[Person of the Month] A notable young dermatologist Prof. Yoo Kwangho

A notable young dermatologist

Prof. Yoo Kwangho, the Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary’s Hospital

“I learn about recent advances from reading international journals and have contributed at least 30 papers to some of them.”

“I have decided to proceed my career at teaching hospital because I like writing papers”, says Prof. Yoo Kwang ho, a rare young and scholarly dermatologist at the Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary’s Hospital. In his 3rd year of residency, he was even awarded the Young Schweitzer Prize in 2010 for writing a lot of papers. At that time, he was in his 3rd year of residency and already had 20 papers published in SCI-indexed journals.

“It is true that I like writing papers but my advisers also helped me a lot. I don’t think that I would have received the award if it had not been for them, who gave a fledgling resident the opportunities to participate in those studies. I would really like to say thanks to Professors Kim Beom joon, Hong Chang kwon, Kim Myeong nam and Seo Seong jun at the Department of Dermatology of the Chung-Ang University Hospital.”

Since 2007, when he became a doctor, Prof. Yoo has written 49 papers so far. Not only that, but his fluent English also allowed him to contribute 30 papers to international journals.

“I personally don’t think I’m fluent in English. I just like reading international journals and probably it helped. Before smartphones came out, I used to read English magazines whenever I had free time. Academic articles all use similar, concise sentence patterns so I picked them up naturally after reading and writing them repeatedly. I still read international journals in my spare time to learn about recent advances and get some ideas”, says Prof. Yoo.

As a scholar who is always looking for a new object of research, he’s recently got his eyes set on natural materials.

“It seems that industrialization and development are current trends in dermatology. I’m personally interested in developing products made from natural materials. I had made clothes from Hinoki cypress tree for atopic patients and recently even developed a cosmetic product made from sea cucumber.”

Although he had to leave his career for a while to serve in the military, he reignited his passion for research as soon as he was discharged and has wrote another 6 papers so far.

“I wrote 2 papers on cosmetics this years. One of them, which was published in the Clinical experimental dermatology in September last year, explores adverse events from fillers, about how LED therapy is effective for treating early inflammation and foreign body reaction, which may develop after filler has been injected. The other one, which is expected to be published in the dermatologic surgery in April this year, is about side effects from thread lifts. There is a quite interesting back story there. A patient visited my office for inflammation which occurred repeatedly on the area where she had a thread lift procedure 8 years ago. I was having a hard time finding the cause of inflammation because she did not reveal the truth. It was after cutting open the skin that I discovered the cause: it was unabsorbed thread. That’s how I got to write the paper indicating that inflammations may be caused by thread lift procedures gone wrong”, said Prof. Yoo.

He has become a professor at an early age compared to his peers, which allowed him a stable and active career but also gave him some troubles as well.

“In the past, it was so thrilling and rewarding just to see my name on the internet or to receive enquiry e-mails from abroad. That’s what made me feel more interested in writing papers. Now, I get impatient sometimes because it feels like I’m not getting things done as much as I want. But still I’m grateful that I can write papers as much as I want.”

In September last year, he transferred to the Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary’s Hospital, which opened in February last year. As the name indicates, the hospital is dedicated to accommodating foreign patients.

“We have introduced the idea of ‘Meditainment’, which suggests that we provide comfort and pleasure as well as medical services. The hospital is quite large, holding 1,000 beds, 36 departments, and specialized centers, including the Metastatic Recurrent Cancer Center and the Longevity Medical Center. The combined medical & cultural facility is open to anybody, from people seeking health care to foreign tourists. The Department of Dermatology has various, up-to-date equipment and even a lounge for foreigners. I personally think that this hospital is really promising and I hope to contribute to the hospital by patient care and more researches.”

Figure 1. A study titled <Efficacy of combination light-emitting diode (635 and 830nm) therapy in treating local injection-site reactions after filler>. (a, b): before and (c,d): after treatment with light-emitting diode therapy.

Figure 2. A study titled <Chronic inflammatory reaction after thread lifting: Delayed unusual complication of non-absorbable thread>. (A) Photograph of a patient with an erythematous, protruding mass in her left temporal area. (B) In an uncovered skin lesion after biopsy, the end of the blue thread(white arrow) was easily observed

<Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary’s Hospital>

Being close to the airport, the Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary’s Hospital is well suited for accommodating foreign patients and has received 1,304 patients from abroad in 2014. It has provided various fam-tours to families of US Forces in Korea, the Ministry of Health of Iraq, China’s Jinjiang Group, Weidong Ferry, and Harbin First Hospital’s medical team. The hospital also made 44 business agreements with many countries and companies, including Jinjiang Group in Shenzhen, the First Hospital of Xining (Qinghai), the Ministry of Heath of Kyrgyzstan, the Taipei Mission in Korea, and Khan Bank of Mongolia. Foreign patients can take advantage of a separate lounge.

Healthcare Lounge: A resting area for foreigners who are having health screening test

VVIP room: Foreigners’ ward providing exclusive care with bilingual nurses and coordinators; also, it provides customized meals for foreigners

International Plastic Surgery Center (opening soon): An outpatient plastic surgery center for foreigners to provide safe and high-quality medical services of the university hospital. With high-quality medical services, patients can avoid side effects which are showing from other plastic surgery tours exploiting the Korean Wave.

VVIP Ward Healthcare Lounge International Plastic Surgery Center

Additionally, the hospital has the Medical Theme Park (MTP), the first combination of medical & cultural facility in the world. With the core concept of healing, entertainment, and beauty, the MTP Mall(which occupies 14,000㎡ from the basement level to the 3rd floor) is comprised of 4 specialized services, and each services are represented by its own color. Blue section (Balance Park) provides various sports games, such as horse riding, racing, soccer, shooting, and mountain biking.

Green section (Green Square): The largest vegetable factory that produces various vegetables with high-tech hydroponic system. This system does not need any concerns about environmental pollution, such as acid rain or heavy metal poisoning.

Red section (Pleasure Prism): A place to enjoy the korean-style health and beauty care that have become popular with the Korean wave around the world.

Violet section(Maris Square): The square provides a unique pleasure to local residents and visitors with classical music, band music and amateur performances and plays.