SNUH‘s liver transplantation leading medical Hallyu in Kazakhstan
SNUH‘s liver transplantation leading medical Hallyu in Kazakhstan
- Kazakhstan's state-run broadcast cast a spotlight on SNUH's liver transplantation team.
- A growing number of Kazakhstan patients visit Korea for medical treatment as SNUH's excellence in liver transplantation became known.
An international symposium, The Liver Week 2016, was held in Incheon. The event was attended by ten Kazakhstan leading medical professionals. They had first participated in the symposium two years ago at suggestion of Professor Kwang-woong Lee of the department of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery at SNUH. A state-run news channel in Kazakhstan, Khabar 24 (old name is 24kz), accompanied the medical team to shoot a special TV program on Korea-Kazakhstan medical cooperation, focusing on Professor Lee for his contribution to the development of liver transplantation in Kazakhstan.
No one can think of liver transplantation in Kazakhstan without executive director of SNUH International Healthcare Center Kwang-woong Lee. He has performed around 40 liver transplantations, which is called a flower of modern medicine, in foreign countries including National Scientific Medical Research Center, Astana city hospital, and Nazarbayev University School of Medicine.
Professor Lee has also transferred liver transplantation know-how to local medical practitioners and invited overseas medical professionals to symposia at home and aborad as well as in SNUH to offer them an opportunity to learn advanced medicinal technologies of Korea. For instance, 35 overseas medical professionals from Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Georgia, Myanmar, Nepal, Indonesia, Rumania, Japan, and the United States visited Professor Kwang-woong Lee in 2015.
SNUH liver transplantation team has recorded 99% success rates on average since Korea's first liver transplantation was performed in 1988. This is far higher than 85% of the United States and German which had succeeded liver transplantation before Korea. Moreover, the SNUH team completed liver transplantation in 6~7 hours, much faster than about 12 hours of Japan, the UK, and India's teams.
Professor Lee said, "It is a very rewarding experience for me to save the life that was fading away in Kazakhstan and Georgia and transfer advanced medical skills." "For the last three years, the number of Kazakhstan people visiting Korea for medical treatment increase by 150~200% every year, so I'm proud that we created a positive image of Korea through SNUH's liver transplantation beyond a simple service of transferring medical skills."