Someone asks, “You did it once. Should you do it again?” To which Dr. Joo Soo-ho replies, “For every reason, I, not anyone else, must do it now.”

Joo, chairman of Future of Medicine and Future of Doctors is preparing for another KMA presidential election in less than a year.

When asked if he thinks he is “dominant,” Joo said, “Yes.” He was not referring to just the election. Joo is confident in his ability to command the battlefield where the medical community is going head-to-head with the government over increasing the number of medical students because “I am better prepared than anyone else.”

The title of a former KMA president can be a wartime weapon. The same goes for the unique situation of a by-election when the previous president is removed from office due to no-confidence (impeachment).

“I am the only one who can start the work without any obstacles the day after the election and who can immediately form an executive team to prevent confusion within the medical community and demand the government to ‘cut the wrong thread of expanding medical students,” Joo said.

In an interview with Korea Biomedical Review on Wednesday afternoon, Joo made it clear that KMA would be the center of all actions, from dialogue with the government to struggle.

“Forming a united medical community is the struggle,” he said. “Fighting power and negotiating power are inseparable,” Joo noted that the KMA and the Korean Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC) should represent the medical community in the trilateral consultative body with political parties and the government, vowing to focus on the opinions of doctors and medical students while preventing the conflict between generations.

“People ask, 'Why must you be the KMA head right now? It's simple. Because I'm the best person to do it,” Joo said.

Question: The medical school enrollment quota issue awaits a new KMA president. The government's position is that the 2025 quota issue is over anyway. The KMA presidential election is in January 2025. Can you block student increases for 2025?

Answer: The tangled threads need to be untangled. If you can't untangle it, you should cut it. The 2025 recruitment does not end as a one-year course of 7,500 medical students. They will spend the next six years in this way. After they graduate, there will be a problem. What about training? What about public health doctors and military doctors? The trouble will continue for a decade or more. No matter how painful, we must cut the knot and reconnect severed threads.

It is the government's job to cut the knot. They created the pain and the knot, so they must cut it. The government has ignored the legitimate claims of the medical community and the right way forward.

Q: Whom will you meet first if elected?

A: It's a difficult and simple question. I will meet the people unwilling to meet me because I am not the KMA president. This was the case when I served as the emergency committee's press and public relations chairman earlier this year. I made many requests for talks. But many of them were not accepted. I said my words would be the position of the emergency committee, stressing that the other side should be represented accordingly. Most of them said it was difficult. It's time to meet the people who avoided me, citing my lack of credentials.

Q: The medical community has different opinions on dialog with the government. The preconditions also differ.

A: I will talk to each medical organization if I become president. There should be no future dialog with the government and politicians without going through the KMA. At the same time, I will tell the government that it shouldn't skip the KMA and send a letter to its affiliated organizations. The KMA will gather the medical community's opinions, and the voice of the medical community will come through the KMA.

Q: The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (KAMS) and KAMC participate in the trilateral consultative body.

A: When the new KMA executive is formed, both organizations will have to leave the consultative body. At this point, their participation in the three-way council contradicts the position of the entire medical community.

Q: There are calls for an immediate move for struggle rather than dialog.

A: The unity of the medical community is essential for the struggle. Each process when the medical community unites is a struggle, and this itself can be a pressure on the government. Even if it's just a one-day strike, it should be on a large scale. It won't be an intense struggle if you have a strong format but low participation. It will only divide us.

Q: What kind of struggle do you have in mind?

A: Both professors and practitioners need to move. We must start with a compliance struggle and go one step at a time. A compliance struggle may be exaggerated because we will follow the “global standards” ourselves. We're moving away from three-minute consultations toward 10-—and 20-minute consultations working 40-hour weeks.

Closing all the clinics in the first stage is a poor tactic. Our goal is not collective action. We must approach it step by step and restore a sense of community. The medical community is exhausted. It's time to meet and discuss what makes us so difficult and what we've been through since the beginning of the year. Then, we can be unified in our actions going forward.

I will respect the opinions of trainee doctors and medical students and expand their presence in KMA’s leadership.

Q: You emphasized a sense of unity. The younger generation, represented by trainee doctors, feel distant from the older generation of professors and clinicians. The latter complains about why they must always follow junior doctors.

A: Junior doctors and medical students are right to say they suffer and sacrifice the most. Therefore, it is also right to respect their opinions in all decisions. However, if they make unreasonable claims or movements, you should teach them like an elder brother and a teacher. Just because they moved first by voluntarily resigning from their posts does not mean everything they say is right. You should be able to say “no” when they are wrong. The juniors don't want seniors who just watch their faces.

