologic called Platelet Rich Plasma, a treatment that is standard in the United States but usually is not done in Thailand. To see patients who are struggling get out of pain and function at a high level is most rewarding.”
The patients, many of whom had been waiting for months for the arrival of Monaco and his team, were extraordinarily appreciative.
“Some of them took selfies with us — that’s something you certainly don’t see in the United States,” Monaco says.
The U.S. team of volunteers, which included Atlantic Health System Athletic Trainer Lauren Mastrobuoni, donated a portable ultrasound unit to the hospital, which is the province’s main medical-care center and which has been rebuilding since it was wiped out in the tsunami of 2004.
But the collaboration didn’t end when the team got on the plane for the return trip home: A long-term interchange, which includes Thailand sending medical trainees here, was established.
“We check in with the hospital every six weeks and have remote learning sessions for the physicians,” Monaco says.
He hopes to get another grant to continue his work at the hospital and has tentative plans to return this year.
The experience, he says, was exhilarating — and humbling. “It’s a human story, not a medical story,” he says. “It’s about breaking down barriers. It’s special — and it’s still continuing.”
Learn more about Monaco at atlanticmedicalgroup.org/orthopedics-bridgewater.
“To see patients who are struggling get out of pain and function at a high level is most rewarding.”