Professor Dae Hyuk Moon from the Department of Nuclear Medicine was honored with the Green Stripes Order of Service Merit in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of oncology in Korea. Dr. Moon’s achievements include demonstrating the safety and efficacy of PETCT in diagnosing breast cancer for the first time in the world for approval of the diagnostic technology from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety of Korea and the US Food and Drug Administration, thereby improving the quality of life and survival period for breast cancer patients, and becoming the first to develop a therapy method for increasing the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drug, capecitabine, and a diagnostic imaging method.

Professor Chun, Sa-il from the Department of Laboratory Medicine has been elected as the Chairman of the Board of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine. His term of office will last for three years from January 2022.

Professor Kim, Sung-bae from the Division of Oncology has been selected to co-chair the ESMO Breast Cancer Congress. Together with two other co-chairs, Dr. Kim will selected about 15 new committee members to create related programs. He will serve as a co-chair for three years starting in 2021.

Prof. Seo, Eul-ju from the Department of Laboratory Medicine was elected as the President of the Korean Society for Genetic Diagnostics and will serve for two years from January 2021.

Dr. Mi-Na Kim, Professor of Laboratory Medicine, was elected as the Chairperson of the Board of the Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology. She will serve two years in office from January 2021.

Professor of Gong, Gyung-yub from the Department of Pathology was elected as the President of the Korean Society for Cytopathology at the 32^nd Fall Conference. Her term of office will be from January 2021 until December 2022.

Professor Kim, Sung-hoon from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine was presented with Commendation from the Chairperson of the Civilian Committee of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property, the top-most prize, at the 2020 ICT Patent Management Awards. Professor Kim, who has served on the R&D project group of Asan Institute for Life Sciences, received this award in recognition of his contribution to intellectual property (IP) management through support for technology valuation and commercialization as well as medical technology-related patent applications and registrations.

Professor MIN HO CHUN from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine received the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation. It was for his contribution to the establishment and development of the rehabilitation medicine institution designation and operation system, which was aimed at improving the delivery of rehabilitation medicine.

Professor Lee, Beom-hee from the Department of Pediatrics has been appointed as an expert member of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Biopharmaceutical Review Board operating under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. He is set to serve on the review board until November 17, 2023.

Professor Lee,  WooChang from the Department of Laboratory Medicine has received the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of contributing to the project initiated to establish a national laboratory testing standardization system, based on the international standard test methods.

Professor Lim, Young-suk from the Division of Gastroenterology was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of protecting people’s health and contributing to medical advances, while serving as the Chairman of the Subcommittee for Limited Health Technology of the New Health Technology Assessment Committee.

Professor Joon Beom Seo from the Department of Radiology was accepted into the National Academy of Engineering of Korea as a general member in 2021. Dr. Seo has conducted a number research and development (R&D) projects pertaining to medical imaging, medical robotics, medical 3D printing, and so on for the past two decades. He also served as the first president of the Korean Society of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, which he founded in 2018.

Professor Kim, Young-sik from the Department of Family Medicine was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation. Dr. Kim was recognized for faithfully fulling his duties in the Pilot Family Doctor Program for Persons with Disabilities, thereby promoting the health of persons with disabilities and assisting in their health management.

Professor of Kwon, hyun-wook from the Division of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation was awarded the Excellent Abstract Prize at the Asian Transplantation Week (ATW) 2020 for his study titled “The Clinical Course Following Cellular Rejection.”

Her son was in despair, and he sent an email to AMC asking for help. The lung transplantation team contacted him and discussed the case with medical professionals in Mexico, and they decided to perform lung transplantation at AMC. The patient had completely lost her lung function and was unconscious, but she was taken to Korea by air ambulance while relying on a ventilator and a heart‑lung machine. She traveled about 12,000 km, crossing Vancouver in Canada, Alaska in the US, and Russia to finally arrive at the opposite side of the planet after 24 hours on August 9.

 

On September 11, the 10 hour-long lung transplantation was a success. However, even after surgery, she had to rely on a ventilator for a long period and her lung function did not recover as fast as anticipated. The lung transplantation team did their best to care for her, and she finally recovered and left the hospital on December 8, i.e., 122 days after hospitalization at AMC.

Professor Kim, Beom-jun  from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism was presented with the Research Prize by the Metabolic Bone Disease Research Society of the Korean Endocrine Society for his study titled “The Discovery of Dual Therapeutic Targets for Osteoporosis and Sarcopenia Based on Fat-Muscle-Bone Correlation.”

AMC became the first hospital in Korea to perform 800 heart transplants with the successful completion of a heart transplantation on ECMO-reliant Kim (male, 40) by the heart transplantation team of the Organ Transplantation Center. Having achieved this record after reaching the 700 surgeries milestone in September 2018, this once again proves the excellence of AMC’s cardiac transplantation system and severe patient care.

 

Since Korea’s first heart transplantation in November 1992 on a 50-year-old woman suffering from end-stage heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart transplantation team has given life to 800 patients with end-stage heart failure. Surgeries for dilated cardiomyopathy with weakened heart muscles and failing heart accounted for 60% of the overall 800 cases, while those for congenital cardiac disorders accounted for about 11%. In other cases, patients were forced to undergo heart transplantation because ischemic cardiomyopathy caused by coronary artery disorders or a congenital heart defect had led to end-stage heart failure.

 

The heart transplantation team boasts the highest survival rates not only in Asia but also in the world. The one-year, five-year, and ten-year survival rates are 95%, 86%, and 76%, respectively. The figures outstrip the rates of 81% (one-year), 69% (five-year), and 52% (ten-year) published by the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and are comparable to those of the world’s leading heart transplantation centers such as Stanford University Medical Center of the U.S.

A research team led by Professors Suk-jung Choo and Joon-bum Kim of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery analyzed the results of 365 patients who underwent surgeries for acute aortic dissection in the past 21 years. As a result, the operative mortality rate, which is the percentage of patients who have died during or immediately after surgery (within 30 days), dropped five times, and the success rate rose to 97.8%. This is a remarkable achievement even, compared to the average success rate of 80-85% published by the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (IRAD), a consortium of leading hospitals.

 

The study divided the 21 years into five-year periods and compared the results of 365 patients who had received surgery for acute aortic dissection at the AMC between 1999 and 2019. As a result, the success rates during 1999–2004, 2004–2009, 2009–2014, and 2014–2019 were about 89%, 89%, 90.1%, and 97.8%, respectively, thus demonstrating a gradual improvement. In other words, the operative mortality rate declined close to five times to about 2.2% (2014 to 2019) from 11% (1999 to 2004).

 

The success rate has improved even though the percentage of high-risk patients admitted in a state of shock increased by 1.7 times from 8.8% to 15% and that of complex surgeries involving a wide surgical site, including graft replacement of the aortic valve that links the main artery to the heart, soared by about 7.7 times from 3% to 23%. The average operation time for acute aortic dissection also dropped 31.6% to 194 hours from 284 hours.

 

The team presented the study findings at the recent meeting of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, one of the world’s three leading cardiothoracic surgery societies.

Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) is a condition in which urine flows backward. It occurs when a patient has a congenital defect in the part linking the ureter and the bladder and a micturition disorder. If conditions worsen, the urinary tract infection repeats, damaging the kidney and forcing the patient to require surgery for reconnecting the ureter and the bladder.

 

Professor Song, in collaboration with Texas Children’s Hospital, analyzed the results of 174 ureteral surgery cases, including 117 pediatric patients under 20, who had undergone robot-assisted operations for VUR at each hospital and 57 patients with bilateral reflux. As a result, the urinary tract infection did not recur in 98% (115) of patients. They also found that micturition disorder, which is known as a complication of robot-assisted surgery for bilateral reflux, is due to preoperative vesical dysfunction.

 

The research findings were published in the Journal of Endourology, which is the highest authority in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery in urology.

Dr. Lee, Beom-hee, Professor of Pediatrics, was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation for promoting public health and contributing to the advancement of healthcare and medicine by carrying out ICT-based healthcare policy projects. He was also honored with the Minister of Science and ICT’s Commendation for contributing to the advancement of the digital healthcare industry.

Dr. Kim, Young-hak, the Director of the Big Data Research Center, received the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of his contributions to promoting ICT-based healthcare policy projects. He has been serving as an expert committee member in the field of medicine for the Ministry of Health and Welfare to further the advancement of the medical industry based on convergence between medicine and ICT, contributing to the establishment of advanced healthcare and medical data policies, developing AI software based on medical data, and more.

Professor Jang, Se-jin and Professor Huh, Joo-ryung from the Department of Pathology was honored with awards at the 72^nd Conference of the Korean Society of Pathologists. Dr. Jang won the Grand Prize for his study, “Drug Screening Using Patient-Derived Lung Cancer Organoids,” and Dr. Huh received the Excellent Paper Award for her paper, “Epstein–Barr Virus Associated Lymphoproliferative Syndrome: A Review According to the 2016 World Health Organization Classification.” Dr. Jang also received the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of the biobank program at the Korea Biobank Network Symposium.

The ASAN Award was established in 1989 to encourage individuals or organizations that devote themselves to helping neighbors in need in accordance with the will of ASAN Foundation founder Chung Ju-Yung. The 32nd ASAN Award ceremony was held at the Asan Hall on November 25.

 

This year, twelve winners (including groups) in six categories were given prize money that was worth a total of 770 million won. The ASAN Award Grand Prix went to Sister Eohyehwa Benedicta (aged 72) for her contribution toward the establishment of a hospital, kindergarten, and elementary school in Uganda and helping in the treatment and education of the local residents. She could not attend the ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the abbess of Missionary Benedictine Sisters Daegu Priory accepted the award on behalf of her.

 

The Medical Service Award was presented to Dr. Min Hyung-Rae (aged 54) for building a hospital in the desert area in Pakistan with poor living conditions and provided treatment to local residents for 19 years. The Social Service Award was given to Saint Mary’s House (Ja-Ae-Won) that built facilities for disabled, elderly, and homeless people, which have served as a shelter for the disadvantaged for the last 84 years.

 

Additionally, nine winners (including groups) were selected in three categories: Welfare Practice Award, Volunteer Award, and Filial Piety & Family Award. A total of 300 million won was given to the Asan Grand Prix winner, while 100 million won each was awarded to the winners of the Medical Service Award and the Social Service Award. Moreover, 30 million won each was given to the winners of the Welfare Practice Award, Volunteer Award, and Filial Piety & Family Award.

AMC developed a 3D printed surgical guide for more sophisticated breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and applied it during breast cancer surgeries. A research team led by Professor Beom-seok Ko of the Breast Surgery department and Professor Namkug Kim of the Convergence Medicine department performed BCS in eleven patients with carcinoma in situ of the breast using the 3D printer-based surgery guide. As a result, the mean distance between the tumor and resection margin was about 1 cm. This indicated that the use of the guide can spare as much normal tissue as possible and completely remove the malignant tumor.

 

Carcinoma in situ of the breast is hard to locate in its early stage, so MRI is often used to determine the extent of surgery required. There is no way of directly marking the size of carcinoma on the breast. However, this 3D printed surgical guide helped to accurately get rid of the tumor while retaining the shape of the breast as much as possible regardless of cancer stages or shapes.

 

The findings of the study were published in the international journal Scientific Report.

If a large breast cancer is found, the entire breast needs to be removed. In this case, breast reconstruction is often done to improve the quality of life of patients by restoring the breast to near normal shape. However, research on the safety of immediate reconstruction in patients with late-stage advanced breast cancer is lacking. This study published findings revealing that breast reconstruction immediately after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is safe even in cases of patients with advanced breast cancer.

 

Between 2010 and 2016, a research team led by Professor Beom-seok Ko of the Breast Surgery department followed for an average of 67 months the recurrence and survival rates of 646 patients with advanced breast cancer undergoing mastectomy after NAC at AMC. The research team compared and analyzed the “immediate reconstruction group” consisting of 323 patients who had gone through reconstruction right after subcutaneous mastectomy with preservation of the skin after NAC as well as the “total mastectomy group” consisting of 323 patients who had only received total mastectomy using propensity score matching. As a result, the local recurrence rates involving the relapse of cancer in the breast side where the cancer existed were 3.7% and 3.4% in the immediate reconstruction group and the total mastectomy group, respectively. The recurrence rates by metastasis to nearby lymphatic glands were 7.1% and 5.3% in the immediate reconstruction group and the total mastectomy group, respectively. Five-year survival rates were also reported to be 92% and 89.3% in the immediate reconstruction group and the total mastectomy group, respectively. The results indicated no statistically significant difference between the two groups in regard to relapse rates and survival rates.

