The Special Session

[Hello, Dr. Hyun Kyungwoo. This is the secretariat of the Association of Korean Medicine Science.]

"Yes, hello."

[We are considering featuring your paper as a special session at the upcoming academic conference. Would you be available to give a lecture? If you accept, we will expedite the peer review process.]

The academic conference of the Association of Korean Medicine Science is held several times a year in different regions. Among them, the national conference held in January at COEX in Seoul is one of the biggest academic events in the field.

Because it counts toward continuing education credits, many Korean medicine doctors attend. It is an event where the latest knowledge in the field is shared, including new treatment methods and notable papers from the previous year.

'That’s a relief. I was worried I might have missed the window...'

Originally, Kyungwoo had intended to publish the paper only after Jia reached complete remission. He had expected to be invited to next year’s conference, but he had moved up the schedule to provide support for Professor In Gyeonghak.

'Thanks to that, the title of the paper ended up being "Improvement" rather than "Remission"...'

It was a bit disappointing to have lowered the buzz, but seeing as they were willing to organize a special session and expedite the review just to get him to lecture, it seemed that even this level of result was quite impressive.

Therefore, Kyungwoo’s answer was, naturally:

"Yes, I am available."

[Since it is a single-case study with such dramatic improvement, there might be rebuttals or attacks during the Q&A session.]

"That doesn't matter."

As ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he hung up the phone, Gong Chayoung, who had been doing a study session with him for the handover, asked with wide eyes.

"The Association of Korean Medicine Science? Are you talking about our paper?"

"Yes. They asked me to present it at the conference."

"Wait... the January COEX conference? That’s less than three weeks away! I already signed up to go, and the schedule is already out."

"They said it’s a special addition."

"Whoa."

Gong Chayoung’s jaw dropped.

'A paper where I’m the second author is going to be presented at an academic conference!'

After Kyungwoo accepted the lecture, an announcement appeared on the Association’s website that a special session had been created.

Upon seeing the announcement, members began to post their expectations on the bulletin board.

The public opinion, which had been positive, turned skeptical once the paper was approved and became available for viewing.

It wasn’t that there hadn’t been Korean medicine papers on CRPS before. However, the reason this paper became controversial was, first, that the test data was presented in extreme detail. While previous papers mainly calculated improvement using subjective pain indices or physical examinations like VAS, NRS, ROM, and sleep duration, this paper compared various metrics including MRI, infrared thermography, and bone density scans before and after treatment.

The second reason was that the degree of change in those figures was extremely dramatic. It wasn’t just a "significant improvement"; pain levels of 8-9 on the NRS dropped to 1-2, and objective indicators like skin temperature and edema also showed dramatic improvement. That was why the conference chair had gone through verification procedures with Professor In Gyeonghak, and why the doctors who read the paper were tilting their heads.

'Isn't this... too exaggerated?'

Discussions broke out in research labs at various universities.

"It seems like Western treatments like nerve blocks were used in parallel. Looking at how they received periodic tests, the patient was clearly seeing Western doctors consistently."

"The author isn’t an idiot; would they include test figures that would obviously cause trouble? My vote is that they’re just an incredibly skilled practitioner."

The talk, which initially spread among doctors interested in academic data, began to be discussed on the "Korean Medicine Agora" starting from the Wednesday anonymous board.

The snowball was rolling. Of course, it was something that would be known once they saw it. The conference was not far off, and many were sharpening their knives to listen to the lecture that day. However, Seong Jaeyoung, the director of the Gyeong-hyun University Korean Medicine Hospital, was quite unhappy with this situation.

'Hyun Kyungwoo... he’s In Gyeonghak’s disciple, right? The one who messed up the emergency room as he pleased a while ago!'

Seong Jaeyoung’s face twisted. The atmosphere in the hospital had been strange ever since, and his stance, which had been calling for increased revenue and management normalization, was wavering.

'Master and disciple, I don’t like either of them.'

He was also scheduled to give a lecture on his own paper at this conference. He had been invited for a regular session, and before that "aggro" erupted, posts saying "the most anticipated lecture of the year" had occasionally appeared... but now, he wasn’t even being mentioned.

'How dare they, with a single clinical case...'

Seong Jaeyoung’s paper title was <Integrated Rehabilitation Treatment Protocol for Functional Recovery in Spinal Stenosis Patients: A Multi-Center Clinical Study>. It was a large-scale project conducted with his disciples working at various institutions, testing an integrated rehabilitation protocol on 212 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) over 12 weeks. In terms of research value, his was clearly superior.

'Do they really think those figures make sense?'

Because of those inflated numbers, his research results suddenly looked pathetic. After 12 weeks, pain decreased by an average of 38.4%, functional disability improved by 27.5%, and walking distance increased by 41.2%! It was a significant change, but a strange paper reporting "90% improvement" in a severe disease like CRPS had popped out of nowhere.

'And of all things, CRPS...'

He gritted his teeth, remembering the argument he had with In Gyeonghak a while ago. Professor Seong Jaeyoung had his own philosophy. Korean medicine treatment could provide much more diverse approaches than Western medicine for chronic pain and functional diseases. Therefore, they should avoid reckless attempts and clearly position themselves in areas they were good at. In other words, a vision that they should occupy the space of lifestyle medicine and management medicine.

That philosophy always clashed with Professor In Gyeonghak’s, who argued that since such mild diseases could be handled comfortably at the local level, university hospitals should pioneer new horizons.

'Is this perhaps a picture In Gyeonghak made behind the scenes?'

He barely held back the urge to call the conference chair and demand to know if this was a properly verified paper. 'Let’s see. Let’s see what kind of presentation they make.' Seong Jaeyoung was determined to attend that session.

Time passed quickly as he wrapped up the affairs in Yongdeok-ri, and the morning of the conference dawned. Kyungwoo, who had woken up at a business hotel near COEX, ate hotel breakfast with Gong Chayoung. He had to arrive by 10 AM since he planned to fulfill his continuing education credits while he was there.

Gong Chayoung had dark circles under her eyes.

"Didn't you sleep well?"

"Yeah... I’m not the one presenting, but it’s a paper I participated in, too. You must have slept well, Senior? You have nerves of steel."

Well, it was a day he had skipped his training... Kyungwoo, who had slept soundly for the first time in a while, had glowing skin.

"You're so laid back about everything else, why are you so anxious when it comes to Korean medicine?"

"I'm not laid back!"

Kyungwoo chuckled inwardly and retorted, "What is there to be anxious about? Case presentations are something I always do, and it’s not like I’m not confident in the research results."

"Well, you trained under Professor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠In Gyeonghak the whole time when you were a resident... Ugh, still, there will be way more audience members here!"

Kyungwoo shrugged and downed the remaining half of his omelet. Gong Chayoung put down her cutlery and jumped up. It was time to leave. 9:50 AM. Kyungwoo and Chayoung arrived at the conference hall after navigating the parking congestion at COEX.

The front of the hall was already bustling with various vendor booths, new medical device experience zones, and lines of Korean medicine doctors waiting to check in for their continuing education credits. Kyungwoo stood at the end of one of those lines. He was looking down at a few brochures someone had shoved into his hand when...

"Dr. Hyun?"

A familiar, resonant voice hit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his ears. It was the representative director of the Gangnam Daeo Korean Medicine Hospital. His eyes became strangely moist upon spotting Kyungwoo.

"Oh my, you man. What have you been doing? Not even a single call."

It wasn't just that there were no calls... honestly, he had left them on "read" several times. That was because they kept sending calls and texts asking him to please return, even though he had said he wasn't interested.

'Of all days, to run into them here...'

"Well... I've been doing well."

"Do you know how many calls I've had from patients looking for Dr. Hyun? You know I blocked all of them, right?"

Was that something to boast about? He had probably just done his best to divert the patients looking for Kyungwoo to other doctors at Daeo. However, Kyungwoo didn't bother pointing that out. They probably had gone through some trouble.

"What are you doing these days? If you want to return, the doors of Daeo are always wide open! I can even hang a banner with your profile as big as this outside the building."

They didn't seem to know about Kyungwoo’s lecture. Well... he wasn't a man with academic interests to begin with. He probably came here just to fill his continuing education hours without even knowing what lectures were being held.

Kyungwoo didn't bother mentioning that he was giving a lecture, that he had opened a clinic in Goesan, or that he was moving up to Gwanggyo. It was obvious that it would only be tiring to talk about it. However, he was a little curious about how the people he used to work with were doing.

"Are they all doing well?"

"...Dr. Hyun, our number of directors has decreased, and we've laid off some staff. You didn't know?"

The reason his eyes had become moist upon seeing Kyungwoo. "The Somyung Gangnam branch has been determinedly expanding its size for the past half year. We took a hit, too... Do you really not want to return? I’m confident I can treat you well!"

"I apologize."

After firmly cutting off the clingy director, Kyungwoo thought of someone.

"Is Manager Kang still working there?"

"Manager Kang? Ah, Kang Sera. Come to think of it, Manager Kang followed Dr. Hyun well. That friend quit quite a while ago. Did she quit early last year?"

"I see."

Kyungwoo input that information into his mind and wrapped up the conversation. "I have someone with me, so I’ll be going."

"Yeah... if you change your mind, give me a call. Okay?"

After parting ways with him, Kyungwoo found a secretariat staff member to announce his arrival.

"I'm the speaker for the 2 PM special session."

"Ah, you're the doctor who..."

The staff member, who had been casting curious glances, guided him quickly. "Are there any changes to your lecture PPT?"

"No."

"Then please come to Seminar Hall A 30 minutes before the start. You'll just need to do a simple screen and microphone check."

"Understood."

Kyungwoo sat in a corner of the main hall with Chayoung. As he flipped through the conference materials, he couldn't help but overhear the murmurs around him, even though he hadn't intended to listen.

"Are you going to the special session at 2 PM later?"

"Of course. If you want to get a seat, you should go early. I heard a lot of people are planning to listen."

"Oh, look at this. It says CRPS?"

"Didn't you know? There was a lot of talk because it was suddenly added as a special session."

People who didn't know him were talking about him. Feeling the heated atmosphere, Kyungwoo calmly reviewed the content he was going to present today in his mind. Time passed, and it was 1:30 PM.

"Senior, so many people came! There are no seats left, and it's packed with people standing in the back!"

Kyungwoo had finished his simple preparations without any issues and waited in a small space attached to the seminar hall. The murmuring sound outside grew louder and louder... and soon, the event staff gave him the signal.

"You can go out now."

Kyungwoo opened the door to the waiting room. All eyes were instantly focused on him. The seminar hall was much smaller than the main hall, but he could clearly feel the intense gaze of the Korean medicine doctors filling it.

Step, step-

Receiving those gazes, Kyungwoo stepped onto the podium, turned his body in the center of the stage, and faced the audience.

"Hello. I am Korean medicine doctor Hyun Kyungwoo. I will now begin ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the clinical case presentation of a pediatric CRPS patient through acupuncture and herbal medicine treatment."

The noisy lecture hall became as quiet as if water had been poured over it. The lecture had begun.

<References> Joo Minsu, Go Yeonseok, Kim Yeonju, Heo Nayeon, Go Ilhwan, Jeong Hyeokjin. Domestic and International Research Trends on Korean Medicine Treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: Focusing on Research Published in the Last 10 Years. J Korean Med Rehabil. 2025;35(1):15-24.