The nation's top health official said he has high standards for medical ethics and high standards for doctors in an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times yesterday.
Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) was formally inaugurated as director-general of the Department of Health (DOH) on Dec. 31 last year after serving as acting head of the department for three turbulent months.
Wang Jung-der (王榮德), president of National Taiwan University's College of Public Health, praised Twu at the inauguration ceremony.
"The best doctor heals a nation," Wang said.
While at the helm of the DOH for only three months, Twu has generated a remarkable number of headlines.
Perhaps the greatest ordeal for Twu during this time was facing false allegations made by disgraced PFP Legislator Diane Lee (
In October last year, Cheng accused Twu of licking his ear forcefully in a karaoke. Many Chinese-language media reported the scandal as if it were the truth, although Twu was soon cleared of the allegation.
Wang said, "I told reporters it is impossible for Twu to do such a thing. But nobody believed my words at the time."
Both Wang and Twu attended NTU's School of Medicine, with Wang one year Twu's senior.
Public health
At the age of 25, however, Twu decided to change his field of study to public health. He had just graduated from the School of Medicine.
According to Twu, more than 90 percent of medical students become doctors after graduating from universities.
"The main reason I decided to change my subject to public health is because I thought by doing so I could take care of more people," Twu told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Twu said when he was in his fifth and sixth years of medical school he often volunteered to join medical teams to serve people in remote areas.
"I encourage medical students to leave hospitals for a while and look at the world outside. They will discover how much people need their service," Twu said.
According to Twu, hospitals are like palaces in which medical students are unable to witness suffering in society.
It would be helpful for medical students if they can spend some time taking care of the elderly, the disabled or AIDS victims in their accommodation centers, Twu said.
After a series of medical blunders in November and December last year, medical ethics has become a hotly debated issue. Twu, who was once a doctor, said a teacher's attitude is very important in developing medical students' care for patients.
"A professor's attitude can significantly influence a medical student's way of treating patients," Twu said.
If the professor does his best to heal patients, is persistent in finding out the causes of patients' diseases and treats his patients as his family members, his students would naturally adopt the same attitude, according to Twu.
"Knowledge alone cannot make a good doctor," he said.
"A good doctor heals his patients' bodies, hearts and souls."
Twu used to teach medical ethics at NTU.
"The way I taught the course was to give my students questions and ask them to discuss and debate the issues," Twu said.
For example, Twu would ask his students to discuss whether to tell patients the truth about their diseases and what is the best way to inform patients of their illnesses.
"There are no absolute solutions to problems about medical ethics. The most important thing is to make my students debate the problems through which they may come to clarify the issues," Twu said.
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