 

The findings of the study were published in JAMA Surgery, an international peer-reviewed journal published by the American Medical Association.

The Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology accomplished 1,000 pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (HSCTs) by successfully transplanting a father’s stem cells to his 9-year-old son who was suffering from severe aplastic anemia (VSAA), which is a condition where the body cannot produce enough white blood cells and red blood cells.

 

AMC began allogenic bone marrow transplantation in 1997 to treat children with pediatric cancers and intractable blood disorders. Based on the accumulated experience, AMC performed about 70 pediatric HSCTs each year starting from 2011. In 2019, 20% of Korea’s pediatric HSCTs were performed at AMC with an outstanding success rate of 84% that is attributable to the abundant experience and extensive research on transplantation.

 

About 700 out of 1,000 cases performed so far at AMC were those pertaining to allogeneic HSCTs that implanted stem cells donated by family members or others, while about 300 cases were related to autologous HSCTs that used the patient’s own stem cells. AMC also performs 20–30 haploidentical HSCTs in a year, which is a half-matched transplant, thereby taking a lead in the field of pediatric haploidentical HSCT.

AMC was once again included among the world’s 50 best specialized hospitals for gastroenterology, neurology, and orthopedics in a survey published by Newsweek, which is the second instance of the release of field‑specific rankings; the results in the fields of endocrinology, oncology, and cardiology were released earlier.

 

On the list of 50 best global hospitals selected by Newsweek, AMC secured a high ranking once again in all three fields. According to the second release of the clinical field-specific ranking, AMC secured 6th place in gastroenterology, 8th place in neurology, and 12th place in orthopedics, and it secured 4th place in endocrinology, 7th place in oncology, and 36th place in cardiology in the first ranking list released in September. AMC is the only Korean hospital to be named at the top of the list in all six clinical fields.

 

The ranking was determined by combining a recommendation score (60%) and a ranking score (40%). The recommendation score reflected the results of the online survey of 40,000 participants comprising physicians, healthcare experts, and hospital administrators from 21 countries, including the U.S. and European countries. The ranking score reflected the results of the evaluation of hospital ranking by specialists in the six fields of endocrinology, oncology, cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology, and orthopedics. Meanwhile, for two years in a row, including this year, AMC has grabbed the top spot among Korean hospitals in the Global Top 100 Hospitals ranking published by Newsweek.

Prof. KIM YOON JI from the Department of Dentistry (Orthodontics) was named Best Newcomer for her study, “Automatic Segmentation of Intraoral Scan Data Using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs),” at the 53^rd Conference of the Korean Association of Orthodontists.

Professor Sa, Ho-seok from the Department of Ophthalmology won Best Poster for “The Effects of Obesity-Related Body Composition on Ptosis in Adults,” which he presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s annual meeting.

Professor Ahn, Ji Yong from the Division of Gastroenterology was given the Research Prize for his study, “A Comparison of the Efficacy and Accuracy of PCR Kits and Culture Tests for Diagnosis of Helicobacter Pylori and Confirmation of Antibiotic Resistance,” at the 21^st Conference of the Korean Society of Gastroenterology.

Professor Choi, Seong-soo from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine has won an academic award at a conference of the Korean Pain Society for his paper, “A Study of the Relationship Between Diffusion of Contrast Medium and Treatment Effect in Epidural Angiography After Percutaneous Neuroplasty Using Balloon Catheter.”

Professor Jong Seok Lee from the Department of Radiology was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of contributing to the promotion of public health and creation of a safe healthcare environment through his dedication to safety control in medical imaging.

Professor Ho Sung Kim from the Department of Radiology was awarded a gold medal from the Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of research on magnetic resonance in medicine.

Dr. Lee, Byong-sop and Dr. Jung, Eui-seok, who are professors of Neonatology, were awarded with the Namyang Academic Prize in recognition of the academic value of the papers they presented at the conference of the Korean Society of Perinatology and the fall conference of the Korean Society of Neonatology, respectively.

Professor Kwon, Tae-won from the Division of Vascular Surgery was inaugurated as the President of the Korean Society for Vascular Surgery at its general assembly. The Korean Society for Vascular Surgery founded in 1984 is dedicated to the advancement of medicine in the field of vascular diseases through diverse academic activities and domestic and international exchanges. Dr. Kwon will serve as the president from November 6 to 30, 2021.

Professor Choi, Kee-joon from the Division of Cardiology has been elected to chair the Board of the Korean Heart Rhythm Society. He has been contributing to the advancement of the society by serving as its financial director, international public relations director, vice president, and so on since 2015. Dr. Choi will serve as the Chairman of the Board of the Korean Heart Rhythm Society from January 2021 until December 2022.

Professor Shin Yong-wook’s team from the Department of Psychiatry revealed that about 5.3% of patients suffer from depression according to a big data analysis using data on more than 1 million patients. Although there had been studies on the prevalence of depression in Korea, the sample group was considered too small to be representative of the population. This study, on the other hand, was carried out by analyzing big data with the application of the cohort method.

The research team used the sample cohort data that the National Health Insurance Service collected by randomly extracting clinical data from around 1,010,000 patients who received medical care at any of the hospitals in the country between 2002 and 2013, regardless of their age. The data were used to determine the prevalence of depression in Korea and check whether there was a correlation between depression and suicide. In 2002, the number of patients with depression accounted for about 2.8% of the total sample, whereas in 2013, it nearly doubled to about 5.3%.

It was also found that depression affected about 3.9% of men and about 6.8% of women, which suggests that women are at higher risk. Prevalence also increased with age. About 2.7% of people in their 20s and 30s had depression, while this was the case for about 5.7% in their 40s and 50s, 13.9% in their 60s and 70s, and 18.4% in their 80s and older. As a result of analyzing the group of patients with depression (depression group) and the group without (control group), it was found that the suicide rate was about 3.8 times higher for the depression group.

The results of the study were recently published in the international scientific journal, Scientific Reports.

A research team headed by Professor Park Hye-soon from the Department of Family Medicine and Clinical Instructor Kang Seo-young from the International Healthcare Center analyzed the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity, and abdominal obesity in Korea using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 1998 to 2017 and predicted the prevalence 10 and 15 years from now.

Results showed that the prevalence of NAFLD among men was 19.7% in 1998 but increased to 30.7% in 2017. During the same period, the average body mass index (BMI) of men increased by 2kg/m² from 22.9kg/m² to 24.5kg/m², and the average waist size also increased by 4cm from 81.9cm to 86.1cm. The prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity among men climbed 17.5%p (22.3%→39.8%) and 15.4%p (17.8%→33.2%), respectively, over the past 19 years.

The research team predicted the future prevalence of NAFLD using the join point model and reported that 39.1% and 43.8% of men are expected to suffer from NAFLD in 2030 and 2035, respectively. The prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity among men, on the other hand, is projected to reach 65.0% and 52.5%, respectively, by 2035. Obesity is on the rise among men aged 19 to 49, in particular, and it is expected that if this trend continues, 74.5% of men in their 20s to 40s will suffer from obesity, 60% from abdominal obesity, and 58.5% from NAFLD.

A joint study conducted by Professors Hun Sik Kim and Eun Young Choi of the Department of Biomedical Science, University of Ulsan College of Medicine and Professor Young-Min Hyun of the Department of Anatomy, Yonsei University’s College of Medicine found that the deficiency of a specific protein in the lungs activates the pulmonary inflammatory response and creates an environment that is favorable for cancer metastasis.

 

According to the joint research team, while injecting melanoma—a type of malignant tumor—into the tail vein of mice made of artificially lacking DEL-1 protein, the neutrophils responsible for innate immunity actively flowed into the lungs of the mice, resulting in an inflammatory response to the lung metastasis. It caused a deficiency in NK cells-mediated anticancer immune response, inducing the growth and metastasis of malignant tumors.

 

The findings were published in Science Advances, a sister magazine of Science.

Professor SEUNG HAK LEE from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine received the Minister of Employment and Labor’s Commendation at the Ceremony Commemorating the 20^th Anniversary of Rehabilitation for Industrial Accident Victims for contributing to the advancement of rehabilitation of industrial accident victims by upgrading the rehabilitation support system.

Prof. SHIN JOONG WON from the Department of Ophthalmology was named Up-and-Coming Researcher at the 37^th Conference of the Korean Glaucoma Society in recognition of the excellence of his study, “Prediction of Onset of Glaucoma Based on Changes in the Thickness of the Ganglion Cell-Inner Plexiform Layer and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer.”

Professor Hong, Joon Pio from the Department of Plastic Surgery was chosen as the 43^rd Maliniac Lecturer by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Hong, recognized for performing innovative operations such as diabetic foot reconstruction, microsurgery reconstruction, and lymphedema reconstruction, became the first-ever Korean doctor to be given this honor, and he plans to give a lecture titled “Endlessly Taking on New Challenges.”

Professor Hong, Joon-pio of the Department of Plastic Surgery was chosen as the 43rd Maliniac Lecturer at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Annual Meeting to be held in October 18. Named after Dr. Jacques W. Maliniac who founded the American Society of Plastic Surgery, Maliniac Lecture selects and awards medical scientists who have made meaningful achievements in plastic surgery every year. Professor Hong was selected as Korea’s first lecturer this year in recognition of his contribution to innovative surgeries such as diabetic foot reconstruction, microsurgical reconstruction, and lymphedema reconstruction.

AMC on the global top 50 list of hospitals not only in the category of cardiology as Korea’s only hospital, but also in the categories of oncology and endocrinology and metabolism

 

AMC was rated top among Korean hospitals in the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals 2021 announced by Newsweek in the categories of cardiology, oncology, and endocrinology and metabolism. The U.S. weekly news magazine Newsweek partnered with the German global data research company Statista Inc., and conducted an online survey by inviting around 40,000 medical experts from 21 countries, and announced a ranking of three medical fields surveyed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on Newsweek’s official website.

 

From the results, AMC ranked No.1 among Korean hospitals in three medical fields of cardiology, oncology, and endocrinology and metabolism. All of them were included in the global top 50 list as well, ranking alongside global leading hospitals. AMC’s Division of Cardiology was Korea’s only medical field (36th) included in the global top 50 list. AMC’s Division of Oncology ranked the seventh and AMC’s Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism ranked the fourth.

 

The ranking was determined by combining a recommendation score (60%) and a ranking score (40%). The recommendation score reflected the results of an online survey of about 40,000 participants comprising of physicians, healthcare experts, and hospital administrators from 21 countries including South Korea. The ranking score reflected the results of hospital ranking evaluation by specialists in six fields such as cardiology, oncology, and endocrinology and metabolism.

 

Meanwhile, AMC has grabbed the top spot among Korean hospitals in the ranking for Global Top 100 Hospitals for two consecutive years from 2019 when Newsweek first offered the ranking list based on recommendations by medical specialists, patient satisfaction, and medical performance indicators. AMC scored 93.1 points in 2019 and 97.6 points in 2020, maintaining its leading position in Korea.

Dr. Minyoung Oh and Dr. Lee, Dong-yun, who are professors of Nuclear Medicine, were presented with awards at the fall conference of the Korean Society of Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Oh was named Best Young Researcher for her study, “Subdivision of the Alzheimer’s Disease Patient Classification System and Prognosis Prediction Based on ATN Biomarkers in Brain Imaging,” while Dr. Lee won Excellent Poster for “The Meaning of Tau PET Intake in Neuromelanin-Containing Substantia Nigra and A Comparative Study with Volumetric Data Measured by Neuromelanin MRI.”

Professor Huh Jin-won from the Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of life-prolonging treatment decision system, while working as a principle investigator (PI) at the Palliative Medicine Center of the AMC Cancer Institute since 2019.

Prof. Suh Jong-hyun from the Department of Radiology won the KSR-Accuzen Young Medical Scientist Award and the KSR-Influential Research Award at the 76^th Conference of the Korean Society of Radiology in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of radiology through his research findings published in domestic and international journals in the past three years.

Professor Kim, Won from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Professor Kim, Hong-Kyu from the Department of Health Medicine were awarded the Excellent Presentation Prize at the 48^th Fall Conference of the Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine in recognition of the excellence of the study, “The Association of Muscle Mass and Physical Ability with Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-Aged and Elderly Populations,” jointly carried out by the departments of Rehabilitation Medicine and Health Medicine.

