Foreign doctors visit Korea for advanced medical technology

A doctor from Saudi Arabia, left, visiting Korea on a training program for foreign doctors, observes a Korean surgeon perform an operation on a patient at Asan Medical Center in Seoul. / Courtesy of Asan Medical Center

'After medical training, I am very satisfied that I came to Korea'

By Lee Kyung-min

Dr. Rafat Bahjat Zahid, the deputy director of Multi-Organ Transplant Center (MOTC) at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, said he would recommend any medical professionals come to Korea.

He underwent an 11-month training program at Asan Medical Center (AMC) in southern Seoul to learn laparoscopic surgery, or minimally invasive surgery, from urologist Hong Bum-sik.

The urology specialist at the PSMMC, a leading hospital in the Middle East specializing in organ transplant, visited by around 40,000 outpatients, decided to come to Korea to improve his surgical skills and better integrate his medical knowledge into treating patients.

“To be honest, I would have never thought of coming to Korea on my own for advanced medical training,” he said.

One of his trusted friends and colleagues in Saudi Arabia recommended he go to Korea, saying he studied at an online training center for endourology at Yonsei Severance Hospital in Seoul, through the Endourological Society, a nonprofit organization comprised of international urologists.

“I said ‘Korea? I have never heard of it in my entire life.’ But after training, I am very satisfied that I came to Korea and I am grateful to my friend.”

By the time his training ended, he observed 114 surgeries, during which he provided surgical assistant roles. In the process, Hong, who has performed over 13,000 surgeries, gave advice in detail and made sure he understood the procedure fully.

“Many surgeons in Saudi Arabia seek training in Korea where most patients have operations in the early stages as a result of regular checkups, which means surgeons in Korea have ample experience. Learning from Hong definitely helped my practice. I strongly recommend others come to Korea to learn.”

After he returned home, he performed 50 successful laparoscopic hand-assisted donor nephrectomy (LHADN) operations and established a multi-organ transplant center at which he is a deputy director.

He is among 42 doctors who have completed or are undergoing the medical training program between Korea and Saudi Arabia launched in 2014. It was organized by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, a health ministry-supervised organization. Korea is the fourth country to have the government-level bilateral program with Saudi Arabia after the U.S., Canada and France.

Mongolia and Russia began sending doctors to Korea, in 2012 and 2013, respectively, for them to learn advanced medical technology on a state-organized program.

A total of 133 doctors from Moglia and 56 from Russia have undergone training thus far. A total of 596 foreign doctors have undergone training in Korea on state-organized program between 2007 and Dec. 11.

Korea recognized for world-class medical technology

The steady number of foreign doctors continues to visit Korea amid growing recognition of its world-class medical technology.

A surgical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center asked for his mother, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer in a hospital in Los Angeles, to undergo treatment at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in 2008.

MGH is the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a biomedical research facility located in Boston.

SNUH Stomach Cancer Center Director Yang Han-kwang who performed the operation said the surgeon from the U.S., a country where most doctors wish to go training for advanced medical technology, chose the hospital in Korea which has the highest success rate for stomach cancer treatments.

“His mother was covered under the highest quality medical insurance in the U.S., but chose to come to Korea,” Yang said.

The surgical oncologist from MGH even received additional training in stomach cancer surgery at SNUH, which performs around 1,000 stomach cancer surgeries per year, the highest number of treatments. It has the lowest postoperative mortality rate of 0.6 percent, far less than the 10 percent of Europe.

“About 1,000 medical professionals undergo training in Korea from world-class surgeons every year. How Korean surgeons perform surgery is featured in medical textbooks as an example,” said Yang.

Varvara Kirchner from the University of Minnesota Medical School in the U.S., who learned the surgical techniques from Lee Sung-gyu, a liver transplantation expert at Asan Medical Center, said the achievements made by some Korean hospitals are comparable to those of world-class hospitals such as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Cleveland Clinic.

She came from the hospital in Minnesota, where 226 senior professors from Korea visited as part of “the Minnesota Project” between 1955 and 1961. Korea has built its medical and engineering infrastructure through the U.S. government-sponsored program.

In about five decades later, medical technology in Korea has since made groundbreaking achievements, with the country now sought by top global doctors to learn from.

“Korea running many training programs for foreign doctors is among many indicators how the country has improved its recognition and standing on the global medical stage,” said Dr. Rha Koon-ho, a urology professor and director of the Robotic and Minimally Invasive Surgery Center at Yonsei University Health System.

He has trained five Saudi doctors that came to Korea with the Saudi government-organized program since June 2014.

“It is important for the trainees to get back to their country and be fully functional,” he said. “In order to do that, medical training programs should offer more chances for both professors and trainees to exchange opinions.”