Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

On April 25, a young doctor from Mongolia had a chance to learn from Professor Jung Rae Cho of Cardiology who performs stent procedure in the angiography room of Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital. His name was Badral Gankhuyag. He is a cardiovascular surgeon at Regional Diagnostic & Treatment Center, Orkhon Province, Mongolia.

Located in northern Mongolia, Orkhon is a province that is a six-hour drive from the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Although it is about 1.5 times the size of Seoul, its population is only 100,000, which is 1/100 of Seoul's population. Surgeon Badral Gankhuyag is working at Regional Diagnostic & Treatment Center (Mongolia) and he treats patients with cardiovascular disease.

However, he had rarely performed cardiac angiography even though he was a cardiovascular surgeon. The reason behind this is that the medical devices are outdated and it led to dangerous situations such as devices being turned off during the procedure. Angiography is performed by examining the cardiovascular system using X-ray images. Therefore, it is dangerous when the devices are turned off during the procedure because the condition of the tube inserted into the blood vessel through X-ray cannot be known.

Emergency patients who needed cardiovascular procedures had two choices, either take the risk of getting the procedure at the Orkhon Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center or drive six hours to another general hospital located at the capital. Patients with myocardial infarction, for whom it is important to treat quickly, even lost their lives while moving to the capital.

After learning about the current situation of regional healthcare situation, the Orkhon Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Center (Mongolia) established an angiography room and filled the room with the latest medical equipment to solve the problem. Now, the only thing left was to increase the proficiency of Badral Gankhuyag, who had little experience in performing procedures. At that time, Director Naran-Erdene Tsogbadrakh of the hospital took action of asking favor to Professor Jo Jung Rae Cho in Korea. Director Naran-Erdene, who is also a cardiovascular surgeon, recalled Professor Jo Jung Rae Cho of Cardiology, Internal Medicine at Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital. In the past, Professor Jo Jung Rae Cho trained Director Naran-Erdene for cardiovascular surgery three years ago.

Surgeon Badral Gankhuyag, who returned to Mongolia after completing the training, plans to conduct coronary artery surgery while communicating online with Professor Jung Rae Cho. Badral Gankhuyag mentioned, “It was a great opportunity to receive training from Professor Jung Rae Cho, who had a lot of experience.” He also added, “We will continue to do our best to save patients' lives by interacting with Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital.”

“Mongolian patients are vulnerable to cardiovascular disease due to high cholesterol levels from high rates of smoking and drinking,” said Professor Jung Rae Cho, who was in charge of the training. “From this training, I hope that this will improve Mongolia's performing skills of surgery and strengthen hospitals related to cardiovascular procedures, which will help Mongolian patients' cardiovascular health,”he added.

By Hyun Ho Choi, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (dullie1989@hallym.or.kr)