Q: It's risky to say that in an election where the opinion of trainee doctors is essential,

A: Until now, I have talked to trainee doctors and medical students, been considerate, and communicated well. That's why I'm saying this. I have helped and will continue to help junior doctors stand on their own feet. This has been my guiding principle during my work at the KMA.

Q: Will you increase trainee doctors’ participation in the KMA leadership?

A: The new executive board will increase the number of junior doctors as executive directors and policy directors. It is the right direction to assign trainee doctors to any role according to their abilities rather than predetermining their positions as policy directors. First, we need to increase their number.

The executive board, which will take over after the elections, is itself a fighting group. Naturally, the opinions of the trainee doctors who led the struggle should be more respected, and their share of the executive board should be increased.

‘I’m the most prepared candidate to tackle the drunken driving issue head-on’

Q: Why should physicians choose you in this election?

A: It's a by-election. I'm the only physician in the country who can start work the next day, appoint five full-time executive directors within a week, and put together an executive team. I'm not kidding.

Q: You mean you’re more prepared than anyone else?

A: Definitely. Some say I'm just one of those glib talkers. No. I have the same consistent logic and attitude that I had 10 or 20 years ago, so I can express my thoughts anytime and anywhere without flaws.

It's not something you learn; it's something you obtain with your firm thoughts and experiences. When the Korean healthcare system is lost on a complex map, the president of the Korean Medical Association should be the one who can immediately provide the right direction and refute and logically tear down the government's wrong system.

Q: You talked about your strengths as a KMA leader. On the other hand, there is a concern that the medical community will bear the burden if the new president's “weaknesses” are exposed in a situation where the medical community and the government confront each other.

A: Do you mean my history of drunk driving fatalities? I'm aware of it. Still, the controversy will not last long. I made a mistake, yes. However, I've done nothing wrong in my consequent actions or behavior. I didn't avoid the incident and handled the aftermath with integrity. I apologized to the family at the funeral, and we settled the matter amicably. I haven't driven since then.

Now, I am running for president of the KMA. I am not running for a traffic safety position or to head a government agency. Suppose someone takes issue with a person's history from 10 years ago and attacks it as a weakness for the KMA president. In that case, that should be considered a problem.

Q: Does that mean you don't consider your accident history a weakness?

A: It's a mistake that I will have to live with for the rest of my life. But it's not the same as asking me to do nothing and stay quiet because of it. I am here to speak in my professional capacity as a doctor and a policymaker. I don't think anyone raises a problem with that. I will run fairly and squarely.

Above all, this is not peacetime. It's a war situation. Whoever becomes the KMA president cannot avoid criticism for one reason or another. So, choosing the best person to fight the battle is right. We can't ask them not to fight because of their records.

‘I’ll be the pride of KMA members and the fear of the government’

Q: What do you want to accomplish in your term besides dealing with the government-doctor conflict?

A: I will pave the way for abolishing the mandatory designation of all medical institutions as nursing facilities by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). The KMA needs a common goal. Doctors must have a direction to pursue together regardless of the generations, regions, and presidents. That's where we can unite as one.

If we are united, we can take the initiative. We don't have to catch everything the government throws at us. Now, we are the ones “who throw.” We will propose to the government, the political circles, and the media and say, “We will do this.”

Q: You've been advocating for the abolition of the nursing institution designation system for a long time.

A: I've been saying it for 20 years. Of course, I don't expect it to happen immediately, even if I become president. As I said, I will pave the way for the next executive board to take over and move forward.

Q: You mean you will shape the path KMA should take in the future?

A: Right. There's one more -- the issue of “pseudo” medicine. Doctors are the last line of defense for people's health. Some areas within the medical community are not yet recognized by medical science, including oriental medicine. We must think about how to look at it and solve it together.

Q: What are other priority projects?

A: We will move the application for opening a medical institution from the public health center to the regional medical associations in the city, county, and district. The current process undermines community leadership. This, in turn, undermines the leadership of the entire KMA. If the government cites reasons, including administrative capacity, we can say, “Let's move to a system where the local medical associations receive the application and submit it to the administrative office en masse. No matter the opponent's hand, we can always devise a countermeasure. We are fully ready.

Q: Do you have any more words for the KMA members?

A: For members, I will remain a proud president. The government will remember me as the KMA head they never want to see again, one they fear.