Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital

The 12th Hallym-Columbia-Weill Cornell-NYP Symposium on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) was successfully held at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital on April 30, 2016. The latest issues and trends were discussed by world renowned speakers in the field including Dr. Daniel Brodie and Dr. Cara Agerstrand at Columbia University, USA, Dr. Alain Combes at Pierre and Marie Curie University, France, and Dr. Vincent Pellegrino at Monash University, Australia. The symposium drew keen attention from medical institutions in Korea as ECMO has not been a general topic of academic events before. The pre-registration was closed early due to overcrowded early birds, and more than 200 participants listened attentively to the lectures of world’s scholars and Korean experts.

The symposium included 4 sessions with 12 presentations. The first and second sessions dealt with ‘Respiratory ECMO,’ and the third and fourth sessions were filled with the presentation on ‘Extracorporeal CPR’ and ‘Salvage of Sepsis & Trauma.’

In the first and second session, Dr. Sunghoon Park of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine at Hallym University presented on ‘Various applications of ECMO in critical illness’ and Dr. Daniel Brodie lectured on ‘What’s new in ECMO for respiratory failure?’. In the third and fourth session, Dr. Vincent Pellegrino lectured on ‘ECPR: Key to success’ and Dr. Hyoung Soo Kim talked about ‘ECMO in trauma patients: What’s the difference?’, all of which caught many participants’ eyes. After each presentation, Q&A session and a heated discussion followed.

Meanwhile, another academic event, ECMO Workshop (Simulation), was going on in the second pavilion. The ECMO specialists from Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong and the ECMO Team members at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital shared their knowledge and experience with participants from Korean medical institutions. “ECMO is spotlighted as the state-of-the-art medical technology not only to the medical staffs of Korea, but to citizens as well since the outbreak of MERS and H1N1 swine flu,” said President Hae-Ran Lee of Hallym University Medical Center. “I believe this symposium will have a significant impact on Korea and its place in the international community in the field of ECMO,” she added. Dr. Yong-Sun Kim, the Executive Vice President for Health & Biomedical Sciences at Hallym University, said “Through this symposium, Hallym will find a new growth engine for strengthening its clinical competence.” Dr. Kim also said, “Sharing advanced knowledge and clinical experiences will eventually contribute to the improvement of public health.”

The specific program of the symposium is as follows.

■ Session 1
1. Various applications of ECMO in critical illness
(Sunghoon Park, MD, PhD, Hallym University College of Medicine)
2. ECMO in immunocompromised patients
(Seok Chan Kim, MD, PhD, The Catholic University of Korea)
3. VV ECMO : A new trend at Columbia University
(Cara Agerstrand, MD, Columbia University Medical Center)

■ Session 2
1. A bridge to lung transplantation
(Sang-Bum Hong, MD, PhD, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine)
2. Why do we need a good ECMO transportation system?: Experience of Samsung Medical Center
(Yang Hyun Cho, MD, PhD, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine)
3. What’s new in ECMO for respiratory failure
(Daniel Brodie, MD, Columbia University Medical Center)

■ Session 3
1. ECPR for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
(Jae-Seung Jung, MD, PhD, Korea University Medical Center)
2. ECPR at Hallym University
(Sang Ook Ha, MD, PhD, Hallym University College of Medicine)
3. ECPR: Key to success
(Vincent Pellegrino, MBBS, Alfred Hospital)

■ Session 4
1. ECMO in sepsis
(Alain Combes, MD, PhD, University of Paris, Pierre et Marie Curie)
2. Application of CRRT in ECMO patients
(Sung Gyun Kim, MD, PhD, Hallym University College of Medicine)
3. ECMO in trauma patients: What’s the difference?
(Hyoung Soo Kim, MD, PhD, Hallym University College of Medicine)

By Chul Kwon, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (chris@hallym.or.kr)