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. 

Prof. Lee emphasized the nationwide control tower for new drug development in Korea, preferably at the Prime Minister's Office level. This remark came out at a forum Prof. Lee was invited as a speaker, sponsored by Chosun Biz, November 10, 2022. "The control tower should be the epicenter for coordinating diverse government-led supports, policies and activities to make new drug development in Korea much faster and more efficient", Prof. Lee said. "The control tower can be also working as an overarching center for training experts and bringing up more talents required for every single area of drug development, no matter how it is small or large", Prof Lee added.   

A full newspaper article reporting Prof. Lee's speech can be found here. 

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. 

In the 8th Global Bio Conference sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on September 6, 2022, Prof. Howard Lee emphasized the unique nature of biologics in comparison with conventional small-molecule drugs, particularly in terms of their clinical safety and accessibility. "The safety of biologics should be ascertained even after they are approved for marketing since they are way different from the traditional chemistry-based drugs", Prof. Lee argued. Prof. Lee further pointed out the uniqueness of biologics by saying "We have to be well prepared not only for the utility, but for the potential safety issues in every single biologic, which is anticipated to be more frequently used in a clinical setting." Prof. Lee also addressed the reimbursement for biologics because they are typically more expensive although their efficacy can be dramatic.

More details about Prof. Lee's presentation at the GBC can be found at the following online articles: 1 and 2. 

Prof. Howard Lee was invited to the 2022 Spring Conference of the Korean Society of Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Regulatory Sciences, June 24, 2022, where he proposed the most critical and urgent action items to advance regulatory science in Korea. Prof. Lee emphasized that four areas of uncertainty needed to be clarified first before the level of regulatory science in Korea could be improved. According to Prof. Lee, there are four uncertainties in the regulatory science community in Korea, i.e., the focus, driver(s), human resource development, and making regulatory science academically vigorous and independent. Prof. Lee's talk was featured in an article by KPA News. 

Prof. Lee's full  presentation can be watched at the following YouTube link. 

Prof. Howard Lee emphasized the role of regulatory science in the development and fast introduction of advanced medical products including therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, and vaccines to patients in need. He was invited to the fourth series of the Regulatory Science Innovation Forum on May 3, 2022, where Prof. Lee proposed several strategies to facilitate the principles of regulatory science to be implemented in every decision the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) makes. Prof. Lee also stressed MFDS to self-evolve to become a visionary leadership organization through regulatory science, starting from regulatory agency to scientific agency to public health agency. Several newspaper reported what Prof. Lee presented at the forum: 1, 2, and 3. 

A full video clip of Prof. Lee's presentation can be watched by clicking the following YouTube link. 

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

A column by Prof. Howard Lee, which provided an overview of the issues in drug development in Korea and proposed new strategies to address them, was published at the Op-Ed section of Hankyung, a daily newspaper focusing in economics and finance. In his column, Prof. Lee explained why Korea has not been quite successful in drug development in comparison with its accomplishments in other areas such as semiconductor, automobile, smart phone, and even the content industry these days including K-Pop and K-drama. "There is no drug that has shown commercial viability although >30 new drugs have been developed and approved in Korea since early 2000", Prof. Lee, summarized. "First, and foremost, the business ecosystem has to be revamped", Prof. Lee emphasized, "in order for Korea to show any global leadership in drug development." 

Prof. Lee's column was based on a recent report written by Yoona Choi (lead author), Jung-Hyun Won, YeSol Hong, and himself, which will be published as a stand-alone book early next year. Prof. Lee's column can be accessed by clicking this. 

DailyPharm, an online journalism company, interviewed Prof. Howard Lee as to how new drug accessibility can be increased by easing the current strict criteria for health insurance reimbursement in Korea. More specifically, Prof. Lee argued the ICER cutoff should be lifted much higher to adequately reflect the economic developments over the past decades. Prof. Lee also discussed time has already come to decide if the nation sticks to an old paradigm of ‘reimbursing everything’ in healthcare, which is absolutely unsustainable financially. Prof. Lee urged the Korean government to show leadership developing a society-wide consensus to build a new fund to support patients with life-threatening diseases, who are likely to die soon unless treated with new, innovative drugs, almost all of which are prohibitively expensive.

The details of Prof. Lee’s interview can be found by clicking this link.