[Edaily Starin Choi Hee-jae Reporter] “Do the right thing, in the right place, in the right way.”

The KBS1 program “Docu-On,” airing on the 15th, traces the legacy of the late Dr. Lee Jong-wook on the 20th anniversary of his passing.
Believing that “the answers lie in the field,” Dr. Lee traveled the equivalent of seven and a half times around the globe each year, meeting people in need around the world in person to find solutions for them. “Docu-On” features Dr. Lee Jong-wook’s legacy and the inspiring true stories of people who are carrying on his vision to change the world.
Last May, global health leaders gathered at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland—the heart of global public health—to honor the late Dr. Lee. The memorial service, held to mark the 20th anniversary of his passing, was attended by Minister of Health and Welfare Jeong Eun-kyung and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as well as leaders from global health organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
A special photo exhibition was also held to reflect on his noble, lifelong dedication to public health. In particular, images from his volunteer work at St. Lazarus Village in Gyeonggi Province during the 1970s, where he cared for people with Hansen’s disease, drew significant attention. Public interest in the treatment of Hansen’s disease has recently increased following reports that Ahn Bu-ho, the grandfather of actress Ha Young—who has been at the center of recent controversy—conducted research on the disease at the National Sorokdo Hospital starting in 1949.
The late Dr. Ahn cared for Hansen’s disease patients at St. Lazarus Village in Uiwang City and began his association with the WHO in 1983 when he served as the head of the Hansen’s Disease Elimination Team at the WHO Regional Office for the South Pacific.
Furthermore, this article highlights the late Dr. Ahn’s dedication—from his time at the WHO office in Fiji to the “3 by 5” initiative, which revolutionized the global landscape of AIDS treatment, and the “Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC),” the first international treaty of its kind.

The program also depicts medical professionals from Laos participating in the “Lee Jong-wook Fellowship Program” as they explore various departments at a university hospital in South Korea. The Lee Jong-wook Fellowship is an invitation-based training program for global health and medical professionals, established on the late Dr. Lee’s hands-on philosophy that “it is better to teach someone how to fish than to give them a fish.”
Going beyond simple one-time material aid or short-term support, the program invites doctors, nurses, health administrators, and medical engineers from developing countries to Korea to provide them with specialized training. Its core objective is to support trainees in achieving “medical self-reliance”—enabling them to independently operate and develop their own countries’ healthcare systems upon their return home.
A young doctor from Laos carries on the late founder’s legacy, saying, “I want to take the skills and systems I learned in Korea back home exactly as they are and bring new hope for life to patients in my country.”
“DocuOn” will air on the 15th at 10:15 p.m.