Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym Medical Center (HMC) was designated by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), an affiliate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), on July 13, 2007 as a Project Management Consultant (PMC), a sole consulting institution to support one of the agency's Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects. HMC would consult a project to establish a burn center at Imam Ali Hospital in Baghdad, and a mobile clinic team in Najaf, Iraq, and to provide a training and education program for medical personnel from Iraq.

To follow up on the project, HMC dispatched a four-member PMC mission headed by Dr. Seok Woo Kim of Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital on July 18 to Jordan. During a ten-day visit to the Middle East, they held working-level discussions on the project with Korean ambassadors to Jordan and Iraq, Amer Hassan Al-Khuzaie, Iraqi deputy minister of health, and ten other Iraqi officials.

They touched various supportive matters concerning the establishment and operation of a burn center in Baghdad, and a mobile clinic team in Najaf. They also dealt with personnel training, and equipment operation programs. The meeting was held in Amman, Jordan, rather than in Iraq, for a safety reason as more than 100 causalities being reported every month in Baghdad and Najaf in Iraq.

Building a burn center in Baghdad was a focus of concern at the meeting. HMC agreed to establish a burn center in Iraq, since it had been operating the nation's largest burn center, and the KOICA as well as the Iraqi government showed a keen interest in it.

Dr. Seok Woo Kim, the leader of the Korean mission, said, "HMC's designation as a PMC in a health and medical care aid to Iraq has not only provided Hallym with an opportunity not to be missed in its drive for globalization of the medical center, but also laid a solid groundwork for future international medical business. On top of this, it means that HMC has been recognized by the government to export hospital management skills as well as medical technologies."

About 50 Iraqi medical staff will be trained at Hangang Scared Heart Hospital in the second half of this year. Dr. In-Gyu Hyun, Director of Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, said "To successfully train medical staff from Iraq, we are now working on texts including English manuals to be used in the training program on emergency and burns."