In response to their book published in 2019, later revised in 2024, entitled 'The Age of Biopharmaceuticals Is Coming', Drs. Howard Lee and Siun Kim were interviewed by Korea Job World early this year, which has been posted on YouTube. This interview was primarily focused on biopharmaceuticals in terms of their differences in comparison with small molecule drugs and as to why they have become important recently. Drs. Lee and Kim also discussed what kinds of disciplines and technologies are critical to successfully develop a biopharmaceutical. A full video clip can be watched by clicking the link below. 

Yoona Choi and Jung-Hyun Won attended the 65th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), which took place from December 9 to 12, 2023, in San Diego, USA. Annually, the ASH conference brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, clinicians, and academics from around the globe to explore advancements in hematology. This prestigious event not only focuses on the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of blood disorders but also features a variety of social events and opportunities for collaboration and the sharing of insights among experts in the field. Official photos from ASH are available here.

At the 'Outcomes Research—Lymphoid Malignancies: Poster II' session, Yoona Choi, serving as the first author and representing the entire research team, presented a study titled 'Evaluating the Effectiveness and Safety of Prephase Steroid Treatment before Remission Induction Chemotherapy in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Common Data Model-Based Real-World Data Approach.' This study investigated steroid pretreatment in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients undergoing remission induction chemotherapy (RIC), with the aim of reducing complications such as tumor lysis syndrome (TLS). Analyzing data from Seoul National University Hospital and Catholic University Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, the study compared patients who received steroid pretreatment at least seven days before RIC with those who did not. The findings indicated a significant reduction in TLS incidence in the pretreated group. While overall survival rates were higher in this group, the difference was not statistically significant. These results provide important real-world evidence for the effectiveness of steroid pretreatment in reducing TLS risk in pediatric ALL patients.

This study was part of a larger project, funded by a grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, aiming to develop a disease registry database for pediatric ALL using real-world data in the clinical data warehouse (CDW) of Seoul National University Hospital and Catholic University Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, thereby generating real-world evidence for pediatric ALL. 

CCADD had a year-end workshop on December 21st, 2022. This year, Prof. Howard Lee and the members of CCADD were joined by PMATCH (the tech start-up led by Prof. Howard) and Dr. Hyun-Ah Lee (our respected alumnus). The workshop was also delightful because some of Prof. Howard’s part-time students and Yujin (our student intern) were there too.

The first session gave a look back on 2022. Accomplishments—academic and otherwise—were shared and celebrated. Prof. Howard cheered the members for their effort and delivered a message of hope for the coming year. The following sessions laid out some concrete plans and goals for 2023, such as attending conferences domestic and abroad and streamlining journal club and book reading programs.

In the afternoon, PMATCH took us down memory lane about all the footsteps leading up to the development of its app, Battery, and its upcoming global debut at CES^® 2023, one of the world’s biggest tech event. Yoomin Jeon, the Chief Technology Officer of PMATCH, stitched all the key moments into a single narrative, which had been so far shared with CCADD in parts.

Perhaps, one of the most anticipated sessions was Dr. Hyun-Ah Lee’s talk about her career after graduation. She traced back her memory from the time when she was studying under Prof. Howard to where she is today. She admitted her life as a PhD student trying to be on par with the rigor and the expectation of Prof. Howard was never easy but definitely worth pursuing. More importantly, she urged us to hang in there as it will all pay off one day, and her sincerity resonated with all of us.

The day’s workshop closed with a special lecture by Prof. Howard. He proposed a vision for CCADD in 2023, exhorting us to recognize the need for honing the necessary skillsets and realigning our research area. Most importantly, Prof. Howard’s closing remark that CCADD should make a bigger leap forward in 2023 taking risks and facing challenges inspired us like nothing else.

Yesol Hong won the Excellent Research Award at the 30th Annual Conference of the Korean Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics (KSCPT), December 1-3, 2022, held at Bexco, Busan, South Korea. The title of YeSol's presentation was "One-year follow-up of patients with COVID-19: Analysis of new-onset disease after COVID-19 diagnosis using Real-World Data". She discussed the results of an analysis of the occurrence of disease in patients with COVID-19 over a year using two different real-world data sets. One of her analysis results was a nation-wide study, which was significant in that it included the largest number of study subjects among the studies analyzing the post-COVID-19-condition in Korea. Jung Hyun Won equally contributed to this study with Professor Howard Lee serving as the principal investigator.

Additionally, Siun Kim, Yoona Choi, David Seung U Lee also presented their research through poster exhibition at the conference. 

Full presentations can be watched at the following YouTube links: 

YeSol had the honor to deliver oral presentation and won the Excellent Research Award at 2022 fall conference hosted by the Korean Society of Medical Informatics(KOSMI). YeSol has presented her work entitled "Effectiveness and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors(SGLT2i) added to mono, dual or triple treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)". She discussed the additive efficacy in glycemic control and the tolerability of SGLT2i in T2DM patients when combined with other antihyperglycemic agents, such as metformin, sulfonylureas, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors using real-world data. Yoona Choi, TaeKyu Chung, and Yoomin Jeon also contributed to this study as co-researchers, with Professor Howard Lee serving as the principle investigator.

The conference was a three-day event (from Nov 23rd, 2022 to Nov 25th, 2022) and was held at The International Convention Center, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk, South Korea. This conference, the host(KOSMI) organized the event around the theme, "The Power and Value of Healthcare Data Linkage". The conference was full of enlightening speeches that reflected the progress made in the field of medical informatics. With a total of 1,039 participants, this conference was held on the largest scale ever among KOSMI conferences. 

The book 'There's no such thing as K-Quarantine', written by Prof.Howard Lee, Jung-Hyun Won, YeSol Hong and 13 others, was selected in the liberal arts section of the Sejong Cultural Book Program this year. The Sejong Cultural Book Program is organized by the Publication industry Promotion Agency of Korea. This program aims to promote domestic publishing activities and to build a knowledge-based society by selecting outstanding books among those published throughout the year. Books worth 8 million Korean won will be distributed to public libraries nationwide. In 2022, 550 books were selected from a total of 8,698 candidates. The book There's no such thing as K-quarantine was selected as an excellent book in the field of technology science. 

Three other MDs were also interviewed and the detailed report of Prof. Lee's interview can be found here. 

Prof. Howard Lee met approximately a total of 1,700 viewers live at the After the Rain, a YouTube channel focusing on various healthcare issues. This live stream was arranged to promote a book Prof. Lee has just published as the lead author, entitled “There was no such thing as K-Qurantine”. YeSol Hong and Jung-Hyun Won are also the coauthors of the book.

A full video clip can be watched by clicking the following link: