Kwan Aij-lie (關皚麗), a surgeon and professor at Kaohsiung Medical University’s Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, has been elected the first female president of the International College of Surgeons (ICS).
The ICS is a non-governmental organization founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1935, and has its headquarters in Chicago.
The Republic of China has been a member of the ICS since 1944.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Medical University’s Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital
Kwan is the second Taiwanese to head the organization, after the late Lee Chun-jean (李俊仁), who practiced at National Taiwan University Hospital.
Born in Indonesia, Kwan said she had been determined to become a doctor when she was young and obtained a master’s degree in healthcare management and a doctorate from Kaohsiung Medical University’s Graduate Institute of Medicine.
She became Taiwan’s first female neurosurgeon and has so far performed more than 7,000 brain or spinal surgeries.
Kwan has been attending ICS events for more than 20 years, as well as medical missions in remote rural areas of more than 10 countries on six continents.
She once operated on a child with a tumor in an ill-equipped clinic on a small Indonesian island with a cell phone as the only light, the university said on Friday.
In the past few years, Kwan has been promoting the idea of “hope and help,” guiding young Taiwanese doctors to medical projects in remote areas around the world, the school said.
Kwan often tells herself to “just do it” and is passionate about everything she does, it said.
Kwan’s inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 1, was held at a dinner hosted by Kaohsiung Medical University’s Neuroscience Research Center on Friday.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man