LEE JUNYEOP from the Department of Ophthalmology was awarded the Best Presentation Prize for the presentation on “Investigation of the Importance of Perivascular Cells in the Retina and Choroid” at the 2020 International Conference of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Professor Seockhoon Chung from the Department of Psychiatry won Best Poster for “A Study for Developing an Evaluation Scale (SAVE – 9) for Medical Staff Anxiety Response and Work Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Establishing an Evaluation System” at the fall conference of the Korean NeuroPsychiatric Association.

As Korea is becoming an aging society, the number of elderly people diagnosed with lung cancer is on the rise. According to the national cancer registration statistics, in 2017, one in five Korean lung cancer patients was over 80 years of age. Many patients refuse to undergo treatment, believing that the treatment will not be effective since they are old. However, a research team led by Professor Chang-min Choi of the Department of Pulmonology and Critical Medicine found that even when patients are very old, those who were diagnosed with lung cancer early and underwent surgery were 5 times more likely to survive than those who did not receive treatment at all.

 

The research team analyzed the treatment results of around 800 patients over the age of 80 who were diagnosed with stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for three years starting from 2014. Among those who received surgery, about 72% survived after three years. However, among those who received supportive therapy without any treatments, only 14% survived. The 3-year survival rate of patients who received radiation therapy in cases where surgery was impossible due to any underlying disease or reduced cardiac function was also about 42%, which is 3 times higher than that of patients who only received supportive therapy.

 

The findings were published in the Journal of Korean Cancer Association.

Prof. Choi Jong-gi from the Division of Gastroenterology was awarded the Up-and-Coming Medical Scientist Award at the Daewoong Academic Awards in recognition of his research achievements in the field of liver disease and chronic hepatitis B.

Prof. Kim, Beom-jun  from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism was honored with the EnM Researcher Prize for his study, “Discovery and Validation of Sarcopenia Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets,” at the 17th Asia-Oceania Congress of Endocrinology and the 8th Seoul International Congress of Endocrinology and Metabolism (AOCE-SICEM 2020).

The Journal of Movement Disorders (JMD), an English journal of the Korean Movement Disorder Society where Professor Chung, Sun-ju from the Department of Neurology is serving as the editor-in-chief, has been listed on SCIE. In recognition of its qualitative and quantitative growth, JMD was listed on SCOPUS this past May, followed by the recent listing on SCIE.

Professor Hee-dong Chae from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology won Best Paper for “A Multicenter Study of the Prevalence of Overactive Bladder” at the 23^rd Conference of the Korean Urogynecologic Society. Then, at the 54^th Fall Conference of the Korean Society of Menopause, he was awarded the Excellent Paper Prize for “The Importance of Prior Education on Ovarian Function Decline After Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Patients.” Meanwhile, Dr. Chae was appointed as the 15^th President of the Korean Society of Menopause and will serve for two years from January 1, 2021.

Prof. Park, Chan-jeoung from the Department of Laboratory Medicine was awarded the Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation in recognition of her contribution to the improvement of public health by dedicating herself to the field of laboratory medicine and hematology.

Prof. Tchah Hung-won and Prof. Sung, Kyung-rim from the Department of Ophthalmology was presented with awards at the 124^th Conference of the Korean Ophthalmological Society. Dr. Tcha was honored with Saebit (New Light) Achievement Award for contributing to the prevention of vision loss and advancement of ophthalmology at home and abroad, while Dr. Sung was awarded the Allergan Academic Research Prize for her study, “Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Glaucomatous Visual Field Loss Measured by Parallel factor Analysis.”

Prof. Kim, Ki-soo from the Department of Pediatrics was awarded an academic prize for the study, “Evaluation of the Number of Specialists in Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Korea and Their Workload,” at the 27^th Fall Conference of the Korean Society of Neonatology and an achievement award for his contribution to the society as a former president and director. Dr. Kim was also awarded the (6^th) Professor of the Year at the Online Conference of the Korea Association of Medical Colleges. Moreover, he has been elected to serve as the next President of the Korean Pediatric Society at its fall conference.

Prof. Kang, Duk-hyun from the Division of Cardiology and Prof. Sung, Chang-ohk from the Department of Pathology won the Grand Prize and the Excellence Prize, respectively, at the 53^rd Yuhan Medicine Awards. Dr. Kang was lauded for becoming the first in the world to present the scientific basis for the need for preventive surgery in the early stages of aortic stenosis and addressing the question concerning the timing of the operation. Dr. Sung, on the other hand, received the award in recognition of his contribution to identifying the importance of human herpesvirus 4 (EBV) activity in tumor-infiltrating immune cells and revealing the possibility of functioning as a biomarker for patient screening.

Professor Kim, Ji-wan from the Department of Orthopedic Surgery was honored with the Best Presentation Award for his presentation of “An Analysis of Interim Results and Risk Factors for Complications After Surgical Treatment of Atypical Femoral Fractures: Minimum 3 Years Follow-Up” at the 46^th Conference of the Korean Fracture Society.

Professor Ahn, Ji Yong and Professor Kim, Ga-hee from the Division of Gastroenterology received grants from the Korean College of Helicobacter and Upper Gastrointestinal Research. Dr. Ahn is set to carry out “A Basic Study for Setting the Antibiotic Resistance Breakpoint of Helicobacter Pylori Applicable to Korea,” while Dr. Kim received a grant for the study, “Do Muscle Biopsy Findings Affect the Clinical Course After Endoscopic Myotomy in Patients with Primary Esophageal Motor Disease? - A Prospective Cohort Study.”

Dr. Park, Yu-ran, a clinical instructor at the Department of Health Medicine, was awarded Best Paper in General Gynecology for “Endometrial Thickness Cut-off for Diagnosing Endometrial Abnormalities Using Pelvic Ultrasound” at the 106^th Conference of the Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Prof. Nam, Jae-sik from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine won an award from the Korean Society of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesiologists, as his paper on “The Risk of Perioperative Cerebral Aneurysm Rupture in Cardiac Surgery” was chosen as the Best Paper of the Year 2020.

Prof. Kim, Youn-jung from the Department of Emergency Medicine was honored with the Kim Seung-ho Academic Award at a conference of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine.

Dr. Lee, Sung-Gyu, the President and CEO of the Asan Healthcare System, won the Hamchoon Award in recognition of his contribution to the medical advances in the field of liver transplantation and health promotion in society through his remarkable achievements in the medical and academic sectors.

Medical staff from the Department of Ophthalmology were honored with awards at the International Vascular Biology Meeting (IVBM). Professor Lee, Joo-yong won Best Poster for “Multiple Evaluation of Mouse Model of Autoimmune Retinal Vasculitis Induced by Interphotoreceptor Retinoid-Binding Protein (IRBP).”

Professor LEE JUNYEOP received Best Poster for “Distinct Roles of Perivascular Cells and Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells” and Popular Poster for “Choroidal Blood Vessels Necessary to Maintain the Structure and Function of the Retina.” Meanwhile, Dr. Lee also received the Best Research Award for “PLVAP and Its Importance in Maintaining the Structure and Function of Fenestrated Capillaries” at the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology International Conference.

Prof. Noh, Gyu-jeong and Prof. Choi, Byung-moon from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine received the Excellent Abstract Award at a conference of the Korean Society for Anesthetic Pharmacology for “Development of Pharmacokinetic Model Necessary for Administering Cefoxitin, a Prophylactic Antibiotic Used in Colorectal and Anal Surgery Patients, Using Target-Controlled Infusion Method.”

Kim, Hye-ry and KANG SUNG HAN, Professors of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, each won the Excellent Presentation Award at the International Congress of BMT for “Improving the Success Rate of Half-Match Transplantation Following In Vitro T Cell Removal for Pediatric Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia,” and “A Comparative Study of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Using HLA-Matched Anonymous Donors and Half-Matched Familial Donors in Children and Adolescents with Acute Myeloid Leukemia,” respectively.

Professor Lee, Eun-jae from the Department of Neurology was honored with the SK Young Researcher Award at the fall conference of the Korean Neurological Association.

Prof. Jin-Sook Ryu from the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Prof. Jeon, Min-ji from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism won Best Paper at the 2020 Korean Thyroid Association Fall Conference for “A Comparison of Thyroid Hormones in Hypothyroid Patients Treated with Levothyroxine and Normal Thyroid Subjects” published in the association’s journal.

The 25th TCTAP & AP VALVES 2020 VIRTUAL organized jointly by the Heart Institute of Asan Medical Center and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation was held online for three days from August 6.

 

The symposium consisted of four special sessions. The six highlight sessions offered a forum for participants to share a variety of latest knowledge and insights on coronary interventions including the newest medications for heart diseases, treatment of the left main coronary disease, cardiovascular imaging and vital functions, interventions for chronic occlusion lesions, and medications for acute coronary syndrome.

 

Professor Park Seung-jung (Cardiology, AMC), who pioneered left main stenting, and Professor David Paul Taggart (Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Oxford, UK), who is a world-class master of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), had a debate at the special session on the effectiveness of percutaneous coronary interventions and CABG for left main coronary disease.

 

During the highlight sessions, diverse insights into the treatment of cardiovascular diseases were shared such as cardiovascular imaging, antithrombotic therapy, left main coronary disease and bifurcation lesions, interventions for valve diseases, and chronic total occlusion lesion. During all of the sessions, specialists in each topic were invited to answer questions via live chat.

A research team led by Professors Park, Seung-jung and Park, Duk-woo of the Division of Cardiology at AMC and Professor Park, Sang-woo of the Department of Cardiology at Ulsan University Hospital has recently announced that surgery has a better prognosis than stenting in treating patients with left main coronary artery disease with severely degraded heart functions. The left main coronary artery (LMCA) is the beginning of the left coronary artery of the coronary arteries which supply blood to the heart. If a lesion develops here, it leads to a decline in heart functions as the blood supply to the heart muscles is insufficient.

 

This study was conducted involving 3,488 patients diagnosed with LMCA disease at 50 major hospitals in Asia between 2003 and 2016. The research team divided patients into groups based on the severity of declined heart functions, then compared and analyzed the outcomes of coronary artery bypass surgery and coronary artery intervention with stenting according to the levels of decline in cardiac functions. As a result, the risk for death, myocardiac infarction, or stroke among patients who had a moderate to severe decline in heart functions was 2.2 to 2.5 times higher in the surgical procedure group than in the stenting group. On the other hand, the prognosis of patients with a mild decline in heart functions was almost equal between the two groups.

 

The study result was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

AMC’s YouTube channel has surpassed 100,000 subscribers. YouTube offers the Silver Play Button to the channels hitting the mark of 100,000 subscribers in recognition of the creator’s efforts and performance. This means that AMC’s channel has become a reliable source of health-related information. This is the fruit of continued communication efforts to deliver accurate information since 2009 when the channel was launched. There is also a significant number of overseas subscribers. For the previous month, the channel garnered about 1.79 million views with 41.1% of the contents including surgery videos being viewed from overseas countries such as India, Vietnam, the United States, and Indonesia.

AMC set a world record of 7,000 liver transplantations as the liver transplantation team successfully performed a living-donor liver transplantation(LDLT) on July 17, 2020; Mrs. Lim (female, 67) who suffered from primary biliary cirrhosis received part of her son’s liver.

 

Over the years, AMC’s liver transplantation team has developed diverse surgical techniques, widening the scope of donors and recipients. They performed more than 300 liver transplantation surgeries a year for eight years between 2007 and 2014; more than 400 a year between 2015 and 2018; and 505 a year in 2019, which is a world record. The success rate is also astounding with 98%(1-year), 89%(3-year), and 88%(10-year), and the same is significantly higher than that of the U.S. with 91%(1-year), 84%(3-year), and 76%(5-year).

 

AMC has made history through endless challenges by becoming the world’s first medical institution to perform in modified right lobe LDLT, dual graft LDLT, and ABO-incompatible liver transplantation and Korea’s first to perform pediatric LDLT, ABO-incompatible pediatric LDLT, and simultaneous liver-heart transplantation. Significantly, in January 1999, AMC developed the surgical technique of modified right lobe LDLT for the first time in the world, increasing the number of LDLTs done a year to more than 100 from about 30. The success rate has also significantly improved from 70% to over 95%.

