2021

Dear respected colleagues from abroad, from military, and domestic.

A well-known movie titled “Along with the Gods (2017, Ha, Jeong-Woo and Cha, Tae-Hyun stared)” comes across my mind. This film tells the story of a firefighter (Kim, Ja-hong) who dies while saving a girl in a fire in a skyscraper. He is led by three grim reapers who guide him through the seven trials in the afterlife.

On watching the movie, I thought for the role of trauma doctors. We trauma doctors are playing a tug-of-war against grim reaper. If we win, the trauma victim lives. If we lose, the patient dies. If we can decrease preventable trauma death rate, our winning rate can be increased. To increase our winning rate, we have to share knowledge through academic communication.

The Korean Society of Traumatology held the first annual conference in 1986 and 27th conference in 2012. From 2013 (First congress), KST together with Armed Forces Medical Command (AFMC) hosted the Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress (PPTC) until 2019 (7th congress). In 2020, because of COVID-19, the online congress was held, this year, this congress is also continued as online congress.

I really hope this meeting can enhance the opportunities for sharing knowledge by providing more chances for academic communication to the participants. I also hope the status of this congress be the higher level in global academic community.

Our official journal “Journal of Trauma and Injury (JTI),” which printed its first issue in 1988, entered to Korean Citation Index (KCI) two years ago. The speakers of this congress are welcomed to submit the presented papers to JTI.

I do believe that if we trauma doctors start installing the stone bridge one by one in a stream and our junior trauma doctors keep continuing, it can be completed someday in the future.

Viva la trauma doctors! Keep playing tug-of-war against grim reaper!

Kun Hwang
President of Korean Society of Traumatology

As a chairman of the board of directors of Korea Society of Traumatology (KST), it is my distinct pleasure and honor to extend to you a warm invitation to attend the 9th Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress 2021 Korea (PPTC 2021) hosted together by The Korean Society of Traumatology (KST) and Armed Forces Medical Command (AFMC) from July 1st to 3rd as online congress.

The COVID-19 outbreak has closed down a lot of academic events and all of us are going through a difficult time. I look forward to passing this difficult time soon and the time when we can gather again and share fellowships.

Over the last decades, in spite of the previous existing poor situations, trauma staffs from both civilian and military sectors have strived for the excellent standard of care for trauma patients. Thanks to such dedications and good co-operation system between civil and military trauma division, outstanding trauma care system has been established including 15 regional trauma centers and 33 trauma specialist training hospitals across the country. Therefore we are able to get one step closer to initial goal which is ultimately lowering the nation’s preventable mortality rate from trauma cases to less than 10%.

In the 9th Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress 2021 Korea (PPTC 2021), our program will offer up-to-date opinions and researches of various trauma specialists. Through this conference, I am sure it will be a great time to share the experiences and inspirational ideas of trauma care and to provide us an opportunity to establish upgraded trauma system and a network of new knowledge of trauma care. I am convinced that this meeting will make a great success, and I hope all of you to enjoy this meeting.

I look forward to meet you at the 9th Pan Pacific Trauma Congress 2021 and meet you at the 10th Pan Pacific Trauma Congress 2022 not online, but face to face.

Welcome and best wishes,

Young Ho Lee
The Chairman of the board of directors of Korean Society of Traumatology

Greetings to the fellow members of the Korean Society of Traumatology! This is Commanding General of the Armed Forces Medical Command, BG Byung Seop Choi. First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for all medical personnel that is relentlessly performing their duties under this grim era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, I would like to respectfully thank everyone who contributed to the successful holding of the 8th Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress.

「Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress」, which is jointly held by the Armed Forces Medical Command and the Korean Society of Traumatology, has now reached its eighth anniversary. Every year at this congress, a countless number of domestic · foreign trauma experts and institutions shared their model trauma care cases, research, experiences, and know-how for the trauma treatment. In addition, due to the endless effort from the Korean Society of Traumatology, multiple regional trauma centers became operational nationwide, and the preventable mortality rate from trauma cases decreased significantly from 50% to below 20%.

On the other hand, the ROK military is striving to establish a world-class 'Korean Model of Military Trauma System' through force integration of MEDEVAC helicopters, cultivation of expert military trauma treatment personnel, and consolidation of a tight clinical cooperation network between military and civilian sectors. As an extension of these efforts, Armed Forces Trauma Center is ready to be operational in this year's September.

"No one left behind us"

Just like this pledge of the ROK military's Medical Corps, 'saving precious lives even under the bleakest circumstances' shall be a passion that is placed at the heart of all trauma medical personnel. Thanks to the effort and the enthusiasm of all participants, I believe that the 「8th Pan-Pacific Trauma Congress」will bring us fruitful results.

Once again, I would like to sincerely thank online and offline participants of this congress and the staff members for making this event happen.

BG Byung Seop Choi
Commanding General of Armed Forces Medical Command