Opening doors
Closed doors are as ominous as stagnant water. Even if an organization succeeds in obtaining excellent results, the benefits of those results will soon pale into insignificance unless it does not open itself to the outside world. Upon her inauguration as president at the National Cancer Center Korea (NCC) last November, the first thing Dr. Lee did was “open doors”, as she decided to make research resources which are housed by the center available to outside researchers. Under her leadership, the center embarked on a project to build an open platform in order to share big data, for the advancement of cancer research. These were the first tasks she took on, as she believes that such wide open doors will invite innovation into the center. Just as changes in the prevailing winds guarantee the advent of a new season, a new spring for the NCC has arrived.
“The major area of interest of the center lies in public health. The research resources we possess, such as the NCC Biobank, the Animal Sciences Branch, the Omics Core Lab, and the GMP pharmaceutical laboratories, can now be used by any researchers. We are currently working on the establishment of an open platform for sharing and routing cancer-related big data. Utilizing this big data will allow us to accurately examine patients, which will eventually lead to a reduction in medical expenses. Sharing this big data with other medical institutions will create a virtuous circle for cancer research, cancer treatment, and policy-making related to cancer. We will ensure that our center becomes a test bed for new treatment technologies as well as a hub connecting the three essential elements of progress: research, treatment and policies,” said Dr. Lee.
The NCC recently completed their own data warehouse and their search portal for clinical research in order to systematically combine and manage data. Currently, the patient information of the 490,000 people who have come to the center has been input into a database and categorized. Access to data from other institutions is still on hold until several privacy-related issues are addressed. In the meantime, an amendment to the Cancer Control Act has been under discussion at the National Assembly. If the amendment passes, data can be shared among different institutions in the public interest. Dr. Lee is eagerly awaiting the outcome of the legislative process.
The newly appointed president has more items on her public health wishlist. She wants to reach out to patients who are suffering from rare, obstinate cancers and help them receive professional treatment. Private medical institutions have usually neglected those patients due to the low profitability of treating them and the high risk entailed by their treatment. She dreams of building a support center affiliated to the NCC for cancer survivors, so that the quality of their lives and those of their families can be enhanced. She also believes that patients have a right to choose to end their lives in a dignified way, and that they should be supported by the NCC, which is the lead organization in the nation’s central hospice network. What she has in mind for the future of the NCC will be realized incrementally. One step will be the completion of an NCC-affiliated hospital in 2020. Just like spring flowers, her dreams prepare for their full blossoming, and her vision, full of vitality, grows like wild herbs.
Paving roads
Most of the critical decisions in our lives are, in fact, made without seeing the big picture or having enough time to ponder upon their consequences. Some people serendipitously find the right path to achieving their dreams and journey all the way to their destination. Dr. Lee is one of them.
She graduated summa cum laude from the natural sciences track at Masan Women’s High School. (Jung-mi Lee, the former Constitutional Court judge, was the top graduating student on the liberal arts track at the same school.) As the top graduating student on the natural sciences track, she was expected to go to medical school, despite her dream of becoming a historian or an archaeologist. She also graduated summa cum laude from KU Medical School and was the school's first female graduate to become a surgeon. She did not have any grandiose plans in mind. She simply wanted to become a doctor who took care of people from a holistic perspective, without prioritizing any specific elements of her eventual work. She wanted to cure diseases rather than merely alleviate symptoms. It was during one lunchtime almost at the end of her internship period when she took the advice from one of her seniors to apply to the surgery department.
“I started at the department of surgery, but soon I realized how hard it was for a female doctor to work there. Unlike today, all the staff of the department were men, except for me. Everyone had their eye on me, and every day was nerve-racking. I cried in the restroom without telling anyone and held out for a year. However, it was not long before I encountered another obstacle. I wanted to be a professor, but couldn’t find a job opening that was a good fit for me. Even though I had a high GPA and high scores, no one dared to offer me an opportunity, because I don't think they wanted to have a female surgeon in their institution. After thinking long and hard, I decided to study abroad in the States. This was when my first child was four and my second was only six months old. Despite my inner conflicts and others’ attempts to dissuade me, I went to the US and studied further,” she recalled.
After coming back to Korea, she worked as a specialist in the breast cancer surgery at KU Ansan Hospital. Currently, the number of breast cancer patients who have undergone surgery performed by her has reached around 8,000. In addition, about 300 patients have undergone breast reconstruction surgery performed by Dr. Lee.
The focus of her career on treating breast cancer patients has generated a lot of personal stories. As cancer treatment takes five to ten years, including postoperative or post-treatment care, it is natural for her to be familiar with her patients and to have listened attentively to their stories. It can be said that she is a humane professional who cares for her patients and feels empathy for them, not just a doctor who provides medical help. This is not surprising, given that she was a romantic when she was a little girl.
In fact, it was her career as a breast cancer specialist that led her to the NCC. In 2000, when the center first opened its doors, Dr. Jae-gahb Park, who had been appointed its first president, wanted to have on staff a young and talented doctor who specialized in breast cancer. Lee, who fit the bill, started to work at the center from its beginnings and has served in several senior positions there while building her legacy. These positions include president of the NCC Research Institute, president of the NCC Breast Cancer Center, head of the NCC’s Division of Convergence Technology, and others. Her career path proves that she is more than ready to be the president of the center.
Being together
“I worked at the center for around eight years before I went back to KU Anam Hospital. The three years I spent at the hospital were a great opportunity for me to think through the requirements of the public health services. Before I returned to the NCC, I learned a lot about the importance of protecting people from cancer and how noble it is to try to improve the quality of cancer patients’ lives. Some might say I did not remain at one organization – either the center or hospital – long enough, but the experiences I had at both places benefitted me. If anyone is assigned a new job or position, they naturally have a so-called “newbie” attitude, regardless of how much experience they have already amassed. I did not have time to be territorial or competitive with anyone. That was how I was able to maintain the newbie attitude for such a long period,” she recounted.
Lee is a pioneer who constantly breaks through the glass ceilings she is faced with, and who undertakes challenges that have not been taken up before by her female colleagues. Now, she confesses that she has not thought deeply about the life and success or lack of it of women because she has been busy competing with her male counterparts. These days, however, she cannot help but think more and more about the ways she can be helpful to her female colleagues. If she has struggled to climb up a steep, rugged mountain, she wants them to be able to walk up a gentle hill, with their heads held high.
“I want to tell my female colleagues that they should not give up their dreams even if the challenges facing them are unforgiving right now. If they continue to make efforts and to take incremental steps towards achieving their dreams, a moment of opportunity will come someday,” promised Dr. Lee.
She does not want to force her female colleagues to follow her path or try to imitate what she has done so far. Instead, she suggests that they walk shoulder-to-shoulder, and offers to be there right beside them. Streams and rivers flow separately, but eventually meet in the ocean. Dr. Lee, who has never stopped moving forward, is now traveling towards a mighty ocean, on whose turquoise waves her and her colleagues’ hopes and solidarity shine.
