Shin Hyung-ik, a professor of rehabilitation medicine at Seoul National University Hospital, took office Tuesday as director of the National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital, which Seoul National University Hospital operates under a government mandate. His two-year term runs through Aug. 31, 2028.
The National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital is a public rehabilitation facility established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and operated by Seoul National University Hospital to minimize disability and support the swift social reintegration of traffic accident patients. The hospital specializes in rehabilitation for patients with severe trauma caused by traffic accidents, falls, industrial accidents and other incidents; as of July, severe trauma patients accounted for 70.8 percent of all inpatients.
Shin outlined four priorities for his tenure: strengthening the hospital's standing as a severe-trauma rehabilitation center, building a continuum of care through the opening of a day rehabilitation unit, deepening clinical and policy research, and developing specialized talent in severe-trauma rehabilitation. He plans to expand the hospital's multidisciplinary capacity to treat higher-acuity trauma patients, drawing on the country's only auto insurance intensive rehabilitation program, and to open a day rehabilitation unit in 2027 that will provide an intermediate level of service between inpatient and outpatient care, creating a seamless treatment pathway from hospitalization through home-visit rehabilitation. Alongside this, the hospital will expand a registry project tracking social reintegration after severe trauma and strengthen multidisciplinary education and exchange to cultivate specialist professionals.
"I will continue to raise the level of expertise in severe-trauma rehabilitation and advance a rehabilitation care system with no gaps," Shin said. "I will stay one step ahead of the changing rehabilitation medicine environment and lead the National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital's sustained development."
Shin graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine and earned his master's and doctoral degrees from the same institution. He previously served as clinical vice director of the National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital and chief of the rehabilitation medicine department at Seoul National University Hospital. He has also held leadership roles including president of the Korean Academy of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Medicine, policy director of the Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine, and vice president of the Korean Society of Critical Care Rehabilitation.
kty@heraldcorp.com
