Korean rapper Psy’s global sensation Gangnam Style has played a big part in making hallyu (the Koran Wave) all the rage in every nook and cranny of the world. As far as medical practice goes, renowned breast cancer specialist Paik Nam-sun is one of the most active Korean doctors who crusades for the cause of spreading Korea’s medical practice and technology around the world.

Dr. Paik, director of the Ewha Womans University Cancer Center for Women,, splits his tight operation schedule to tour many countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East to transfer Korea’s medical practices, including his own medical tactics on the operation of breast cancer patients. 

Dr. Paik, who just returned from a tour to Russia, which took his delegation to Irkutsk, Arzom City and Vladivostok in February, is going to make another tour to the country again in this coming late May. And a delegation, headed by Dr. Paik, toured Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from April 7 to April 11 at the invitation of Ermanov Kudrat, chairman of the board of directors of Shox Medical Center to give lectures and demonstrate his operation technology. While staying in Uzbekistan, the delegation signed an MOU on cooperation with Shox Medical Center. Dr. Paik said, “This tour has served as a watersheds to spur efforts to attract Uzbek patients by establishing a wide range of cooperative ties with Shox Medical Center.” Paik went on to say that Ewha Womans University Medical Center will make Uzbekistan, a center of Central Asia, as a platform to export Korea’s medical practices and services by transferring Korea’s advanced medical technology.  He is also scheduled to attend an international symposium slated for June at Subei University Hospital, China 

Ewha Womans University Medical Center (EUMC) is committed of carrying out such missions — medical treatment, education, research and medical volunteering activities, both in Korea and abroad, particularly in emerging countries. In particular, Ewha Womans University Cancer Center for Women conducts medical volunteering services in cooperation with hospitals in Mongolia and China every year and gives lectures on cancer treatment and new operation technologies, an opportunity to get a glimpse into the Korean medical industry and the EUMC’s medical capacity. A medical delegation from the EUMC cancer center hospital has been invited almost every two or three months by several countries to give lectures, perform operations, sign MOU on treatment, education and conduct research with university hospitals there, and hold medical symposiums. 

Ewha Womans University Cancer Center for Women, marking five years since Dr. Paik took office as the first head of the women’s hospital, has earned global recognition as his strategies to attract foreign patients paid off. 

Under Dr. Paik’s stewardship, the nation’s only cancer hospital for women attracts some 4,000 foreign female patients, accounting for a 40 percent share of its annual aggregate 10,000 of foreign patients. In the past, the nationalities of foreign patents were limited to a few countries, including China,Mongolia and Russia. The fame of the women’s cancer hospital has been spreading through masscom and word of patients, mouth, and now patients from 60 countries have visited the EUMC hospital to receive medical services, including those from China, Mongolia, Arab, Kazakhstan, Russia, Middle East countries. In particular, patients from Middle East countries, seeking treatment for breast, thyroid and gynecologic cancer, have returned home after having their operation and services, being done in a confident, convenient and fast-track system. 

How can the women’s hospital accomplish such a feat in so short a period of time? The reason is that the success is owed to the EUMC cancer center hospital’s medical staff’s dedication and good communication and interdepartmental harmony, so called multidisciplinary system. 

The EUMC cancer center hospital, since its establishment, has been sticking to a principle of completing services, ranging from diagnosis to operation within a week, in sharp contrast to ordinary hospitals that don’t do as well.

Full support from the medical center’s foundation has played a part. For instance, the foundation has raised the professor quota of the radiology field to minimize the time required to diagnose patients. 

Dr. Paik said the medical staff’s dedication has also played a part, and they work so early in the morning to late in the evening to make good on the principle of wrapping things up within a week. 

“Even though a patient is hospitalized at 4:00 p.m., we have a system of completing checks-up and diagnosis on the date of arrival in place, and we have infrastructure to finish up radiological medical science, diagnosis, and pathological checks within three hours by optimizing efficiency,” he said. 

Dr. Paik has enumerated the EUMC cancer center hospital’s strategies to make difference itself from other big hospitals — confidence with hiring special medical guru-staffs, convenient system, comfortableness with medical doctors, nurses and other staffs versed in foreign languages, plus a fast-track treatment process.

