6·25전쟁과 한국 보건의학계 및 보건학의 형성

Abstract

This article is an attempt to understand the historical nature of the Korean health and medical system by looking at the formation process of the Korean health and medical community and health sciences before and after the Korean War. Existing studies have mainly noted the post-1960s when the foundation of health and medical care was laid, which reflects the reality to some extent, but there is a problem that the influence of the Korean War and the change of the 1950s were relatively neglected. Therefore, this article looked at the formation process of Korean health and medicine in the connection with the public health activities of the U.S. military government, U.N. forces and Korean doctors who studied abroad. I tried to understand in detail what role Korean doctors played in the formation of the Korean health care system. During the Japanese colonial period, they studied at Kyungsung Imperial University’s School of Medicine, Kyungsung, Severance, and Daegu Medical College, and received Japanese-style ‘theory-oriented education’. In addition, they gained clinical experience in the field after liberation and the Korean War, and systematically studied American-style health science, which can be called ‘clinical-oriented education,’ mainly through studying in the United States. They actively embraced and introduced American-style health science ahead of the Minnesota project of Seoul National University, leading the preventive medicine departments and graduate schools of health at major medical schools as the first generation of health medicine. Along with this, the reason for the firm establishment of American-style public health in Korea was the spread of public health dispensaries and centers, and the creation of the School of Public Health, Korea that supported it. The establishment of the School of Public Health, Korea in September 1953 was aimed at fostering health and medical personnel to support the nationwide increase in public health dispensaries and centers. The concept of American or WHO-style ‘public health’ has been disseminated through the School of Public Health, Korea, and the concept of ‘public health’ spread in this way was realized in reality through health care clinical activities in public health dispensaries and centers. Therefore, the School of Public Health, Korea greatly contributed to the Korean health and medical community adopting the American concept of ‘public health’ based on the existing Japanese concept of ‘public hygiene’ and establishing itself as a Korean-style health science.