Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

A world renowned liver transplant surgeon, Dr. Jean C. Emond who is current Vice Chair and Director of Transplantation at Columbia University Medical Center, visited Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital on January 19, and shared his thoughts with Hallym surgeons.

A welcome ceremony for Dr. Emond was joined by Dr. Dai-Won Yoon, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Hae-Ran Lee, President of Hallym University Medical Center, and Hallym professors of surgery.

President Lee welcomed the authority on liver transplant by saying, “We have been working hard to maintain a substantial academic relationship with Columbia so far. I expect his visit today will spark the interest of Hallym surgeons so that together we will be able to enhance cooperation in the transplantation area.”

“I was deeply impressed by passionate Hallym faculty who were trained at Columbia. I sincerely hope that capable young physicians in your departments of pulmonology, gastroenterology, pediatrics and surgery join our training programs in the days to come,” Dr. Emond responded.

He established the liver transplant program at Columbia, which has become one of the largest in the United States performing 152 liver transplants in 2006. He was also listed in New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors.”

At the seminar in the afternoon, Dr. Jang Yong Jeon, Dr. Joo Seop Kim and Dr. Doo-Jin Kim briefed the visiting professor on the current status of Korea, and Hallym’s history of transplants, and showed videos on liver transplants at Hallym.

Earlier, Dr. Jeon who was on a training program at Columbia from August, 2007, to February, 2009 when he met Dr. Emond. He succeeded in performing a liver transplant for the first time at Hallym on January 10, this year.

By Sung-won Lee, Int’l Operations Team, HUMC (sungwon@hallym.or.kr)