Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

The following is a full-text of the opening remarks by Dr. Hae-Ran Lee, President of Hallym University Medical Center (HUMC) at the 9th Hallym-Columbia-Cornell-NYP Symposium at Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital on October 30, 2012:-Ed.

Dr. John Chabot, Dr. Alfred Neugut, Dr. Manish Shah, Dr. Simon Cheng,
Chairman Yoon, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman:

On behalf of Hallym University Medical Center, I would like to start by extending a warm welcome to all of you to the ninth Hallym-Columbia-Weill Cornell-NYP International Symposium. Let me take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Chabot, Dr. Neugut, Dr. Shah, and Dr. Cheng for their generosity to kindly accept our invitation to this meaningful occasion. My thanks also go to Dr. Sung Hoon Noh of Yonsei University, Dr. Yung-Jue Bang of Seoul National University, and Hallym professors who will be chairing and speaking at the meeting today.

Since Hallym reached an international affiliation agreement in 2002 with Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and 2004 with Weill Cornell Medical College and NYP, we have collaborated on a series of annual international symposium which turned out to be contributory to broadening the horizon of our understanding of medicine in both Korea and the U.S.

Today, we are going to focus on “Novel Anti-cancer Treatment Modalities for Gastrointestinal Cancer,” which have become more important as cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and gastric cancer is much more common in the world.

In this vein, I am firmly convinced that by sharing our knowledge and experiences, we will be able to move forward in finding solutions to gastrointestinal cancer.

In the meantime, the year 2012 means a lot to us because our 6th hospital, Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital, was open yesterday. Thus, Hallym members are making concerted efforts to maximize our competence to become one of the best global healthcare centers.

It is not too much to say that Hallym’s globalization started with the establishment of collaborative relationships with Columbia and Cornell. Based upon actual experiences in the past, we could further expand our international network of cooperation with more institutions in Europe. Taking this opportunity, I would like to seek all of your continued support and advice which would be helpful for us at Hallym to build core capabilities in the era of globalization.

Before closing, I would like to give my thanks to all friends from Columbia and Cornell, and Hallym members who have made this symposium possible. Renewing my gratitude to all participants for your presence today, I wish this meeting could be most productive and rewarding.

Thank you.