The kidney transplantation team of the AMC Organ Transplantation Center recently performed a deceased donor kidney transplantation on a 38-year old man with end-stage kidney failure. It was the 6,000th kidney transplantation performed at AMC, and the first record in Korea. Last year, a total of 2,292 kidney transplantations were performed in Korea with 409 being at AMC, which amounts to one in five cases.

 

The transplantation team analyzed the graft survival rates of 6,000 kidney recipients between 1990 and 2020. The survival rates were 98.5% (1-year), 90% (5-year), and 77.1% (10-year), respectively, which are similar to the 99.9% (1-year) and 85.4% (5-year) rates reported by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) of the United States. Graft survival rates refer to the proportion of patients who no longer need kidney dialysis or transplant again since the grafted kidney functions normally. Even though AMC’s data did not exclude high-risk patients who are likely to develop transplant rejection, AMC’s graft survival rates were high, proving that kidney transplantations performed at AMC were relatively safe and successful.

 

If the result of a cross-match used to see histocompatibility between donors and recipients is positive and the blood types of donors and recipients are not compatible, the risk of causing transplant rejection is high, thereby classifying the patient into a high-risk group. AMC has performed a total of 728 blood type-incompatible kidney transplantations since 2009 and 98 cases in 2019 alone, which accounts for a third of the living-donor kidney transplantations performed at AMC last year. 1- and 5-year survival rates for blood-type incompatible grafts were 97.4% and 92.3% respectively, and the outcomes were not significantly different from those of compatible grafts.

 

Kidney transplants with a positive crossmatch result accounted for 7.5% of the living-donor kidney transplantations performed since 2009. 1- and 5-year graft survival rates after performing desensitization therapy to effectively remove any offending antibody from the kidney of the donors were 97.1% and 93.7% respectively; these rates re almost equal to those of compatible kidney transplants. A loss of renal function caused by operation-related complications occurred in less than 1% out of 6,000 kidney recipients.

It turns out that one out of six Korean patients with esophageal cancer receive treatment at AMC. The Esophageal Cancer Center of AMC Cancer Institute analyzed the data of esophageal cancer patients who visited AMC in the last ten years from 2010 and the data of the recently published Annual Report of Cancer Statistics in Korea (2017). The analysis result revealed that about 400 new patients with esophageal cancer received treatment at AMC in 2017, which accounted for 16% of the total new patients with esophageal cancer in 2017 alone (about 2,500 patients).

 

Around 260 patients were treated at AMC’s Esophageal Cancer Center in 2019, which is the highest number in Korea and a fourfold increase from 2010. The number of patients who underwent surgery and endoscopic procedure at the Esophageal Cancer Center was also found to reach over 150 in 2019 alone, an increase by 1.7 times from 2010.

 

A minimally invasive surgery is widely used to improve patients’ quality of life. A robotic surgery is usually applied to those with early-stage esophageal cancer or those who are not subject to radiotherapy. However, based on abundant experience, AMC performs robotic surgery on patients who are in various stages and even on those who received chemotherapy and radiotherapy, resulting in more than 500 robotic surgeries for esophageal cancer done at AMC, which is an Asian record.

 

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), designed to remove superficial esophageal cancer using an endoscope inserted through the patient’s mouth, was performed about 3.4 times more in 2019 than ten years before. Of all esophageal cancer resections, the proportion of endoscopic procedures rose to about 40% in 2019, compared to about 25% ten years ago. According to a recent study of about 400 patients with superficial esophageal cancer who received an endoscopic procedure at AMC, not a single case of recurrence in the same area occurred for an average of 33 months.

Cochlear implant surgery is performed on patients with such severe hearing loss that they cannot hear even with a hearing aid. Professor Park Hong-Ju’s team at the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery recently published their study on 114 pediatric patients aged 1 to 13 who had undergone cochlear implant surgery. The subjects were observed for more than a decade to examine the degree of hearing impairment, and it was found that even a one-year difference in terms of the timing of the operation had an impact on the surgical results.

The research team assessed how accurately the subjects discriminated monosyllabic words using three speech recognition tests of varying difficulty levels. In the test with a low difficulty level, it was found that for most of the subjects, their level of speech comprehension developed remarkably in the first year after surgery, and it improved enough to make phone conversations possible in the third year. In the test with a medium difficulty level, most of the subjects who had received the operation before the age of seven recorded at least 90% of the normal speech comprehension level, whereas those who had undergone the operation after the age of seven recorded about 50 to 60% of the normal speech comprehension level. This suggested that the age at which cochlear implant surgery is performed is an important factor in determining its level of effectiveness. In the test with a high difficulty level, subjects who had been operated on at the age of one demonstrated normal levels of speech comprehension (at around 88%), those who had received the operation at the ages of two, three to six and seven or older recorded about 82%, 73% and 46%.

The paper was published in Otology & Neurotology, the official journal of the American Otological Society and the American Neurotology in July 2020.

Generally, antiplatelet drugs are used to prevent thrombosis, a complication that can occur when cerebral aneurysm is treated with coil embolization, but a recent study has reported that when the first-line drug is no longer effective for the patient, it is better to use another antiplatelet agent rather than to up the dosage.

The study was conducted by a team led by Professor Suh Dae-chul at Neuro Intervention Clinic. They analyzed the data on 170 cerebral aneurysm patients who took an antiplatelet medicine called clopidogrel before and after coil embolization and discovered that, in case there was “resistance” to antiplatelet therapy, efficacy was up 7% for patients whose dosage was increased, but it was up 39% for patients who started taking a different type of antiplatelet agent called prasugrel.

Of the 56 patients who took prasugrel, no one experienced bleeding. One subject (0.02%) experienced ischemia, or decreased blood volume, but this was transient and full recovery was made within a month.

The results of this study were recently published in Journal of the European Society of Neuroradiology, a leading journal in the field of neurointervention.

Kwon, Hye-mee, a clinical instructor at the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, won an academic award from the Korean Society of Transplantation Anesthesiologists for her study, “The Need for Re-Evaluation of Heart Function According to Liver Condition of Liver Transplant Patients with Normal Heart Function.”

The Patient Experience Index (PXI) was introduced to promote a patient-centric care environment where patients’ opinions and values are respected.

 

This was the second survey in two years (the first survey was in 2017) and was carried out from May to December 2019. A total of 23,924 adults, hospitalized at 42 general hospitals and 154 hospitals with more than 300 beds, were surveyed over the phone using 24 questions on the feedback concerning 6 domains, including the doctors, the nurses, the administration and treatment process, the hospital environment, the protection of patient rights, as well as a general evaluation.

 

AMC scored 91.1 points in the nurses' domain (with an overall average of 86.1 points), which includes the categories of respect & politeness, whether or not they were good listeners, explanation regarding hospital stay, and efforts to handle requests for help, and 82.5 points in the doctors' domain (with an overall average of 81.6 points), which includes the categories of respect and politeness, whether or not they were good listeners, the chances of one-on-one consultation, and provision of information about their rounding schedules. AMC received 87.9 points in the administration and treatment process domain (with an overall average of 82.8 points), which deals with the explanation about the reason for drug administration/treatment and the adverse effects, efforts to control pain, comfort and sympathy, and provision of information about precautions and the subsequent treatment plans after discharge from the hospital; 90.1 points in the hospital environment domain (with an overall average of 82.6 points), which encompasses the cleanliness and safety of the environment; 83.4 points in the protection of patient rights domain (with an overall average of 80.2 points), which surveys fair treatment, ease of complaining, participation in treatment decision-making, and consideration for patient shame about body exposure; and 89.8 points in the overall evaluation domain (with an overall average of 82.5 points), which includes the categories of overall experience with hospital stay and willingness to recommend the hospital.

AMC was rated as the best in terms of the number and safety of liver cancer operations performed in Korea.

 

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) analyzed liver cancer surgeries performed between July 2017 and June 2019 and discovered that 2,113 cases were performed at AMC, which accounts for 17.4% of the total number of liver cancer surgeries (11,908) performed at 129 medical institutions nationwide during the same period. This implies that one in five or six patients with liver cancer in Korea underwent surgery at AMC.

 

AMC’s operative mortality – any death occurring while hospitalized after hepatic resection or within 3 months of operation – was 0.19%, which is considerably lower than that of average of all the hospitals(1.15%), as well as average of so-called Big 4 major hospitals(0.53% - excluding AMC) in Korea.

A research team led by Professors Bae Seong-man and Kim Sung-han of the Infectious Diseases department, Professor Kim Seong-yoon of the Psychiatry department, and Professor Yoon Seong-cheol of the Medical Statistics department recently announced that the risk of dementia increases if herpes zoster is not treated promptly or properly.

 

The research team divided 34,505 patients aged 50 or older who were newly diagnosed with herpes zoster between 2002 and 2013 into the treatment and control groups using the National Health Insurance Service–National Sample Cohort (NHIS–NSC) and analyzed the incidence of dementia for ten years after calibrating sex, age, underlying diseases, and financial situation among the two groups.

 

As a result, during the ten-year follow-up, the number of patients who newly developed dementia in the treatment group was 9.36 per 1,000 while that in the control group was 12.26 per 1,000, which was 1.3 times larger. For herpes zoster patients who were treated with antiviral drugs, the risk of developing dementia dropped to 24% and the risk of death also fell to 39%.

 

The study result was published in the latest issue of the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

A team headed by Professor Chung Jong-woo and Professor Ahn Jung-ho from the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery reported the findings of their study where they tested the hearing range and central auditory processing of some 2,700 middle and high school students. The results showed that the level of central auditory processing is significantly lower for those with a certain degree of hearing loss in both ears compared to those with normal hearing. Central auditory processing is the processing of auditory information in the process of transmitting the auditory signal from the ear to the brain so that its actual meaning can be understood.

Based on the results of the Youth Hearing Loss Reduction Project, the research team analyzed the results of a pure tone audiometry and central auditory processing disorder screening test conducted on 2,791 first-year middle and high school students nationwide from June to December 2016. Pure tone audiometry is a test for measuring how much sound can be heard in each frequency range. Subjects with hearing loss in only one ear were assigned to the unilateral hearing loss group, those with hearing loss in both ears were assigned to the bilateral hearing loss group, and those with normal hearing in both ears were assigned to the normal hearing group.

To screen for central auditory processing disorders, the research team used the KNISE-Auditory Behavioral Checklist (KNISE-ABC) and Fisher's Auditory Problems Checklist (FAPC), which are scored out of 35 and 110 points, respectively. Compared with the normal hearing group, the unilateral hearing loss group scored only 0.03 and 0.1 points lower, whereas the bilateral hearing loss group scored 1.5 and 5.78 points lower, respectively.

The results of this study, jointly sponsored by the Korean Society of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery and the Korean Otological Society, were recently published in Scientific Reports, a sister journal of the world-class scientific journal, Nature.

A research team led by Professors Kim Do-hoon and Na Hee-kyoung of the Department of Gastroenterology at AMC analyzed 95 lesions in 92 patients who underwent endoscopic treatment for duodenal adenoma at AMC between January 2005 and December 2015 through about 19 months of follow up. The results show that there was only one case of relapse. The patient with the recurrent duodenal adenoma received endoscopic treatment again, after which it did not recur. Bleeding occurred during the procedure in five cases but was checked right away. Perforations were formed in eight cases. Four were repaired with an endoscopic suturing device and the other four were treated with surgery.
The study’s results were recently published in Gastroenterology, an international journal.

AMC signed a business agreement with Hyundai Robotics and KT.
A smart hospital is a medical institution equipped with ICT-based integrated management systems which utilizes various resources such as medical personnel and infrastructure owned by the hospital.
AMC will move forward with the development of a smart infection control system in order to prevent nosocomial infections more thoroughly.

Prof. Han Hyun-ho and Prof. Park Chang-sik from the Department of Plastic Surgery were honored with awards at the Research and Reconstruction Forum of the Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. Dr. Han was named Best Young Researcher for “An Anatomical Study of the Stability of Reverse Blood Flow from Thoracic Vein: A Cadaveric Study,” and Dr. Park won the Excellent Research Award for “A Study Using Peripheral Nerve Interface.”

Prof. Jeon Sang-beom from the Department of Neurology was named Best Author by the Seoul Medical Association in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of the fields of neurology and critical care medicine.

Prof. Hwang Dae-wook from the Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery received recognition at the International Conference and the 52th Conference of the Korean Association of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery. Dr. Hwang was honored with the KAHBPS President Prize for “A Study of the Association between Acute Pancreatitis and Postoperative Complications after Pancreaticoduodenectomy,”.

