Greatly contributed to the improvement of children’s health via the treatment of congenital children’s heart disease, etc.
Led the establishment of the first pediatrics departments and children’s hospitals both in South and North Koreas
Hong Chang-yee
Honorary professor, Seoul National Univ. (1923~)
- Academic background
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1943 ~ 1945
School of Medicine of the Kyoto Empire University, Japan
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1947
Medical College, SNU
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1962
Ph.D. in Pediatrics, Medical College, Graduate School of the SNU
- Professional career
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1966 ~ 1988
Professor at Pediatrics dept., Medical College, SNU
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1972 ~ 1974
President of the Korea Blood Science Society
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1980 ~ 1982
President of the SNU Hospital
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1982 ~ 1984
President of the Graduate School of Public Healthcare, SNU
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1999 ~ 2002
1st President of the Association of Doctors Practicing Humanitarianism
- Awards
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1967
Awarded by the Minister of Education
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1988
Order of Civil Merit, Peony Medal
Professor Chang-Yee Hong is an authority of pediatric cardiology who led the development of Korean pediatrics via research and treatment on pediatric diseases such as pediatric cardiopathy and pediatric leukemia.
Graduating from the Medical College of the SNU in 1947 as a first class student, he continued to make medical treatments for patients at the SNU Hospital. For two years from 1955, he had training at the Pediatrics Dept. of the Univ. of Minnesota, USA, and he performed research on the diagnosis of pediatric blood and cardiopathy. Later, he performed medical treatments for pediatric leukemia patients for the first time in Korea and operated the cardiac catheterization for the first time, leading the development of pediatric cardiopathy diagnosis. Cardiac catheterization is a diagnosis method which puts a thin string, a catheter, into each part of the heart. In 1959, he diagnosed an 8-year old boy who had ventricular septal defect (VSD) and pulmonary stenosis (PS) and performed open heart surgery for the first time in Korea. He greatly contributed to the development of all the areas in pediatrics, as well as pediatric cardiology and hematology via various research papers related to pediatrics diagnosis and treatment. Especially the paper of “Takayasu’s arteritis in Korean children” published in 1992 included cases of 70 patients and attracted great international attention as well.
After 1970, he wrote books such as “Pediatrics Treatment”, “Pediatrics”, “Pediatric Cardiogram Explanation”, “Pediatric Cardioechogram Explanation”, and “Pediatric Atlas” and in 2001, he published “Pediatric IV Treatment”. Especially, “Pediatrics Treatment” (9th edition in 2003) and “Pediatrics” (7th edition in 2004) are still used as the representative guide books and textbooks in pediatrics as they include broad matters on the understanding, diagnosis, and treatments of the diseases of children overall. His books are also prepared in pediatrics facilities at Pyeong Yang Medial College as North Korean doctors are also referring to them. “Pediatrics Treatment” was translated into English in 2018 and again into the Laos language, becoming the first pediatrics textbook in Laos.
Serving as the vice president and president of the SNU Hospital from 1979 to 1982, he contributed to the development of the SNU Hospital, which turned into a special corporation. Judging that the specialist in Korea is confined in one department which raised the necessity of a family doctor system for comprehensive medicine and treatments for general diseases that are common but not complex, he introduced a family medical care department at the SNU Hospital in 1979 and made efforts for the development of the family medicine area by creating a family medicine society with the doctors trained at the department. Also, in 1980 when he worked for the hospital as the president, he proposed to build a children-specialized hospital at the Hospital Long-term Development Committee. The Children’s Hospital was built in 1985, a first in Korea. After his retirement, he participated in a North Korea aid group, Okedongmu Children, as a director and succeeded to establish the Okedongmu Children Hospital in Pyeong Yang in 2004. The first children’s hospitals both in South and North Koreas were created through his efforts.
In 1958, he participated in the Korea Hematology Society as the founding initiator and took up the presidency in 1972. Later, he served as the president of many academic societies including the Korea Pediatrics Society, Korea Family Medicine Society, Korea Medical Engineering Society, Korea Circulatory System Society, Korea Pediatrics Cardiology Society, Asian Society of Pediatric Cardiology, etc. leading development and exchanges. He made lots of efforts to spread out the developed treatments of Korea in the field of cardio-operations and enhanced the national profile by inviting and treating children’s heart disease patients from third world countries.
He took up the first presidency of the Association of Doctors Practicing Humanitarianism, which was established by doctors who led the democratic movements in 1987, according to his pet theory of “If the world is in pain, doctors must also be in pain.” He was a true doctor and medical scientist who always taught and practiced the belief of “If there is a patient, a doctor should go wherever they are and offer treatment.”