Division of Pulmonology

Medical examination and treatment of respiratory organ disease from the history of Severance that has begun in 1885 was initiated by F.M. Stites who was the professor of internal medicine at Severance Hospital on March of 1920. Especially, he introduced the concept of isolation room by establishing the tuberculosis patient ward first in Korea while treating respiratory diseases. Also on 26 October 1928, faculty members, students and alumni of Severance Medical School established the Severance Anti-tuberculosis Association first in Korea and actively treated the lung-oriented diseases in connection with tuberculosis. General M.D. Taylor the Commander of US 8th Army and General P.I. Robinson a Staff General of Medicine, impressed by E.B. Struthers who had treated tuberculosis patients in a yard of Severance Chest Clinic from an aid of Church World Service, built the Memorial Chest Hospital on the place of pulmonary function test to commemorate the soldiers died at the Korean Civil War on 25 July 1950 and it made the basis of Severance Hospital development. Currently, 5 full-time professors and 5 instructors (doctors in the department of internal medicine) are in charge of medical treatments and studies for the overall respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, lung cancer and pulmonary infection and for the patients in the intensive care unit.