The EUMC cancer center hospital attaches priority to foods tailored to meet each country’s tastes, according to Dr. Paik. The post-operation service in which foreign patients are given attendance via e-mail at a given interval after returning home, is also quite important, he said. 

Dr. Paik Nam-sun, director of the Ewha Womans University Cancer Center for Women. signs an MOU on cooperation with Shox Medical Center while leading a medical tour to Uzbekistan. Dr. Paik gives lecturs on Korea’s medical practices, including his own medical tactics on the operation of breast cancer patients, while visiting Shox Medical Center.

Securing Trust through Introduction of Advanced Medical Systems 

Introducing a wide range of state-of-the-art technologies designed to enhance the efficiency of cancer diagnosis and treatment gains patients’ confidence. The medical center hospital is equipped with advanced cancer diagnosis and treatment facilities seen in other university hospitals, like mammography, sonography, CT, MRI and PET-CT. There are also rarely seen advanced systems such as tomography, breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) and stereotactic biopsy, all designed to give a fast, precise diagnosis. Visitors deemed to have a cancer can be confirmed whether they are with or without cancer through imaging and frozen biopsy on the same day when they arrive at the hospital. Dr. Paik said the medical center hospital is the first to do so in the world. 

In 1986, Dr. Paik was credited with conducting breast conserving surgery for the first time in Asia. He said even patients diagnosed of being too advanced to undergo an operation on breast cancer from their native country, are seen having an improved outlook when they return home after being treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and breast conserving surgery. Dr. Paik’s team sometimes performs simultaneous breast reconstruction (TRAM or implant) during cancer surgery, which gives patients’ satisfaction in terms of quality of life, an apparent magnet for attracting patients from OECD countries.  

Dr. Paik diagnoses a child during his delegation's tour to Arzom City, Russia.

wha Womans University Cancer Center for Women Set Sights on Establishing Itself as an Iconic Medical Center in ‘Era of Magok’

“No one believes that even a university hospital can handle all diseases well, and any hospital cannot have a competitive edge without full-fledged characterization and specialization,” Dr. Paik said. 

He noted Ewha Womans University Cancer Center for Women, albeit small in size compared to many large-sized cancer hospitals in Seoul, boasts a capacity to square off against any world-class hospital in terms of women’s cancer diagnosis, treatment and research. 

The medical center hospital does not rest on its laurels, but it is making preparations such staff education on hospitality and languages to globalize the EUMC’s hospital, slated for opening in 2018 in Magok, western Seoul. 

Dr. Paik poses with the medical staff of a state-run hospital in Irkutsk, Russia.

The Singing Doctor 

Dr. Paik’s current position will make sure with endless contributions to the development of the Korean medical field. His enthusiastic management capability is noteworthy. 

He loves to sing jazz, read and write poems, learn foreign languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, German, Russian, Arabic so on. He still wants and try to communicate with patient’s languages to foreigners, so that they can undergo treatment in a more amiable and familiar environment. 

Paik took to the stage to sing, in addition to invited singers brought in to entertain patients during his inauguration ceremony. 

He has held jazz performances five times with Korea’s first generation jazz musicians Yoon, Hee-jung, Lim Baek-cheon, Ryu Yeol, Choi Jung-won and German jazz group Saltacello. He was dubbed the “Namsun Sinatra,” after the late Frank Sinatra, as he takes the stage to sing songs whenever he tours foreign countries to participate in medical workshops or give lectures on breast cancer. 

A graduate of Seoul National University Medical College in 1973, Paik has been in the medical treatment field for more than 40 years, becoming one of the doctors who have shot to stardom in Korea and abroad. Actually in 2001 and 2006 respectively he was elected as man of year in America and 100 Top Professional Dr in the field of Stomach and Breast Cancer all over the world by IBA, Cambridge, England.

Paik, who earned a doctorate at Seoul National University Medical College Surgery Department, took up such positions as the director of the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) and the director of Konkuk University Medical Center and underwent a clinical doctor’s training course at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Hospital, the Dana-Farber Medical Center affiliated to Harvard University and National Cancer Center Institute, Tokyo, Japan.