- This event was held in Pony Chung Hall on the 1st floor of IPARK Tower in Samseong-dong on September 4th.
The Pony Chung Foundation (Chairman Chul-su Kim) chose Professor Cook-Jong Lee, Director of the Gyeonggi Nambu Trauma Center of The Ajou University Hospital, as the 11th recipient of the Pony Chung Innovation Award and held a recognition ceremony in Pony Chung Hall on the 1st floor of IPARK Tower in Samseong-dong, Seoul, at 5 p.m. on September 4th.
The ceremony was attended by 150 guests and members of the Board of Directors, including Chul-su Kim, Chairman of The Pony Chung Foundation, and Mong Gyu Chung, Founder of The Pony Chung Foundation and Chairman of HDC, in addition to professor Cook-Jong Lee, the recipient of the award.
In his congratulatory remark, Chul-su Kim, Chairman of The Pony Chung Foundation, said, “Professor Cook-Jong Lee reminded the general public of the importance of the severe trauma treatment system and made a great contribution to advancing the trauma center business, led by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, through consultations on the revision of the Emergency Medical Service Act. We support professor Cook-Jong Lee, who spares no effort to show his dedication and makes sacrifices to help build a safe and healthy society.”
Professor Cook-Jong Lee, who treated Hae Gyun Seok, Captain of Samho Jewelry who was wounded in Operation Dawn of the Gulf of Aden in 2011, has endeavored to raise public awareness about the importance of golden hours and the absence of a severe trauma system. Publishing a paper titled “A Plan for the Establishment of a Severe Trauma Center” with The Korean Society of Traumatology in 2005, he has emphasized the significance of installing a severe trauma treatment center for 10 years in an effort to improve the poor trauma treatment system in Korea, while also making a great contribution to revising relevant laws through consultation on emergency medical services and pushing for the introduction of regional trauma centers.
Since 2012, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been pursuing the installation of regional trauma treatment centers in order to reduce the 35.2% rate of death caused by preventable trauma in Korea as of 2010, attempting to bring this to less than 20%, the rate recorded in other advanced countries.
Until now, a total of 16 hospitals have been designated. Of these, 9 centers have actually been opened. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to implement a total of 17 trauma centers nationwide with balanced distribution, making it possible for patients suffering from severe trauma to receive treatment within one hour from any place in Korea. Gyeonggi Nambu Trauma Center of The Ajou University Hospital led by professor Cook-Jong Lee was designated in 2013 and opened in 2016. It produced positive results, decreasing the time required for a patient who arrived at a hospital to get emergency surgery by up to 73% and maintaining a rate of preventable mortality at less than 9.0%.
In the meantime, the Pony Innovation Award was established to honor “Pony Chung,” the nickname of Se Young Chung, the late founder of Hyundai Motor Company and the late honorary chairman of Hyundai Development Company. This award is given to individuals or organizations that contribute to making positive changes in Korean society through innovative ideas.
The 1st recipient of the award was Ki Moon Ban, the former U.N. Secretary General. He was followed by Nam Pyo Suh, President of KAIST; World Canaan Farmers’ Movement, In Pyo Cha & Ae Ra Shin (a celebrity couple); Ha Jung Chang, a professor from Cambridge University; Beom Su Kim, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kakao; Seok Ji Young, a tenured professor with Harvard Law School; Yuna Kim, a figure skater; Giorgetto Giugiaro, a car designer; and Seong Jin Cho, a pianist.
