'Medical Pioneers' delves into Korea's medical advancement
Book cover of Medical Pioneers of Korea
By Jung Hae-myoung
Over 2.2 million foreign patients from 190 countries have traveled to Korea for medical treatments since 2009 when the country opened its doors for medical tourism.
Chinese visitors topped in the number of foreign medical tourists in Korea, followed by Americans, Japanese, Russians and Mongolians.
The number of foreign patients coming to Korea has been growing year after year.
The publication of “Medical Pioneers of Korea” is timely, as the book traces the rise of Korea's medical industry by shedding light on 50 leaders in the fields of leadership, research and business.
Two co-authors, Korea Times reporter Jung Min-ho, and Kim Eil-chul, sat down with the 50 pioneers in their areas of specialization to cover their stories, which were published in The Korea Times in a year-long series from August 2015 to August 2016, before being compiled in the book.
“We thought it would be meaningful to shed light on how the country's healthcare industry has evolved to what it is today as it takes steps toward the next phase,” the two authors said in the preface of the book. “For a year, we interviewed Korea's 50 best doctors, pharmacists and businessmen in their fields… our approach focused largely on the industrial aspects, but what we discovered in the course of the project was so much more than we anticipated.”
Interviewing the leading authorities in their fields, the authors covered several trailblazers, including the first doctor to perform bone reattachment surgery, the first doctor in rehabilitation medicine, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company and a doctor who is also a politician.
Chung Ui-hwa, chief director of Bong Seng Memorial Hospital in Busan and former National Assembly speaker from 2014 to 2016, was the first interviewee whose story was published in The Korea Times on Sept. 21, 2015.
Chung, whose specialties include microvascular decompression for hemi-facial spasm and trigeminal neuralgia, and microvascular surgery for cerebral aneurysms, was chosen for his leadership.
The business section features people who have contributed to improving medical technology, including CEOs of familiar medical appliances company such as Lutronic, Inbody and Celltrion.
The section on researchers covers various fields including different cancer treatments, and transplantation and robotic surgery.
To inform readers, the book not only covers their specialties but also their personal stories that impacted on their work.
“After interviewing all these people in the medical industry, some also had different specialties covering more than just medicine,” Jung said.
This interview series started as Kim Eil-chul, the executive deputy secretary general of World Taekwondo, proposed the two team up to find various medical pioneers in Korea and document their little-known stories.
“After the Korean War, the country was at a state where everything had to be rebuilt. Until the 1970s, there were no medical doctors with specialties. They used to treat everything ― sometimes stomach and other times legs. But after the 1970s, the medical field developed drastically as the medical specialist system was introduced,” Jung explained.
“It would be meaningful if the readers know the current medical situation in Korea is made up of many people's sweat and sacrifice. Like Korea took a lot of help from other developed countries, it would be great if Korea could help other countries that are in a similar situation to Korea in the past.”
The book is only the first volume of other interviews that may yet be compiled. Jung hinted he is gathering ideas to possibly write a second series focusing on young or female medical professionals in Korea.