On December 5, 2019, CCADD had a 2^nd year-end workshop at the LAKAI Sandpine resort in Gangneung city. The workshop was not only attended by the existing CCADD members, but also by the prospective student Yoona Choi. The aims of the workshop were to overview, evaluate, and celebrate the achievements of year 2019, to set up new goals for 2020, and to build up team spirit among all the current and future lab members. The workshop included 9 presentations, the theme of which covered the milestone and future of CCADD, administration review, talent acquiring strategies, and educational and research activities.

After the workshop, Siun Kim, a 2^nd year Ph.D. student at CCADD, who happens to be a talented dancer taught a couple of basic choreograph. The song used for the dance cover was 'Let's Groove' by Earth, Wind & Fire. Although many were new to dancing, everyone truly enjoyed dancing. At first, many felt so awkward about their moves, but soon after, everyone moved to the music and enjoyed the session. 

You can also find how fun the workshop was! 

When Prof. Lee decided to attend the AMIA 2019, the annual symposium sponsored by the American Medical Informatics Association, which was held on November 16-20, in Washington DC, USA, he had two objectives in mind. First, Prof. Lee wanted to get an overview of the impending issues and emerging research topics in the field. Second, he wanted to get some insights how those issues and research topics could meld with those at CCADD such that it may adjust, refine, expand, or even cross the border of what it used to day to day in the form of research and project. 

Did Prof. Lee successfully achieve his objectives? Pretty much. Carefully, but rather passively watching and observing what’s happening now in the medical informatics field, which is rather unusual for him, who used to be quite vocal and involving, Prof. Lee realized again that technology may come and go, but the domain doesn’t. It was a pleasant reaffirmation of his longstanding belief. The speakers and audience always emphasized why, rather than how, they did this or that although they were not shy at all of delving into technical complexities when necessary. This AMIA’s ‘put-patients-first’ philosophy was also highlighted by Dr. Tetteh‘s opening keynote speech, who stressed ‘human care’. Wasn’t this the least likely talk that one could expect to hear at an informatics conference? Oh, by the way, Dr. Tetteh is the Chief Medical Information Officer for the US Navy. The audience wholeheartedly responded to Dr. Tetteh’s speech by standing ovation.     

This was very much enlightening to Prof. Lee, given that KOSMI 2019 he had joined just a couple weeks before in Korea was too much packed with technical dudes, who boasted how skillful and advanced they were while failing to or faintly paying due attention to patients, medicine, and the domain. For example, the electronic medical records (EMR) is a great way and tool. But, do we have any evidence that EMR has improved patient outcomes? Has EMR enabled physicians for analyzing patient data more efficiently, assisting them to make better decisions? Not quite so.  

But, don’t get Prof. Lee wrong! Technology is important. “The more we care about the domain, the more we should be fully cognizant of and conversant in the technology”, Prof. Lee spoke up. “What matters, however, is not to lose our perspectives and reasons why we are doing this in the maze of technological overloads”, he added. This understanding led Prof. Lee to his next question. “Have we arrived at a point that encourages CCADD to rethink about its direction?” “Is the timing right?” 

Not sure yet, frankly speaking. However, one thing is clear. CCADD should not postpone asking themselves those questions!   

The In Depth 60 Minutes, an investigative journalism program broadcast by KBS, featured an interview with Prof. Howard Lee on August 16, 2019 with respect the recent Invossa debacle. Invossa is a gene and cell therapy approved to treat patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Invossa was claimed to contain genetically transformed chondrocytes, which turned out not to be the case. Instead, they were cells originated from the human embryonic kidney, which could cause cancer to develop in those who received Invossa. Invossa has been administered to more than 3,000 patients only in Korea. The Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) revoked the marketing approval of Invossa, and promised to initiate a nationwide pharmacovigilance program to investigate the safety impact of Invossa, which though has not been in effect yet. 

In the show, Prof. Lee emphasized why misbranding or mislabelling is a significant health harm, which can be legally penalized. Furthermore, he explained why MFDS was not able to detect what went wrong in the case of approval of Invossa. Prof. Lee added, "Although MFDS has been trying to renovate themselves over the past decade or so, it still lacks the expertise and manpower required to adequately review the safety and efficacy of the drug, particularly advanced therapies such as Invossa." Prof. Lee was featured in a total of four clips. 

The full program can be watched by clicking here.

CCADD members attended the KAIST CHIP (Bio-Healthcare Innovation and Policy) symposium on September 20, 2017 held at the Novotel Ambassador Seoul Gangnam. At the symposium,  Dr. Howard Lee talked about the team's collective perspective on the utility and future potential of the EHR4CR project by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in Europe, particularly in terms of streamlining the process by which clinical trial participants are screened and enrolled based on their eligibility assessment aided by artificial intelligence.