ACHE signs deal with South Korean hospital, creates cultural learning opportunities

An agreement between Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) and Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, will provide students with cultural learning experiences.

ACHE announced it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Jaseng Hospital on Tuesday (Nov. 12).  The agreement will connect ACHE’s educational institutions with the hospital to “provide cultural learning exchanges” between the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM) and the Jaseng Hospital physicians, a media release said.

ACHE President Brian Kim, who was born in South Korea and joined ACHE in 2019, began a relationship with the hospital while working with the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Kim was instrumental in the agreement.

“As ARCOM develops its osteopathic medical education curriculum for students to practice locally, we want them to have not only national, but global perspective for patient care,” Kim said.  “It will broaden our students’ abilities to approach their patients with mind, body, and spirit medicine which will ultimately help us fulfill our mission to educate competent, caring, and compassionate physicians to practice in Arkansas.”

Jaseng Hospital is one of the largest networks of hospitals for non-invasive treatment of spinal disorders in South Korea.  Jaseng also has multiple facilities in Southern California. The agreement will allow ARCOM faculty to present lectures while the students are in Asia and Jaseng physicians to present research and techniques to ARCOM students through lectures in Arkansas.

Another aspect of the agreement will allow a select group of ARCOM students to complete a clinical rotation in Seoul, studying non-traditional, not-western medical techniques that are practiced at Jaseng. The rotation is expected to last two weeks. Students who have completed their first year of medical school will shadow and observe, while students in year three and four will be able to work with Jaseng physicians, the release said.

Third- and fourth-year curriculum typically includes retired and elective rotations in various subjects including internal medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, emergency medicine, pediatric medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and general surgery and other medical specialties and sub-specialties. The first planned trip for ARCOM students is planned for June 2020.

“It all depends on fundraising,” Kim explained. “Raising the funds, which will allow these students to live in South Korea and study the techniques being used at Jaseng, is a priority for me. We want our students to look at more than just conventional approaches, and this opportunity presents our students with another tool in their medical bag, with a broader depth of experience that they will translate into a more compassionate approach to serving the underserved.”

ARCOM welcomed its inaugural class of 150 osteopathic medical students in August 2017.  Construction is underway on the 66,000-square-foot facility that will be the home to Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Physician Assistant degree programs.