[The Editors' Verdict] Post-COVID: We Must Nurture Physician-Scientists to Treat Future Patients

Thirty years ago, when engineering colleges were more popular than medical schools, I entered medical school seeking a stable life and fatefully met Professor Heo Gap-beom. He was the personal physician to the late President Kim Dae-jung and an authority on diabetes. When we first met, he asked me if I knew what an MD-PhD was. When I answered that I did not, he told me that in the future, many doctors engaged in research and development (R&D) rather than clinical practice would be needed, guiding me toward the path of a physician-scientist. At my wedding ceremony, he even said, "Do not become a small doctor (小醫) who only treats diseases, but become a great doctor (大醫) who contributes to the advancement of humanity through research." Professor Heo, who devoted his life to nurturing physician-scientists, passed away this January, leaving me the legacy of fostering physician-scientists.

After the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic crisis over 20 years ago, the popularity of medical schools increased. Many believed that to develop the bio-medical industry as a core industry of our country following shipbuilding, automobiles, and semiconductors, it was essential to train excellent medical students as physician-scientists. Even ten years ago and now, we still say that physician-scientists must be nurtured for the advancement of the bio-medical industry. Despite saying the same thing for 30 years, it is still difficult to find physician-scientists in reality. Over the past 30 years, 100,000 doctors have been trained, but fewer than 100 are full-time physician-scientists engaged in research. Physician-scientists are essential for responding to new diseases, developing vaccines and new drugs, and creating innovative medical devices, yet doctors working in R&D are almost nonexistent.

This spring, I witnessed countless great doctors on the front lines of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Their life-risking dedication and soon-to-be-developed treatments and vaccines will soon bring COVID-19 under control. However, another infectious disease or an unforeseen new disease will come to us. Our country's clinical medicine field, which diagnoses and treats diseases within the existing medical system, has now reached the world's highest level in about 70 years since the war. We now urgently need a new group of experts who are doctors but also scientists and engineers, capable of understanding newly emerging diseases, developing effective diagnostic and treatment methods, and establishing and leading new medical systems. They will be the defense force protecting our society from the threat of new diseases on the front lines of quarantine and the great doctors who will create new growth engines for the nation and innovate the future at the forefront of the 4th industrial revolution in the bio-medical field.

Gilead, famous for developing the COVID-19 treatment 'Remdesivir,' started as a venture company founded in 1987 by Michael Riordan, a young 28-year-old physician-scientist. Thanks to the success of the flu treatment Tamiflu, it grew into a top 20 global pharmaceutical company in just 20 years. This is a good example showing that innovative ideas and focused development can rapidly propel a company into a major pharmaceutical firm. Population aging, the emergence of new infectious diseases, and the development of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are both crises and new opportunities. To surpass a national income of $30,000 and reach $50,000, our country must now produce world-class companies in the bio-medical field. Training physician-scientists who understand diseases well and can lead R&D is the base camp for this.

Many have called for the training of physician-scientists over the past 30 years, but it has not been very successful. However, we cannot give up here. Let us establish a system to train doctors who work outside the clinic. Beyond traditional physician-scientists, let us train more specialized physician-scientists, such as physician-software engineers, physician-new drug developers, physician-big data analysts, and physician-AI engineers?physician-X. They will save lives on the front lines of the bio-medical industry and become the foundation for leading our country to become a top-tier nation.

Ha-il Kim, Professor, Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, KAIST

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.