Medical staff from the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery were honored with awards at the International Conference and the 52th Conference of the Korean Association of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery. Professor Hwang Shin was honored with the KAHBPS President Prize for “Prognostic Accuracy of Adv Score for Liver Resection in Liver Cancer Patients with Portal Vein Tumor Thrombus,” Professor Park Kil-chun won the Best Presentation Award for “Right Lobe Transplantation of Liver Donors with Severe Fatty Liver,” and Professor Cho Hwui-dong won Excellent Presentation Award for “Laparoscopic Right Lobectomy for Donors with Bile Duct Mutations.”

Medical staff from the Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine won awards at a conference of the Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine (KSCCM). Professor Koh, Youn-suck was awarded the WPACCM Commemoration Award for the study, “Application of the Sepsis-3 Diagnostic Guideline for Critically Ill Patients in Korea,” and Professor Lim, Chae-man was awarded the KSCCM Award for “A Study of the Characteristics, Treatment and Treatment Outcomes of Sepsis Patients.”

Professor Kang Hyo-jeong from the Department of Pathology won the Basic Intermediary Research Paper Award for “Immunity and Genetic Environment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma with EBV-Positive Lymphocytes” from the Korean Liver Cancer Association.

The Asan Medical Center was introduced as a “pioneer of precision medicine and cancer treatment in Korea” in a recent edition of Nature, a world-renowned scientific journal.

 

Nature described AMC’s patient-oriented precision medicine practices. It noted the advanced systems implemented by the hospital for cancer treatment such as the multidisciplinary cancer care system, the Bio-Resource Center, AMC Cancer Institute Data Center, and the precision medicine platform.

 

AMC was also described as the world’s leading hospital in organ transplantation and cardiology. In addition to highlighting the fact that AMC was the first in the world to successfully perform a modified right lobe living donor liver transplantation in 1999, dual liver transplantation in 2000, and donor-exchange liver transplantation in 2003, it mentioned that the living donor liver transplantation developed by AMC’s liver transplantation team has become an international standard treatment protocol.

 

The article also featured AMC Heart Institute. It stated that the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery performs more than 2,000 surgeries a year and that the Department of Cardiology has conducted more than 700 TAVIs from 2010 until last year and more than 2,600 coronary stent placements a year.

 

Meanwhile, AMC was also ranked No. 1 among domestic hospitals according to the World’s Best Hospitals 2020 published by Newsweek, an American weekly news magazine. Newsweek ranked hospitals around the world based on an online survey with around 70,000 medical experts, including doctors, nurses, healthcare professors, and hospital administrators from 1,560 hospitals across 21 countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

Based on ▲ expert opinions, ▲ medical achievements, and ▲ patient experience, AMC was selected as the best hospital in Korea for the second year in a row, with a score of 96.7 points, and shared the glory with world-renowned hospitals in medically advanced countries, such as the Mayo Clinic (97.3 points) in the United States and Charité Hospital (93.1 points) in Germany.

Clinical Instructor Park Hyo-jung from the Department of Radiology was awarded at the 12^th LG Chem Future Medical Scientist Awards in recognition of her research achievements, including publication of 11 research papers in the past two years.

Professor Yang Dong-hoon of Gastroenterology was presented with an award from the Korean Association for the Study of Intestinal Diseases in 2020 for “A Randomized Controlled Study Comparing High-Resolution Chromoendoscopy and High-Definition White-Light (HDWL) Colonoscopy for the Monitoring of Colon Neoplasms in Ulcerative Colitis.”

Ryoo Baek-yeol and Yoo Chang-hoon, Professors of Oncology, were honored with the Roche Oncology Award at the Spring Conference of the Korean Cancer Association for their study, “Phase 1 Clinical Study of OPB-111077, a STAT3 Inhibitor, in Patients with Advanced Liver Cancer.”

Prof. Kim Jin-hyoung and Prof. Chu Hee-ho from the Department of Radiology received awards from the Korean Society of Interventional Radiology. Dr. Kim received an award for “A Comparison of Liver Resection and Radiofrequency Ablation for Early-Stage Single Hepatocellular Carcinoma Less Than 2cm: Propensity Score Analysis,” and Dr. Chu was named Best Young Medical Scientist for “Combined Therapy with Chemoembolization and Radiofrequency Ablation of the Hepatic Artery for Medium-Sized Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Propensity Score Analysis.”

Kim Hye-ry, Professor of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, was honored with the Roche Oncology Award at the Spring Conference of the Korean Cancer Association for her study titled “Analysis of Risk Factors for Secondary Cancer in Pediatric Cancer Patients Using Dexrazoxate.”

Prof. Chung Ki-wook from the Division of Gastroenterology was elected as the Deputy Secretary General of the Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA) and is set to serve in office for three years.

BUM JOON KIM, Professor of Neurology, was presented with the Academic Award from the Korean Society of Neurosonology for the Study of Diagnosis and Predictive Factors of Deep Vein Thrombosis Using Lower Extremity Venous Ultrasound in Acute Stroke Patients in Korea. Dr. Kim also recently received the Rising Academic Research Grant from the Korean Society of Lipidology and Atherosclerosis for the study that examined the impact of low-density cholesterol on the prognosis of carotid artery stent implantation in patients with cerebral infarction who have undergone carotid artery stent implantation.

Professors Hong, Yong-sang, Seo, Se-young, and Yoo, Chang-hoon from the Department of Oncology were honored with awards from the Korean Society of Medical Oncology.

 

Professor Hong was given the Top Excellence Prize for the Randomized Study of Adjuvant Oxaliplatin-Based Chemotherapy in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer Patients Following Chemo and Radiation Therapy. Professor Seo was given the Palliative Care Research Award for the Explorative Study of Measurement Tool for Systemic Functions in Head-and-Neck Cancer Patients Receiving Chemo and Radiation Therapy. Professor Yoo was honored with the Boryeong Academic Award for the Clinical Significance of Genetic Mutations After DNA Damage and Recovery as Predictive Biomarker of Biliary Cancer.

When a patient is admitted to the hospital, the hospital assigns him or her to a room and bed after considering more than 50 different criteria.

 

This is a complex and time-consuming process, due to the sheer number of criteria, and in order to raise the efficiency of the bed assignment process, the Asan Medical Center (AMC) has introduced an AI program.

 

AMC announced that it has developed the Automated Bed Assignment Program based on artificial intelligence together with IBM Korea and begun applying it in practice.

 

After developing the program, AMC applied it in the field a number of times to verify its effectiveness. It was found that the process took no more than 7 to 20 minutes, and there was never a case in which it deviated from the treatment principles nor the bed assignment criteria predetermined by the person in charge. AMC also set up a system for automatically handling repetitive tasks such as making, changing, and canceling an appointment for admission. The results of the verification process showed that no error ever occurred, and the process only took just 3 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, the Bed Assignment Automation Project was initiated by AMC and IBM Korea in January 2020, and the joint project was completed in just 3 months.

It has been found that one in five seniors aged 80 or older in Korea suffers from insomnia and has trouble falling asleep or often wakes up in the middle of the night. Researchers explain that elderly people suffer from this condition due to the compromised physical functions due to aging and even emotional alienation.

 

A research team led by Seockhoon Chung, Professor of Psychiatry at AMC, and Sim, Chang-Sun, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Ulsan University Hospital, analyzed the prevalence of insomniacs based on the large-scale population data from the National Health Insurance Service (2005 to 2013). The results show that the prevalence of insomnia in people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s were ▲ 10.28%, ▲ 15.22%, and ▲ 18.21% respectively, as of 2013.

 

As people age, their physical activity decreases dramatically, and their digestive, respiratory, and musculoskeletal functions decline. On the other hand, they suffer from more psychological issues such as a sense of alienation and anxiety. These factors are believed to be causes of insomnia in seniors. In the past, insomnia was not considered a medical condition. Recently, however, more seniors, who suffer from sleepless nights, visit hospitals for accurate diagnosis and treatment, as insomnia is known to not only increase the risk of dementia and cardiovascular disease but also deteriorate the quality of life.

 

The prevalence of insomnia among women has risen from 4.94% in 2005 to 7.20% in 2013, and it has also increased from 2.79% to 4.32% for men. A higher percentage of women was shown to suffer from insomnia compared to their male counterparts, due to depression resulting from changes in estrogen levels.

 

The results of this study were published in the latest issue of Psychiatry Investigation issued by the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association.

A team led by Professor Kim, Beom-su of the Department of Stomach Surgery analyzed the treatment outcomes of some 1,500 patients who had received surgery for progressive gastric cancer and reported that the distance between the location of the cancer and the gastric resection area had little to no effect on the chance of relapse.

 

The international standard guidelines for gastric cancer surgery suggest that the surgical margin in progressive gastric cancer surgery be about 5cm. However, the research team led by Dr. Kim found that in the case of progressive gastric cancer, the chance of relapse was not increased by a proximal resection margin of less than 1cm from the cancer.

 

The research team calculated the distance between the cancer and the resection area in 1,518 patients who had undergone surgery for progressive gastric cancer at AMC between June 2004 and December 2007. In the case of subtotal gastrectomy, patients were divided into four groups based on the size of the resection margin: ▲ 1cm or less, ▲ more than 1cm up to 3 cm, ▲ more than 3cm up to 5cm, and ▲ more than 5cm. The relapse rate of each group was analyzed for a period of no more than 11 years. The results showed that the rates of local recurrence were 5.9%, 6.5%, 8.4%, and 6.2%, respectively, for each group, with the lowest rate recorded by the group with a resection margin of no more than 1cm.

 

In the case of total gastrectomy, the relapse rates of gastric cancer were 23.5%, 30.6%, 24%, and 24.7%, respectively, for each group. It is important to follow up with patients who have received gastrectomy due to the relatively high risk of recurrence. The relapse rate was the lowest in the group with a resection margin of no more than 1cm.

 

The findings of this study were recently published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

When it comes to acute neurological problems, such as impaired consciousness, speech disorders, paralysis, and seizures, are not detected early and treated properly, it may lead serious sequelae or even death. For the first time in Korea, a research team led by Jeon, Sang-beom, Professor of the Neurology at AMC and a member of the Neurological Alert Team (NAT), analyzed the clinical results of inpatients with acute neurological disorders and found that those with related symptoms were about 13 times more likely to die than those without symptoms.

 

The team analyzed the clinical results of 591 patients (0.7%) who called the NAT for acute nervous disorder symptoms, out of the 85,507 adult patients hospitalized for non-neurological disorders at AMC during a one-year period from March 21, 2017. The results showed that patients who experience a neurologic emergency were 13.2 times more likely to die than those who did not. Moreover, a follow-up of the patients showed that ▲ 78% of them experienced sequelae, ▲ 51.4% experienced changes in consciousness, ▲ 26.2% experienced involuntary movements, ▲ 16.2% experienced limb weakness, and ▲ 10.7% gained speech disorders.

 

The most common reason for calling the NAT was ▲ stroke (37.6%), followed by ▲ seizure (28.6%), ▲ reduced consciousness due to unknown causes (24%), and ▲ other symptoms (9.8%). The final diagnosis following examinations was  ▲ metabolic encephalopathy (45.5%), ▲ stroke (21.2%), or ▲ seizure (21%).

 

This study was carried out as a project to develop a new model for public safety medical services with a grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The results were recently published in the Journal of Patient Safety, an international journal in the field of clinical medicine.

The Asan Foundation has increased the 2020 budget for the SOS Medical Expense and Welfare Support Program from KRW 5.2 billion in 2019 to KRW 6.5 billion.

 

Through the SOS Medical Expense Support, the foundation has been supporting patients receiving treatment and care at eight hospitals affiliated with the foundation, including the Asan Medical Center, since 1995. In 2015, the scope of support was expanded to include patients from all other medical institutions nationwide. A total of 2,019 patients receiving treatment at 128 hospitals received a total of KRW 4.5 billion in financial assistance in 2019. Patients whose income falls below 80% of the national median income can apply to the Asan Foundation through medical social workers and social workers at the hospital. Successful candidates are eligible for a financial assistance of up to 20 million won each.

