Succeeded in a large amount of hepatectomies for the first time in Korea and developed an effective operating method
The designer of the medical social security system and a social service volunteer who provided free and humane treatments
(Late) Jang Gi-ryeo
President, Gospel Hospital and CEO of Blue Cross Medical Insurance Cooperative (1911~1995)
- Academic background
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1932
Graduated from Gyeongseong Medical School
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1940
Ph.D. in Medical Science, Nagoya Imperial College, Japan
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1948
First doctor in North Korea
- Professional career
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1940 ~ 1946
President, Pyeongyang Provincial Hospital
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1947 ~ 1979
Professor of Surgery at medical colleges of Pyeongyang Medical College, SNU, Busan National Univ., Catholic College, etc.
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1951 ~ 1976
1st President of the Gospel Hospital
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1968 ~ 1989
CEO of the Blue Cross Medical Insurance Cooperative
- Awards
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1961
Academic Award, Korea Medical Science Association
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1979
Social Service Award, Ramon Magsaysay Award
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1996
Order of Civil Merit, Rose of Sharon Medal
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2006
Hall of Fame for Science and Technology Persons
Dr. Gi-ryeo Jang was a Korea liver resection and social service volunteer who practiced humane treatment, social service, charity, and non-possession, as well as a designer of the medical security system.
He graduated from Gyeongseong Medical School as the top of the class and entered surgery training under the guidance of professor In-Je Paik, then the best surgeon in the nation. He made around 270 experiments based on which he received a Ph.D. from Nagoya Imperial College, Japan with the thesis, “Microbiological Research on appendicitis and peritonitis due to appendicitis”. After this, he broadened his research to liver cancer, which had a very high incidence among Koreans, and developed liver surgery by succeeding in a hepatectomy for liver cancer for the first time in Korea. As he continued his research, he performed research such as “Morphological Research on Intra-liver Blood Vessels and Bile Ducts System”, “Treatment of Cut Parts by Hepatectomy”, and “Experiments on Limits of Hepatectomy and Methods of Objects for Cases of Acute Liver Function Deterioration.”
Based on these research efforts, he succeeded in a right part hepatectomy for a primary liver cancer patient (large-part hepatectomy) in 1959. This has great meaning as it was done under the poor operation equipment and limitations of diagnostic techniques. He continued his research on the liver and in 1979, succeeded to develop methods to differentiate operating methods depending on the part of the liver that had cancer by collecting and analyzing 189 large part hepatectomy operation cases in Korea for 20 years. His research and operations on livers can be said to be milestone studies to remain in the history of Korean liver surgery and the history of surgery.
Along with active academic activities, he also contributed to the fostering of talented medical persons in both South and North Koreas, working as a professor for those medical colleges including Kim Il-Sung Univ., Pyeongyang Medical College, Seoul National Univ., Busan National Univ., and Catholic Univ. He also contributed to the establishment of the Korea Liver Research Society, currently the Korea Hepatology Society in 1981. His academic achievements were recognized and he earned in 1948, a Ph.D. in North Korea according to the recommendation by the National Degree Granting Committee and in 1960 in South Korea, won the Academic Award (Presidential Award) from the Korea Medical Science Association. In addition, the day of October 20th, when he succeeded on the large part hepatectomy, is designated as the Day of the Liver in commemoration of his achievements. He was admitted to the Hall of Fame for Science and Technology Persons in 2006.
Though he was a great surgeon, he has been, throughout his whole life, a social volunteer who practiced humane treatments for poor people living in honorable poverty. Beginning with the establishment of the Gospel Treatment Clinic (currently Goshin College Gospel Hospital) in 1951, he established various welfare facilities such as the Blue Cross Social Welfare Association and the Disabled Rehabilitation Association. In 1976, he established the Blue Cross Hospital. With all these accomplishments, he devoted himself to the alienated people and the promotion of welfare for local communities. He also struggled for promoting welfare for people in poverty and the disabled, performing medical care projects, job arrangements, scholarships, child care facilities, etc. so that they could enjoy life as a member of society. With all these achievements, he was respected as ‘the symbol of humanity’, practicing the love for poor neighbors throughout his life.
The Blue Cross Medical Insurance Cooperative established in 1968 for poor patients is the mother of the present medical insurance system as well as the first medical insurance cooperative, regarded as one of his most prominent accomplishments. Based on the Christian faith, he himself has carried out serving others, charity, and non-possession for 65 years of humane medical treatments. Once, he performed surgery for a patient without money, and then, still under the pressure of accumulating medical bills, he helped the patient to sneak away from the hospital in the night. Further, he passed away on a cold early morning in December 1995 at the hospital’s residence on the roof of the hospital, as he never owned a house of his own. Because of this, he was called the ‘Korean Schweitzer’, ‘Father of Charity Patients’, and ‘Holy Mountain’, and was awarded the Asian Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award as well as the 1st Hoam Award and Order of Civil Merit, Rose of Sharon Medal.
Dr. Gi-ryeo Jang was a medical science scholar with prominent achievements in liver surgery as a charitable doctor who did not spare anything. Up until today, 20 years since his departure, his life still moves our hearts and lots of papers and books review his academic achievements and medical ethics, thought and faith, and altruistic life.