JW Lee Center for Global Medicine and CAMP (Director Lee Chul-yong) have contracted an MOU on April 29, 2015 to enhance mutually beneficial cooperative working in health care sector. Both parties will cooperate for effective projects implementation related to healthcare in developing countries. It is expected to build a substantial partnership through seminars, training, dispatching experts, local field research, cooperative research of development cooperation and support for students and staff’s participation for developing countries in healthcare sector.

JW Lee Center for Global Medicine, Unit of Education, Research & Policy visited Ho Chi Min University Medical Center (UMC) from May 3 to 9 to conduct an evaluation research of cardiac surgery training programs targeted at medical personnel in Vietnam. During this visit, CGM had individual interviews with local medical staffs who completed medical capacity building programs and several hospital officials. Researchers asked to respondents whether knowledge acquired from education and training could be successfully applied to actual work or not, and also what obstacles they met during the process, in order to evaluate the practical influence of the cardiac surgery training program.

On May 21st, 2015, the 20th Scientific Conference dedicated to the 40th Anniversary of 175 Hospital was held in Ho Chi Minh City. During the conference, researchers and experts from Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, and other countries shared new advances as well as scientific and practical experiences in the field of medicine, pharmacy, and healthcare. Professor Yeong Cheol Kim, who is a consultant of the JWLEE Center, attended the conference and spoke on the topic of “Trauma Care System in Korea: Why, What, How”. After finishing the symposium, Professor Kim met with the 175 Hospital staff regarding the trauma care system. Also, Professor Kim met with many different people working in a variety of different trauma center fields and gave an advisory opinion. On May 22nd, there was a celebration for the 40th Anniversary and on May 23rd, there was a ground breaking ceremony for the Trauma Hospital. Director Jong-Koo Lee of JW LEE Center for Global Medicine, greeted and thanked the staff from 175 Hospital, who have cooperated with the JW LEE CGM for a long time.

On April 25th at 11:56am local time, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, and caused an enormous amount of damage. In the days after the earthquake, the JW LEE Center received a list of necessary supplies and medicines through Dhulikhel Hospital and delivered it to Seoul National University Hospital Public Health Medical Service. In order to deliver the relief supplies quickly, the JW LEE Center also sent Prabin Shakya (Master’s degree course of Medical Informatics at Seoul National University College of Medicine), who participated in the Nepal project in CGM and also belongs to Dhulikhel Hospital to Nepal. He performed a damage assessment mapping of the outreach centers of the Dhulikhel Hospital and worked in developing surveillance systems for cholera and organized training for the management of cholera in preparation for the rainy season. After he returns to Korea on May 22nd, Prabin Shakya is going to report on the urgent situation including the conditions after the second earthquake, and help Seoul National University Hospital Public Health Medical Service and Raphael International Clinic, which is a business partner with CGM, provide effective and continuous relief efforts.

The 7th International Society of Social Capital (ISSC) Symposium, organized by the JW LEE Center for Global Medicine, will be held in the Republic of Korea on June 1-2. The Symposium will have the opportunity to share the latest research on the health effects of various resources in the community on neighborhood health, to be setting up a program that contribute to the health improvement of the international community. Ichiro Kawachi, Professor of Harvard School of Public Health, will give an introduction of Social Capital and Health Studies. Also, ISSC members from Japan, Finland, and Republic of Korea will give presentations on Social Capital and Health in an Aging Society, and Social Capital and Disaster Resilience in Global Health at the Seoul National University Cancer Research Institute. And then, the schedule on June 2 will wrap up sharing current/future research topics, and a group discussion in Jeju.