 

The SOS Welfare Support, on the other hand, is provided to individuals whose income falls below 80% of the national median income and who is facing unexpected financial hardships so that they can pay for their living expenses. The program, which was initiated in 2018, offers up to KRW 5 million to each eligible person. When a social worker from a social welfare institution applies for assistance to the Asan Foundation for individuals in need of urgent assistance, the case is promptly reviewed by a review board composed of social welfare experts, and financial assistance is provided immediately upon approval. In 2019, 231 applicants whose applications were filed by 174 different organizations received KRW 700 million in total.

 

The Asan Foundation has provided KRW 53.9 billion to 6,952 people through the SOS Medical Expense Support Program and KRW 1.0 billion to 290 people through the SOS Welfare Support Program, thereby helping 68,242 people in total with KRW 54.9 billion.

Chair Professor Park, Seung-jung and professors Park, Duk-woo, Ahn, Jung-min, and Kang, Do-yoon from the Department of Cardiology, together with professors Choo, Suk-jung, Kim, Joon-bum, and Kim, Ho-jin  from the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery successfully performed their 800th transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), setting the record as the largest number of TAVI procedures performed by a single medical institution in not just Korea but all of Asia.

 

In just ten years from the first time the procedure was performed, TAVI has become a common method of treating aortic valve disease in elderly patients. An analysis of the 800 TAVI cases shows that the patients were 81 years old, on average, and most of them were high-risk patients: 47% had diabetes, 85% had hypertension, 12% had experienced a stroke, and 6% had undergone heart surgery in the past. The success rate of TAVI has been recorded at 98%, but with respect to the 400 procedures performed since 2018, the success rate was even higher at 99.5%. Although TAVI is considered the most difficult procedure out of all cardiovascular interventions due to the possibility of damaging the main artery and other blood vessels, possibility of complications such as stroke resulting from a blood clot, and the risk of problems with the electrical activity of the heart, a severe stroke and early death (within 30 day after the procedure) occurred only in 1% of the patients who received TAVI at AMC.

A research team led by Yoon, Pil-Whan, Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, performed a 5-year follow-up study on 73 patients, aged 34.4 on average, who had received arthroscopic surgery for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome. They found that symptoms were mitigated for most patients with little to no adverse effects.

 

Of the patients who received surgery for FAI syndrome between January 2012 and December 2017, 47.3% had a cam-type impingement in which the femoral head is not round but oval shaped, causing abnormal contact with the acetabulum, and 7.8% had the pincer-type impingement where the head of the acetabulum was protruding and excessively covering the femoral head. The remaining 44.4% was a combined type with the characteristics of both the cam and pincer types, with protruding femoral head and acetabulum. The bulging bones were cut with an arthroscope into a normal shape, and as a result, the impingement of the hip joint was prevented, and symptoms were mitigated for most patients.

 

Similar studies carried out overseas have reported that there have been some cases in which total joint replacement had to be performed again even after arthroscopic surgery due to exacerbated degenerative arthritis, but no such case has been reported in Korea. There were three cases of temporary paresthesia in the region that pulls the leg, but in all these cases, the patient made a full recovery.

 

This study will be published in Arthroscopy: The Journal of Arthroscopic and Related Surgery, an international academic journal in the field of orthopedic surgery.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a life-threatening condition that can occur after an allogeneic blood transfusion or bone marrow transplantation. Its symptoms include rapid weight loss, and it eventually leads to death.

 

A team led by Professor SHIN DONG MYUNG of Department of Medical Life Sciences recently revealed that the CREB1 signaling pathway activates the therapeutic and immunomodulation functions of mesenchymal stem cells. The team also discovered that high-performing MSC agents are effective in treating GVHD. To produce a cell therapy product, stem cells must first be cultured in vitro. Because there is a high chance of damage from free oxygen radicals generated in the cells, it is necessary to heighten the functions of the stem cells as a way to prevent the deterioration of the functions to a point where they will not work.

 

The research team first developed experimental techniques for real-time monitoring and quantification of glutathione levels, which are an index of radiation-induced oxidative stress in cells. Using these techniques, the team found that the CREB1 signaling pathway plays a critical role in controlling the amount and activity level of glutathione in mesenchymal stem cells. A cell therapy product containing high-performing mesenchymal stem cells was injected into GVHD-induced rats. As a result, the rats’ weight loss rate decreased by 30% and their survival rate increased by 30% compared to before the administration of the cell therapy product.

 

The findings of this study were published in the latest edition of Science Advances, a leading international multidisciplinary journal issued by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

A team led by professors Jun Ki Kim and Namkug Kim from the Department of Integrative Medicine developed a helmet-type stereotactic microendoscope by combining 3D printing technology and microendoscopy. Using the newly developed device, the tem recently succeeded in observing the microstructure of the iris blood vessels of freely moving mice in real time.

 

Stereotactic devices are used in surgery that require accurate positioning, such as brain surgery, because the exact location of the target point can be checked based on 3D coordinates. In order to overcome the constraints of general stereotactic devices, which are heavy and have to be fixed in place, the team printed a customized head mount in the form of a helmet using a 3D printer based on a CT scan. The helmet made of polycarbonate material weighed only 2.54g, so the mouse could move around freely even with it on. When combined with a microendoscope, it became possible to examine in detail the morphological changes of the microvascular vessels and the speed of blood flow as the mouse moved around.

 

This research was conducted as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Healthcare and Medical Technology R&D Program and the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Mid-Career Researcher Grant Program. It was featured on the cover of the latest issue of the Journal of Biophotonics.

A team headed by Kim, Yoon-jeon, Professor of Ophthalmology, analyzed the retinal and choroidal microvascular characteristics of the macula in 52 people with high myopia and 52 people without myopia and confirmed that the retinal vascular density in the macula was significantly reduced in the eyes with high myopia. They recently published their study to report the close relation between such changes with decreased retinal thickness and changes in eye length.

 

The area of the fovea avascular zone (FAZ), where blood vessels do not normally exist, was found to be 0.39±1.3㎟, on average, in eyes with myopia and 0.31±1.0㎟, on average, in normal eyes. As such, the FAZ was larger in area in eyes with myopia, where it was also longer in circumference. The vascular density of the capillary network of the superficial retinal layers in the center and periphery of the macula was 52.7% in the case of eyes with myopia, which was significantly lower compared to 54.8% in the case of normal eyes. The decrease in vascular density of the macula and changes in the FAZ were proportional to the increase in the eye length.

 

This study is meaningful in that it provided a basis for understanding the early pathophysiology of myopic retinopathy resulting from elongation of the eye by examining the pathological vascular changes in eyes with high myopia through optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

 

The results of this study were recently published in the Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society.

Professors Kim, Sung-hoon and Jo, Jun-young from the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and Professor Namkug Kim from the Department of Integrative Medicine developed an AI model to automatically detect hand hygiene actions and provide feedback to ensure maintenance of proper hand hygiene with alcohol gel even in a busy operating room.

 

To develop the AI model, the research team used the I3D neural network, which has been proven to have excellent capabilities of action recognition and video classification. I3D Neural Network demonstrating excellent performance in image-based behavioral classification. The neural network, which had already learned about 400 different behavioral image data, learned four more actions related to hand hygiene in an operating room for the purpose of this study. The basic hand hygiene action was the act of rubbing hands with alcohol gel, which is required of anesthesiologists, residents, and nurses who repeatedly touch the patient and operate machinery in the operating room. ▲ Touching surgical equipment, ▲ putting on gloves, and ▲ removing gloves were defined as three actions that needed to be distinguished from the hand hygiene action by the AI.

 

The AI, which had learned a total of 7,600 3D images, detected hand hygiene actions in an operating room with about 68% accuracy.

 

This study was recently presented at ICLR 2020, one of the world’s most renowned AI conferences.

LEE, Sa-Ra, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, became the first to successfully perform robot-assisted sacrocolpopexy for pelvic organ prolapse for the 200th time.

 

Pelvic organ prolapse occurs when a pelvic organ drops from its normal place due to weakened muscles that hold the pelvic organs in place. This condition is often treated with a sacrocolpopexy, which involves attaching a surgical mesh to the stretched uterus and vaginal wall and connecting it to a rigid longitudinal ligament in front of the sacrum. Using robotic technology  ▲ shortens the operation time and the duration of anesthesia, ▲ allows for more meticulous sutures, and ▲ requires minimal skin incision, resulting in lower postoperative pain and faster recovery.

 

An analysis of the 200 patients that Professor Lee operated on showed that their average age was 60.6 years. 92 patients under the age of 60 with a high risk of recurrence did not relapse, and 72 patients over the age of 65 returned to their normal lives without postoperative complications.

 

Professor Lee successfully performed a robot-assisted single port sacrocolpopexy in 2015 and Da Vinci SP-assisted single port sacrocolpopexy in 2019. She has given a presentation using videos of the operation at a conference of the American Association of Gyencologic Laparoscopists (AAGL).

The 13th Asan Award in Medicine was held. Winners were as follows: ▲ the Award in Basic Medicine went to Professor Lee, Won Jae from the Department of Life Sciences at Seoul National University, ▲ the Award in Clinical Medicine was given to Professor Lee, Jae Won from the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, and ▲ the Young Medical Scientist Award was presented to Professor Ju, Young Seok from KAIST Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering and Professor Lee, Yong-ho from Yonsei University College of Medicine.

 

Professor Lee, Won Jae, for instance, opened up new possibilities for the promoting growth in children displaying stunted growth caused by malnutrition or disease with his research on the microbiome, or the ecosystem of microorganisms in the gut. His research contributed greatly to the advancement of gut microbiome research by first identifying the mechanisms by which beneficial gut bacteria promote the growth of living organisms and by which gut cells remove bad bacteria and protect beneficial bacteria.

 

Professor Lee, Jae Won developed a minimally invasive method of heart surgery that results in a small wound and fast recovery and introduced robot-assisted heart surgery for the first time in Korea to provide a new chance at life for patients with heart disease. He also contributed to boosting the success rate of surgery for heart disease in Korea by conducting the most cases of mitral valve repair and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension surgery in the country.

 

Professor Ju, Young Seok was recognized for his achievements in research that contributed to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer by proving that lung cancer, in some cases, may be formed by destructive changes in the chromosomes in lung cells, irrespective of whether the person is a smoker. Meanwhile, Professor Lee, Yong-ho discovered a mechanism behind the development of fatty liver and established the basis for treatment by becoming the world’s first to prove the direct correlation between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and muscular dystrophy, a a group of diseases that lead to progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.

Park, Seung-jung, Chair Professor of Cardiology, was honored with the 2020 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine. The Ho-Am Prize is established in 1990 in honor of Hoam Lee Byung-cheol known for his philosophy on putting talented individuals first and contributing to society and the public interest. It recognizes the outstanding achievements of those who contributed to academic, artistic and social development and promotion of human welfare. The prize money is KRW 300 million.

 

Dr. Park won the Asan Award in Medicine, which is the most prestigious and coveted award in medicine in Korea, back in 2011, and with the recent recognition, he has taken home the biggest awards in medicine in the country. Dr. Park was honored with the Career Achievement Award at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics, a world-renowned annual conference regarding heart disease, in 2008 and named the Doctor of the Year in 2005 by EuroPCR, attesting to the global recognition of his academic achievements.

 

Dr. Park proved for the first time in the world that the stent procedure involving inserting a metal mesh into a blocked or narrowed coronary artery to expand it has the same effect as a surgical operation. He also played a key role in establishing the procedure which can reduce the downtime and cost compared to surgery as a standard treatment for coronary artery disease by providing the clinical basis. It was noted that he was given the award for contributing to the development of heart disease treatment worldwide and significantly improving the quality of life of patients by publishing five papers in the leading international journal, New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Orbital sarcoma is a malignant tumor developing in the hollow space in the skull where eyes are located. It causes the eye to bulge out or blurred vision. If diagnosed too late, the affected individual may even lose his or her eyesight.

 

Professor Sa, Ho-seok of Ophthalmology and a research team at the MD Anderson Cancer Center carried out histopathological and imaging examinations on 73 patients in a long-term follow-up after being diagnosed with orbital sarcoma and receiving surgery, radiotherapy, or chemotherapy. The ▲ correlation between the stage of orbital sarcoma such as ▲ occurrence of orbital sarcoma (T), ▲ lymph node metastasis (N), or ▲ metastasis (M) and the treatment results were analyzed.

 

The results showed a correlation between the T stage, which is the stage corresponding to the appearance of orbital sarcoma, and the risks of local recurrence, lymph node metastasis, metastasis, and death. Prognosis was particularly bad for T3 orbital sarcoma, as the risk of metastasis and death increased 3.24 times and 6.32 times, respectively.

