5. Biographies Lee Yong-seol Advocate for WHO Membership
© Yu Seung-hum
in Beijing, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1922, he returned home and worked as an assistant in the surgery department of Severance Hospital for two years. In 1924, he left for the United States, where he received training in orthopaedics at a private hospital in New York. He later transferred to Northwestern University Medical School, and returned home in 1926 with a master’s degree.
QQ Lee Yong-seol
L
ee Yong-seol, also known by his pen name Yeochon, was born in Huichon, Pyeonganbuk-do, in 1895. Lee was the “godfather” of Korean orthopaedics, an independence fighter and a social activist. After graduating from high school in Pyongyang, he attended Severance Hospital Medical School in Seoul and graduated in 1919. While in school, he mobilized student activists to take part in the March 1st Movement for independence from Japan. Thereafter, as a precaution, he fled to China to avoid Japanese authorities, and trained for three years at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital
From 1927, he served as assistant professor at Severance Hospital Medical School, and in 1930 he became a professor, playing an active role both at home and abroad. At the Pan-Pacific Surgical Association Congress held in Hawaii in August 1929, he participated as the Korean representative and made a presentation on emetine injection therapy for the treatment of amoebic abscesses. He also contributed to the popularization of medicine by writing medical-related articles for daily newspapers, and formed the Severance Anti-tuberculosis Association. At that time, the Japanese Governor-General of Korea required college professors to obtain a doctorate degree. Thus, Lee obtained a PhD at Kyungsung Chaeguk University in 1937 with a dissertation titled A Study on the Buffering Capacity of Organizations. In 1938, he was in a case related to a social gathering under the Young Korean Academy (Hung Sa Dan) and was imprisoned for one year. This incident disqualified him from teaching at Severance Hospital Medical School. In 1940, he opened the Lee Yong-seol Surgery Clinic and ran the clinic for five years. With the liberation of the country in 1945, Lee organized the Korean Establishment Medical Fraternity under the Korean Establishment Preparation Board. He was appointed as chairperson, and his clinic was used as a temporary office. The fraternity was later developed into a medical
the origins of health services and who support in the republic of korea
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