Director Baehyeon Jeong and Seoul Medical Association Volunteer Group Named 'True Medical Professionals of the Year'

Director Bae, 48 Years of Medical Service to Low-Income Residents
Volunteer Group Serving Over 200 Volunteers Monthly for More Than 20 Years

Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced on the 6th that Director Bae Hyun-jung of Jeonjin Clinic and the Seoul Medical Association Volunteer Medical Team received the 22nd Hanmi True Medical Practitioner Award, jointly established by Hanmi Pharmaceutical and the Seoul Medical Association.

At the Hanmi Medical Professionals Award ceremony held on the 4th at the Westin Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, Jae-Hyun Park, CEO of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, Hyun-Jung Bae, Director of Jeonjin Clinic, Seong-Geun Kim, Head of the Seoul Medical Association Volunteer Group, and Myung-Ha Park, President of the Seoul Medical Association, are posing for a commemorative photo. (From left)
Photo by Hanmi Pharmaceutical

The award ceremony was held on the 4th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, with the awardees, their families, and organizers in attendance. Since last year, Hanmi Pharmaceutical increased the prize money from 30 million KRW to 50 million KRW. This year, the individual awardee and the award-winning organization each received 25 million KRW along with a plaque.

The awardee, Director Bae Hyun-jung, was recognized for her dedication to medical volunteer work and social welfare activities for low-income residents in the Siheung-dong area of Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, for 48 years after leaving her homeland Belgium. In 1972, witnessing the vicious cycle of poverty and disease in Korea, she established the free clinic 'Jeonjin Sang Family Welfare Center' in the Siheung-dong shantytown in 1975 and began full-scale medical volunteer activities.

Feeling the limitations of running the clinic as a nurse, Director Bae transferred to Chung-Ang University College of Medicine in 1981, obtained her family medicine specialist qualification, and has since operated Jeonjin Clinic, welfare centers, pharmacies, hospice palliative care centers, and local children’s centers. Director Bae stated, "I will continue to faithfully fulfill the mission of a medical professional and walk the path I have been on even more diligently. I will live as a true medical practitioner who shares life with marginalized neighbors until I rest in this country and land."

The award-winning organization, the Seoul Medical Association Volunteer Medical Team, founded in 2003, has been recognized for contributing to the realization of a healthy society by continuing volunteer activities for marginalized neighbors in medical blind spots for over 20 years. The volunteer team conducts shared medical care with more than 200 volunteers monthly and has provided over 730 free medical treatments to foreign workers and over 160 to homeless and elderly patients, continuing their medical volunteer work.

Kim Seong-geun, head of the Seoul Medical Association Volunteer Medical Team, said, "The spirit of service flows in the blood of medical professionals. No matter how advanced society becomes, there will always be medical blind spots, and I believe the power of volunteering fills those gaps." He added, "I ask more people to join the volunteer team in the future."

Park Jae-hyun, CEO of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, said, "The Hanmi True Medical Practitioner Award is a meaningful award that reflects on the noble sacrifice and spirit of service of medical professionals who quietly dedicate themselves to breaking down regional and social barriers both domestically and internationally." He added, "We will continue this beautiful journey to be a great support to medical professionals who help marginalized neighbors and the vulnerable in our society."

Meanwhile, the Hanmi True Medical Practitioner Award was initiated with the purpose of continuously discovering doctors and medical volunteer organizations who quietly carry out medical volunteer activities in unseen places.