 

If the tumor has spread to the lymph nodes (beyond N1) prior to treatment, the risk of metastasis and death increased 13.33 times and 7.07 times, respectively. In addition, sarcomas larger than 3cm in size or classified as alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma based on histological diagnosis were found to increase the risks of metastasis and death.

 

The findings of this study were recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

When it comes to superficial esophageal cancer, if there is no lymph node metastasis and the cancer is confined to the mucosal layer, it can be treated with endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), which involves removing the mucosal layer where the cancer is present using a special electric knife through an endoscope. However, there had been some patients who did not even attempt this treatment due to old age.

 

A team led by Professor Kim, Do-hoon of the Department of Gastroenterology classified 413 patients who had undergone ESD for superficial esophageal cancer in a two-year period from December 2005 into two groups, based on whether they were over 75 years of age or under, and analyzed the rate of recurrence, adverse effects, etc. for 33 months, an average, after treatment.

 

In the case of recurrence rate, there was no local recurrence in either group during the follow-up period. In the case of adverse effects, the under-75 group experienced ▲ bleeding (1.2%), ▲ perforation (3.9%), ▲ stenosis (5.6%), and ▲ pneumonia (0.7%), and the 75-and-over group experienced ▲ bleeding (2.0%), ▲ perforation (5.9%), ▲ stenosis (7.8%), and ▲ pneumonia (0%), indicating no significant differences between the two groups. Most of the adverse effects were treated during the endoscopic procedure or disappeared with simple treatment such as administration of antibiotics without needing any additional surgery. The duration of hospitalization was 3 to 4 days for the under-75 group and 3 to 5 days for the 75-and-over group, indicating little difference.

 

He findings of this study were recently published in the Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics.

AMC Health Screening and Promotion Center was ranked No. 1 for three years in a row in the health promotion center category of the 2020 Korea Brand Power Index (K-BPI) compiled by the Korean Management Association Consulting (KMAC).

 

The survey was carried out with 11,800 citizens over the course of three months starting from October 2019. AMC Health Screening and Promotion Center scored 510.8 points, surpassing the average of other hospitals at 334.96 points.

 

Among the assessment items, AMC Health Screening and Promotion Center scored particularly high in ▲ the level of preference (one’s own preference and others’ preference), ▲ value for price, uniqueness, activity, reliability, and aspects of brand image, ▲ willingness to revisit and recommend to others and user convenience.

A research team led by Chair Professor Park, Seung-jung and professors Park, Duk-woo and Ahn, Jung-min from the Department of Cardiology carried out a study comparing the 10-year outcomes of stenting for left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

 

Whether to choose stenting or bypass surgery to treat narrowing of arteries due to waste buildup has been the subject of debate among cardiologists worldwide for many years. This is exactly why this study, a long-term follow-up of the outcomes of the two solutions, has garnered a great deal of attention.

 

Of 1,454 patients with LMCA disease who registered with 13 research institutes in Korea, the research team randomly selected 300 patients each for the stenting group and the surgery group to compare the results. It was found that stenting, if performed properly, in patients with LMCA disease, which is perhaps the most dangerous type of coronary artery diseases, produced results comparable to those of CABG, which was the standard treatment in the past. The rate of death relating to post-procedure and post-operative sequelae, myocardial infarction, or stroke was 18.2% for the stenting group and 17.5% for the surgery group. Mortality due to all kind of causes including old age was 14.5% for the stenting group and 13.8% for the surgery group, indicating no significant difference.

 

The findings of this study were presented at the World Congress of Cardiology hosted by the American Heart Association, one of the most prominent organizations in the field of cardiology in the world, and broadcast online, in addition to being published in Circulation, a leading journal in cardiology.

To avoid contracting COVID-19, it is important to refrain from touching the face, such as eyes, nose, and mouth, with hands contaminated with the virus. Based on this, Professor Namkug Kim of the Department of Integrative Medicine recently developed and distributed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that detects face-touching actions with 91% accuracy.

 

To develop the AI model, the research team used the I3D Neural Network demonstrating excellent performance in image-based behavioral classification. The neural network had already learned about 400 different behavioral image data. Eight face-touching actions were examined in this study, and they were ▲ putting on and taking off a face mask, ▲ touching the nose, ▲ resting the chin on the hand, ▲rubbing the eye, ▲ stroking the hair, ▲ touching eyeglasses, and ▲ answering a phone call. Three actions, i.e. ▲ drinking water from a cup, ▲ touching a mobile phone, and ▲ using a keyboard/mouse, were defined as actions that the AI model should filter out.

 

The AI model correctly issued a warning message when the subject touched the face 91% of the time. It accurately distinguished cases where the subject raised his or her hand toward the face but not actually did not come into contact. In such cases, a warning message was not shown 84% of the time.

AMC Cancer Institute independently developed a precision medicine platform to view the clinical records of over 400,000 cancer patients registered with the Asan Medical Center, including records of surgery, treatment, and anticancer drug prescriptions, and recently began its clinical application. The precision medicine platform, developed as a hospital development fund project in 2019, is available in two types: for medical use and research use. On the platform, groups can be created by setting various conditions based on an integrated database of clinical and genomic information.

 

Based on the integrated database of genomic information and clinical information, it is possible to find the optimum treatment method tailored to each patient by using information on the overall clinical information from tests and treatments provided to the patient at AMC as well as on genome variations. Groups can also be created for analysis under various conditions such as whether the patient has received cancer treatment, whether the patient has a specific genome variation, and so on. Then, specimens can be requested from the AMS Bio-Resource Center as necessary for conducting clinical research on the groups created. As such, the platform provides various functions in connection with the off and online infrastructure of the Asan Institute for Life Sciences such as the Asan Research Information System (ARIS).

The Asan Medical Center has been chosen as the Most Admired Hospital in Korea for 14 years in a row. The title of the “Most Admired Hospital in Korea” is awarded to the hospital that has gained recognition from patients, caregivers (guardians), and experts for its exceptional medical achievements and contribution to society.

 

This honor is especially meaningful to AMC, as it is a recognition of its status as the best hospital in Korea, based on a comprehensive evaluation given by the medical and administrative staff of competing hospitals, based on the values that a hospital needs to pursue.

 

The recent survey focused on innovative capacity, management competency, employee value, customer value, social value, and hospital image among other factors. AMC received excellent scores in all areas including the 12 assessment factors, quality assessment, and overall evaluation, but it obtained particularly high scores in the areas of ▲ quality of medical service, ▲ level of preference, ▲ reliability, ▲ management competency, ▲ innovativeness, and ▲ customer satisfaction.

 

AMC was also named among the Top 30 “All Star” Enterprises in Korea chosen among enterprises across all industries for the 7th straight year.

 

These results reaffirmed the Asan Medical Center’s status as a hospital that is widely trusted and admired across the world, attested by high patient satisfaction (No. 1 customer satisfaction rate in Korea), recognition by experts (Most Admired Hospital in Korea), and globally recognized status (Top 100 Hospitals chosen by Newsweek).

Korean researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model to discern benign and malignant polyps based on colonoscopy. Its accuracy was found to be almost identical to that of a specialist with more than 5 years of experience in performing endoscopy. It is expected that clinical application of the AI model will complement the colonoscopy experience and knowledge of a colonoscopy specialist, thereby reducing unnecessary biopsy and increasing the probability of correctly diagnosing colon polyps and early-stage colorectal cancer.

 

A team led by Professor Byeon, Jeong-sik of the Department of Gastroenterology and Professor Namkug Kim of the Department of Integrative Medicine developed an AI program capable of predicting the pathological diagnosis of polyps by analyzing images from colonoscopy procedures and had the AI program read actual images. The results showed that the average diagnostic accuracy was 81.8%, which was almost the same as that of endoscopy specialists at 84.8%.

 

The research team trained the AI model with 12,480 images of 624 colon polyps. Afterwards, 545 new colon polyps were captured, and the images were read by the AI program twice (1st: 182, 2nd: 363) in order to verify its effectiveness.

 

A wide variety of colon polyps was included in the images such as △serrated polyps, △adenomatous polyps, and △ cancers that invaded deep into the submucosal layer. As a result of the first test, the AI model accurately classified 81.3% of all polyps. To be more specific, the probability of correct pathological diagnosis was 82.1% for serrated polyps, 84.1% for adenomatous polyps, and 58.8% for cancers that have invaded the submucosal layer.

 

In the second test, the diagnostic accuracy was 82.4%, which was similar to that of the first test. When the results of the two tests were combined together, the average diagnostic accuracy of the AI model was found to be 81.8%, which was not significantly different from that of endoscopy specialist (84.8%).

 

The results of this study were published in the recent issue of Scientific Reports, a sister journal to Nature, a world-renowned natural science journal.

A one-year-old baby from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who had urine drained from her flanks due to congenitally blocked urinary tracts received surgery at AMC and can now urinate normally. The 13-month old baby girl suffered from hydronephrosis, a condition that causes urine to build up inside the kidneys due to ureteral stricture, and a team led by Professor Kim, Kun Suk of the Department of Pediatric Urology successfully removed the constricted area and enlarged the ureter.

 

The patient was diagnosed with ureteral stricture and severe hydronephrosis based on a fetal ultrasound. Because the ureters were completely blocked, the kidneys were full of urine that had failed to drain. For prompt treatment, the baby was prematurely delivered at eight months and put through an operation in which the renal pelvis was connected to the skin of the flanks, but this did not provide a fundamental solution. Eventually, the Ministry of Health and Prevention of the UAE requested surgery at AMC recognized for its excellence in the treatment of ureteral stricture and pediatric hydronephrosis.

 

In late November 2019, the team headed by Professor Kim performed bilateral ureteroneocystostomy and left pyeloplasty, followed by right pyeloplasty a month later. The operation to remove the opening on the skin of the flanks and on the renal pelvis was performed during pyeloplasty. All operations were successful, and the child who turned one not long afterwards were able to urinate through the urethra for the first time in her life.

In 2019, AMC Cancer Institute was visited by 994,272 patients, of whom 917,892 were outpatients and 76,380 were inpatients. The total number of patients visiting the Cancer Institute was recorded at 906,985 in 2016, 917,679 in 2017, and 963,856 in 2018, showing a steady increase before hitting an all-time high last year.

 

The number of newly registered cancer patients a year was reported to be around 230,000 based on the national cancer registration statistics issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The number of newly registered cancer patients at AMC alone was 36,282 in 2019. This means that one out of every seven cancer patients in Korea is coming to AMC for treatment.

 

Last year, the number of cancer operations carried out at AMC was 19,951, while 183,999 patients were treated with chemotherapy and 106,064 patients with radiation. As for next-generation sequencing (NGS), it was performed a total of 2,843 times, a 157% increase from 2018 (1,810).

 

Interdisciplinary care to provide a more personalized healthcare service was provided to 4,851 patients last year. A total of 29 sessions were carried out, with the addition of three additional integrated care programs including hereditary colorectal cancer, urinary cancer, and sarcoma in the chest.

 

Cancer research continued to be carried out. In 2019, a total of 484 papers were published by the medical staff at AMC Cancer Institute. Of particular note, 20 papers were published in journals with a citation index of 20 or higher, such as The Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Gastroenterology, while 129 papers were published in journals with a citation index of 5 or higher. A total of 205 clinical trials were also conducted as part of the research in some cases.

The Asan Medical Center is mobilizing every resource at hand to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help flatten the curve. It has set up thorough screening processes at every major contact point and is striving to achieve continuous improvement. The staff is working tirelessly out on the field under the directions of the situation room.

 

The screening processes at AMC are acting as triple and quadruple barriers. ▲ Before a patient visits the hospital, a text message is sent to reschedule the appointment in case the patient is showing symptoms or has been to a place that has been visited by a confirmed case. ▲ At the entrance of the hospital, the body temperature of every visitor is monitored using thermal imaging cameras. ▲ A questionnaire is handed out at the outpatient department, examination room, delivery room, same-day operation center, and admission support center at the time of check-in to check for symptoms and visitation history. ▲ At the Emergency Room, an isolated area has been created for patients demonstrating respiratory symptoms so that they can be kept apart from regular patients. ▲ At the Pediatric Emergency Room, questionnaire is handed out not only to patients but also caregivers, and patients are isolated in negative pressure rooms and a high-level isolation unit. ▲ At the screening center, X-ray scans, COVID-19 gene test, and other forms of screening are implemented to judge whether the patient needs to be admitted or requires treatment and further examination.

