Professor Bang has actively hosted international conferences among Korea-Turkey, Korea-Japan, and Korea-China-Japan, etc. as well as organized a symposium on Behcet’s disease in the International Society of Dermatology. His important work in Korea and abroad was recognized. However, taking the first step was not easy.

“In 1985, I attended the London conference of International Society for Behcet’s Disease for the first time. Around 300 doctors had gathered from 24-25 countries. I gave a presentation on Korea’s case studies but the doctors who’d never even heard of Korea doubted the validity of my data. In 1991, I sought out the University of Istanbul where Dr. Behcet (1889~1948) worked as the head of the department and gave a presentation. Then, I received positive reaction and the doctors there wanted to share the research efforts every 2 years. Turkey was the country where Behcet's disease was first discovered and boasts the largest amount of published literature on this topic in the world. And such positive feedback from the Turkish doctors was quite meaningful to me. This gave rise to active research and in 2012, Korea ranked 4th among 68 countries in terms of the number of papers published on the topic in the past ten years in pubmed. This was a very rewarding discovery for me.”

 

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Making the International Society for Behcet’s Disease a forum for research and friendship

 

Professor Bang who has researched Behcet's disease for decades also received Hûlusi Behçet Award at this year’s assembly. This award is given to honorable scholars with great academic contribution in the field.

“I publish English versions of Korea’s history of Behcet's disease and send them out to the researchers in the field around the word. I have published 9 books so far. I started this project in the hope to create an index for Behcet's disease. I am also trying to establish treatment guidelines. In the past, very strong therapies such as anticancer drugs were prescribed once Behcet's disease was diagnosed. But from my experience, the right dosage was different in each patient. Identifying the right dosage based on statistical data can help reduce side effects and the financial burden of patients. The goal of my research was to benefit patients with Behcet's disease and I am very grateful and honored to receive this award.”

Professor Bang says that people often ask him why he chose such a rare and difficult disease. He answers that the major presentations of the disease; oral, genital, skin and eye inflammation fall under the specialty of dermatology. As such, a dermatologist should treat the disease. He also hopes that younger doctors take more interest in Behcet's disease.

“Aesthetic treatments are an important field within dermatology. However, doctors have no reason for being if there are no diseases to treat. I hope the young doctors of today see all diseases as related to their work and take more interest. As the Vice President of the International Society for Behcet’s Disease, I will also work hard to enlarge Korea’s contribution to the research on Behcet’s disease.”