Reformation of the Medical Educational Institutes and Training of General Doctors during the Early Period of Japanese Rule / 의사학

The Japanese government downgraded a Korean medical college being attached to the Daehan hospital to a medical training center blaming upon a lack of education in Korea. But the actual curriculum and the years required for completing a course of study in the Korean medical college were equivalent to those of the Japanese medical college. Furthermore, the Japanese government discarded the financial support for medical school students. So they should pay their tuitions and other stipends by themselves. The Japanese government forced a private institute to establish an endowed school by the legal act of college. It enabled to classify a medical education system with the judicial support. For the example of Severance Medical School, it reformed faculty, curriculum and facility according to the legal standard of a college act. Therefore, Severance Medical School was able to be upgraded to a medical college. But there was a limitation even for the government schools under the colonial era. It was not possible to train important medical human resource who enabled to supervise the modern medical system in Korea. On one hand, almost every important medical human resource such as a military doctor, and a professor, who should have trained in Korea in the Great Han Period, was trained in Japan. On the other hand, fostering general doctors, who practiced medicine with hands-on experience, was the purpose of medical education in Korea whether the medical school was governmental or private. Since the purpose of Severance Medical College was to foster general doctors, it was able to grow within the colonial medical system. The purpose of medical missionaries, who promoted the spread of gospel with the western medical support, enforced the Japanese colonial logics that the Japanese government could educate and develop Korea with the introduction of western civilization. Although it was later comparing to the government medical school, Severance Medical College enabled to certify the medical license automatically to the graduates from the school. The reason that the Japanese government allowed for Severance Medical College to issue the automatic medical license was to keep the colonial structure of Japanese in Korea.

Medical education in Je Joon Won / 의사학

Medical education in Je Joong Won was proposed and initiated by Dr. HN Allen. In his proposal of building a new hospital, submitted to the king in 1885, he expressed his wish to teach Western medicine to young Koreans at the hospital. The king welcomed his proposal and the plan was soon realized. Je Joon Won, the first modern hospital in Korea, opened on April 10th, 1885. The following year, on March 29th, Dr. Allen began medical school attached to the hospital. Many applicants were recruited by the government and 16 students were selected through the entrance examination. At first, they were taught English and finally 12 students out of them were selected after three months of teaching. The selected students were taught arithmetic, physics, chemistry, anatomy and physiology. The medical education at this period cannot be evaluated entirely successful since none of the 12 students was presumed to have worked as a practitioner.

The fate of the old Jejoong Won following the establishment of the new Jejoong Won (Severance Hospital) / 의사학

Dr. Allen, the first Protestant missionary in Korea, had an opportunity of saving the life of the queen's nephew shortly after his arrival in Korea in 1884. In gratitude the King established the Royal Korean Hospital (Jejoong Won), the first hospital in Korea, and appointed Dr. Allen in charge of the medical affairs of the hospital. After Dr. Allen's resignation from the mission, the work was successively carried on by Drs. JW Heron, RA Hardie, CC Vinton and OR Avison, the last of whom arrived in 1893. In 1894 the connection of the Hospital with the Korean Government was severed and the work taken over by the Northern Presbyterian Mission. Since then, it has been a distinctly mission institute. In 1900, while attending the Ecumenical Conference of Foreign Missions in Carnegie Hall, New York, Dr. Avison made the acquaintance of a philanthropist LH Severance, who made a gift of $10,000 for a new hospital. This building, the first modern hospital in Korea, was opened and dedicated in 1904. It was named the Severance Hospital. As the new hospital was built, the old hospital building was to be returned to the Korean Government according to the agreement made in 1894. On retaking the old hospital, the Korean Government paid $30,289.99 won for the renovation of the original building and new buildings established in the site during the period of Avison's entire charge of Jejoong Won. The old hospital building was used as an official residence for a diplomatic adviser Stevens, who was assassinated for his pro-Japan activities, and as a social club for Japanese officials.

A study on the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital under the rule of Japanese imperialism / 의사학

Koreans had an ill feeling against the only public isolation hospital, and their ill feeling was a cause the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The bad seating capacity and the nearness to downtown of public isolation hospital, and some violence caused in the course of taking a patient to the public isolation hospital were concrete causes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The three purposes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital are as follows. First, for the purpose of removing the national ill feeling, Koreans had to establish the isolation hospital by themselves. Second, for the purpose of curing the patients, doctors needed to use Oriental medicine together. Third, for the purpose of doing away with the anxiety of infection, the isolation hospital had to be located in a distant place from downtown. The movement for establishing a private isolation hospital didn't succeed. It only ended up establishing a contagious ward in Severance hospital. Because whenever an isolation hospital was planned to be constructed somehere, the residents worrying about the infection opposed to the construction, and enough money didn't be gathered. Abve all, rich pro-Japanese men didn't contribute enough money. The middle and lower classes contributed almost all of the money. The movement for estabishing a private isolation hospital was the extension of anti-Japanese national feeling that sprung from the March 1st movement. In view of strenghtening Korean ability, the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital had a common cause with the Shilryokyangsong movement in the early 1920s.

A study on medical educational system in North Korea / 의사학

Medical education in North Korea began with 2 medical colleges established during the 1930s and 1940s, and each Province came to have one medical college by the 1970s. It is presumed to exist 14 medical colleges in 1992. Apart from medical colleges, there are several kinds of medical schools. the number of medical practitioners has increased as the number of educational institutes for medicine increased. In 1996, there was 29.7 medical practitioners for 10,000 persons. They have several kinds of academic degrees in North Korea. They include: Wonsa, candidate Wonsa, doctor, vice-doctor, candidate doctor. In the university they have professor, associate professor, associate professor, lecturer, and research assistant. Academic degrees and positions are given not by the university nor research institute, but by the Government Board for Awarding Academic Degree and Position. Concerning research institutes, there is Chosen Institute for Medical Science that once was a medical research center under the Central Science Academy, and became an independent institute in 1963. Besides this institute, universities have their own research institutes, and there are also some other independent institutes.