 

Of all these different contact points, the screening center plays the most critical role. The screening center is staffed with 23 staff members: 3 doctors, 15 nurses, 1 clinical pathologist, 1 radiologist, 2 administrative staff members, 1 intern for sputum collection. It operates around the clock, with ER patients requiring screening sent here at night. The staff check the symptoms and epidemiological associations with confirmed cases in detail and collect sputum and nasopharyngeal specimens to carry out a COVID-19 gene test. A need to confirm the results inevitably leads to delays in the medical service that they came to the hospital for, but the vast majority of patients have been cooperative, with an understanding of the need for thorough COVID-19 screening.

The Asan Foundation provided KRW 5 billion in scholarships to 1,240 students in 2020. 

 

In the case of graduate school students, 30 students in Korea and 10 students overseas were chosen among those who would become leaders in the field of biomedical sciences. Undergraduate students who won full-tuition scholarships until graduation include ▲ 178 Academic Excellence Scholarship winners, ▲ 169 Narae Scholarship winners who were nearly forced to take a break from their studies due to financial hardships, ▲ 41 Dasom Scholarship winners with physical disabilities, ▲ 82 Talent-Sharing Scholarship winners who have been sharing their knowledge and talents with people in need, and ▲ 230 winners of the Scholarship for Children of Men In Uniform (MEI) established to encourage and instill pride in military officers, police officers, firefighters, coast guards, etc., who are dedicated to serving our nation. In the case of 210 Narae and Dasom scholarship winners, an additional KRW 200,000 will be provided to pay for living expenses, in addition to the full-tuition scholarships, so that they can better concentrate on their studies. In addition, 500 e-Learning Scholarship winners were chosen among high school students from low-income families to provide them with an online education program package and related learning materials.

 

The Asan Foundation has been pursuing a scholarship program since its establishment in 1977 and it has provided around 34,000 students with KRW 74 billion scholarships in total to date.

A baby was born in Nepal on December 4, 2019, and shortly afterwards, the parents were given devastating news that their child only had three days to live, due to a congenital heart condition called the “transposition of the great arteries.” The newborn needed immediate surgery for a chance at life, but this was not possible in Nepal, given the poor standard of healthcare.

 

Professor Kim, Young-hwue from the Department of Pediatric Cardiology who helped treat the newborn during a medical volunteer trip to Nepal with other AMC staff members asked Professor Yun, Tae-jin from the Department of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery back in Korea for help and thus began the emergency patient transport project.

 

With the support of AMC, the patient arrived in Korea after two weeks, and the operation finally took place on January 29. After receiving an arterial switch procedure to correct the positions of the aorta and main pulmonary artery and an operation to correct the hole between the heart chambers, the patient was discharged on February 17 and returned home safely.

Park, Seung-jung, Chair Professor of Cardiology, was named the Alumnus of the Year, an award given for the first time in 2020 by the alumni of Yonsei University College of Medicine. Dr. Park is a leading authority in the world in the field of interventional cardiology for angina and myocardial infarction.

 

The award was presented to him for publishing five papers in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the most influential medical journal in the clinical field, and contributing to the improvement of research and treatment in the field of coronary stent surgery and leading the advancement of cardiology worldwide.

Professor 김성한 of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Professor Sei Won Lee of the Department of Pulmonology, and Professor Yong Shin of the Department of Integrative Medicine have successfully developed the Slim Chip that can be used to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) with double the accuracy in the fast examination stage. The Slim Chip is a thin film that is the size of the palm. When a sputum sample is allowed to flow over the film, the bacteria that causes TB, if present, get concentrated in the film, and DNA is extracted from the bacteria to facilitate the diagnosis.

 

An application of the Slim Chip to the fast TB examination showed a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 87%. Sensitivity refers to the probability of correctly diagnosing a medical condition when it is present, while specificity could be described as the probability of correctly judging that the patient does not have the medical condition under examination. In the case of the conventional molecular diagnostic test for TB, its sensitivity was 37%, while specificity was 100%. In comparison, the Slim Chip has double the sensitivity, meaning that it is capable of identifying TB patients twice as better.

 

The findings of this study were recently published in the European Respiratory Journal.

It will now be possible to treat severe cases of mitral regurgitation with a clip procedure, instead of open chest surgery. This means there is now a safer way for elderly patients and high-risk patients to receive treatment for the heart valve disorder. Professors Park, Duk-woo, Kim, Dae-hee, and Kang, Do-yoon from the Department of Cardiology successfully performed the mitraclip procedure to treat mitral regurgitation for the first time in Korea on an 82-year male patient.

 

Mitral regurgitation is a condition in which the mitral valve between the left atrium and ventricle does not fully close, causing blood to flow backward between the chambers of the heart. The patient in question was elderly and had various other conditions including aortic valve stenosis, atherosclerosis, and atrial fibrillation, which made surgery impossible. The integrated treatment team treating the patient at the Heart Institute opted to insert two mitraclips into the mitral valve, without an open chest operation, as it was a safer choice for the high-risk patient. The patient was discharged in just five days, as the recovery period after a mitraclip procedure is much shorter than an open chest operation.

492 doctors came to the Asan Medical Center (AMC) for education and training last year. Visiting from 52 countries including ▲ Saudi Arabia, ▲ China, and ▲ Mongolia, they were specialists from 41 departments such as ▲ radiology, ▲ plastic surgery, and ▲ liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery. 

 

An analysis of all foreign doctors who have received training at AMC over the past decade from 2010 to 2019 showed that 3,641 doctors have visited from 91 countries in total. By country, China accounted for the largest number (499 doctors), followed by ▲ the United States (369), ▲ Mongolia (318), ▲ Saudi Arabia (300), ▲ Vietnam (276), and ▲ India (254). As for the departments, the most common area of specialty was ▲ liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery (662), followed by ▲ radiology (659), ▲ plastic surgery (423), ▲ otorhinolaryngology (181), ▲ anesthesiology and pain medicine (133), and ▲ gastroenterology. Furthermore, around 1,300 foreign doctors have come to AMC in the past decade to participate in the interventional cardiology training program run by the Asan Heart Institute.

According to the National Organ Transplantation Management Center operating under the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a total of 1,577 liver transplants were carried out in 2019. The Asan Medical Center (AMC) conducted 505 liver transplants last year, accounting for a third of all liver transplants performed in the country. Performing more than 505 liver transplants, of which more than 400 were liver donor liver transplantations, in a single year has been unprecedented in the world. To be more specific, of the 505 liver plants, ▲ 421 involved living donors, while ▲ 84 involved brain-dead donors, and thus the former type accounted for approximately 83% of the total. The success rate recorded by AMC is significantly higher than that of other hospitals at ▲ 98% (1 year), ▲ 89% (3 years), and ▲ 88% (10 years). This is quite high, considering that a number of patients coming to the Liver Transplantation Team of AMC are already in critical condition with a slim chance of recovery.

 

The key to this remarkable achievement was the development of diverse surgical methods to save end-stage liver disease patients, in addition to the implementation of swift measures and systematic surgical methods for critically ill patients, post-op intensive care for patients, and extensive know-how and experience gained by the medical staff over the years.

 

The Liver Transplantation Team have made a number of breakthroughs over the years, becoming the world’s first to successfully perform ▲ a living donor liver transplantation using a modified right lobe graft in 1999, ▲ a dual  living donor liver transplantation in 2000, and ▲ an ABO incompatible liver transplantation in 2003. They have provided more than 6,700 end-stage liver disease patients with the best possible treatment and care thus far.

The results of the 2019 2H Comprehensive Satisfaction Survey showed that the overall rate of satisfaction with the Asan Medical Center (AMC) was 94.4 points, which was the highest score ever recorded. AMC has been recording a satisfaction score of over 90 points since the first half of the year 2015.

 

AMC carried out a satisfaction survey with 1,187 outpatients, 1,124 inpatients, 152 emergency patients, 25 ICU patients, and 838 patients in for an examination or a laboratory test through one-on-one interviews.

 

The satisfaction rate was the highest for the medical services provided by the medical staff. In the case of outpatient care, the highest level of satisfaction was reported for ▲ services by the nursing staff, followed by ▲ medical care and service by doctors, ▲ medical service procedures, ▲ hospitality and level of attention from other staff members, and ▲ hospital environment and other aspects.

 

As for inpatient care, the highest level of satisfaction was reported for▲ hospitality and level of attention from other staff members, followed by ▲ medical care and service by doctors, ▲ services by the nursing staff, ▲ hospital facilities and environment, and ▲ other services in the hospital. As for other aspects, the results showed that patients were satisfied with the consideration shown to patients during the examination or treatment procedure in the ER, the proficiency of nurses and privacy protection in the ICU service, and the proficiency of the staff in the examination room.

The Lung Cancer Surgery Team at the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery analyzed the treatment results of some 7,500 lung cancer patients who have undergone lung resection in the past 15 years since 2002 at 5-year intervals, and the results showed that the 5-year survival rate (of patients who have undergone surgery) has increased from around 61% in the 2002 to 2006 period to 72% in the 2012 to 2016 period. This means that full recovery is possible for 7 out of 10 patients who have received surgery for lung cancer at AMC. In the case of lung cancer, which is difficult to treat, it is deemed that the patient has a chance to fully recover if he or she has survived for at least five years after surgery or other forms of treatment. This finding is especially meaningful, as patients with either Stage III or Stage IV lung cancer accounted for 24.4% of all patients examined.

 

Surgical methods have also improved over the past 15 years in that they help reduce pain and the risk of infection, while maintaining the lung function better than before. The ratio of thoracoscopic surgery cases has increased from 9.7% in the 2002 to 2006 period to 74.5% in the 2012 to 2016 period, and it recorded 84.4% in 2016. This is notable as thoracoscopic surgery is associated with a lower degree of pain and lower risks of infection and complications compared to open chest surgery.

 

The ratio of sub-lobe resection that only cuts off part of the lobe has also increased from 4.3% to 20% over the same period. This helps keep more of the lung function intact compared to pulmonary lobectomy, which involves excising the entire lobe where cancer is present.

 

With the advances made in surgical methods, the ratio of elderly patients aged 70 and older to all patients increased from 13.3% in 2002 to 25.3% in 2016. Also, while the patients who received surgery after being diagnosed with Stage I lung cancer accounted for only 40.6%, on average, between 2002 and 2006, the ratio increased to 56% between 2012 and 2016.

 

The research team reported that this was due to the increased use of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) as a screening test for lung cancer. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Korean Medical Science, an international scientific journal in English issued by the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.

Last year, a total of 3,120,449 patients paid a visit to the Asan Medical Center. This was a 2.3% drop from 2018, which is believed to have resulted from a temporary reduction of the number of patients accepted by the hospital to ensure patient safety during the introduction of AMC Hospital Information System.

 

There were ▲ 2,974,392 outpatients and ▲ 146,057 inpatients. Compared to the year 2018, outpatients decreased by 2.4%, while inpatients increased by 0.5%. The number of operations performed in 2019 was 67,226, which was 1,627 more than in the previous year.

 

As for the places of residence of outpatients, ▲ 1,283,819 patients were from Seoul, accounting for 43.2% of all outpatients, while ▲ 816,782 patients were from Gyeonggi-do Province, ▲ 104,610 from Chungcheongbuk-do Province, ▲ 99,853 from Gangwon-do Province, and ▲ 91,145 patients from Gyeongsangbuk-do Province.

 

Also, 20,025 foreign patients received medical services at AMC in 2019, which was an all-time high. It was a 11.3% increase from 17,999 patients recorded in 2018. In terms of nationality, ▲ 3,988 patients were from the United States, ▲ 3,473 were from the United Arab Emirates, ▲ 2,732 were from China, ▲ 1,886 were from Mongolia, ▲ 1,669 were from Saudi Arabia, ▲ 1,100 were from Kazakhstan, and ▲ 934 were from Russia.

Professor Park, Chan-jeoung from the Department of Laboratory Medicine was appointed as the 34th President of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine. The Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine with more than 1,100 members publishes an SCIE-indexed journal with a citation index of 2.635.

 

Professor Park said, “As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, we will closely communicate and cooperate with the government, medical industry, and industrial sector and make an effort to lead laboratory medicine at home and abroad.”