Director Min Yeong-Il, a Doctor with a Bow Tie

The bow tie of Director Min Yeong-Il represents the spirit of service. It is his way of expressing his desire to show that he always puts the patients first. He is from a university hospital. Putting all his fame and high reputation behind him, he has established the first hospital in Korea that specializes in digestive digestion to treat all digestive-related diseases, from digestive failure to cancer surgery. We are becoming a community health practitioner in recent years and are taking steps to share health care activities. In recent years, he has volunteered to serve as a doctor for the whole local community, and is taking part in sharing healthcare activities.

1. You are well-known as a doctor who wears a bow tie.

It has already been 10 years since I retired. I began to wear bow ties since the retirement as a refreshment to myself. A bow tie has a good meaning. It means to serve. These days I wear gowns, which are actually dirty. The bow ties, on the other hand, are clean. Not only are they hygienically clean, but they are also in favor rather than long ties in foreign countries. And when I wear them, the patients tend to remember me more easily. It seems to help build trust with patients in many ways.

2. I can imagine how many episodes there must have been related to bow ties.

At first I was quite embarrassed. When I go to a wedding, people ask me if I am there to officiate the wedding. When I am in a restaurant, I am often mistaken for someone who arranges the shoes. Some people assume that I am a waiter of some sort, so I was asked to guide to their seats once. There are many other interesting episodes.

3. How did you come up with the idea of a hospital specializing in digestive system?

There are private hospitals, primary hospitals, secondary hospitals and tertiary hospitals in Korea. But there are few secondary hospitals. Anyone can go to the university hospitals if they wanted to, which is why there are full of patients at the university hospitals. Even with diseases that do not require attention of university hospitals, patients still go to university hospitals anyway. This causes confusion. However, if there is a hospital specializing in stomach, I think that it is an important role to appropriately filter and send patients to tertiary hospitals. I thought that I would like to have a special hospital that plays such a middle role, and came up with the idea of establishing this hospital.

4. What do you consider the most important virtue of a doctor is?

In the first place, the virtue of a doctor should be becoming an equal to the patient. However, if you go to big hospitals these days, there are many patients, simply because the hospitals are just big and capable of taking in more people. But there are many doctors who think it is because they are so good. They feel superior to the patients and even look down on them. You should never do that. A doctor is in the same position with the patient, only that they are on the side of helping the other. I think such modest attitude is important.

5. I hear that you think palpation is important. Why is it?

It is difficult to identify gastrointestinal disease by taking only photographs. The symptoms that make you sick cannot be seen. Photographs are only for checking whether there is a disease or not. I don’t diagnose on it. So what do I diagnose with? A medical examination by interview. If I ask in detail, 80% of the stomach disorder can be detected. And if you touch it with your hands, you can get a certain sense of it even more clearly, which is why palpation is important.