In recent times, Dr. Eugene Yang and fellow representatives from UW Medicine found themselves sitting around a conference table with South Korea’s health and welfare minister and other delegates during a U.S. healthcare systems tour. Dr. Yang had worked behind the scenes to secure a Seattle stop for the delegation, a diplomatic achievement that likely pleased his father.
Dr. Yang Sung-chul, now 83, had previously served as South Korea’s ambassador to the United States (2000-03) and was a member of the National Assembly (1996-2000). Notably, he had played a pivotal role in the ousting of South Korea’s president in 1960, an episode that his son recounted with pride.
“University students started to protest against the government because the election was considered fraudulent. My dad helped organize demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the Korean government,” Dr. Yang recounted. “They were written about in Korean history books.”
In 1965, Yang Sr. left Korea to study abroad in Hawaii, where he met his future wife and secured a teaching position in Kentucky. More than two decades later, the tenured professor, along with his wife and daughter, returned to Korea with the goal of aiding the reunification of the divided nation.
“My dad’s life and career were dedicated to the reunification of North and South Korea,” Dr. Yang stated. “He wanted to contribute to his country, which had been artificially divided due to political dynamics between the United States and the Soviet Union.”
While his father pursued these ambitious goals, Dr. Yang was focused on his own path through college and medical school. He moved to Seattle in 2007 as a cardiologist and became involved with the Korean American Health Professionals Association. Conversations with fellow clinicians directed his research toward studying cardiovascular risk disparities among different Asian populations.
Dr. Yang explained, “I’m trying to understand why certain Asian groups, like South Asians and East Asians, have differing risks of heart disease. Existing cardiovascular risk assessment tools tend to group us together without considering these ethnic variations. Consequently, we might be over-treating some groups and under-treating others.”
Dr. Yang currently holds the Carl and Renée Behnke Endowed Professorship for Asian Health and leads the Asian Health Initiative at UW Medicine.
Reflecting on a past conversation with his father, he shared, “He used to ask, ‘What will your legacy be?’ For years, I answered that it was raising my children to be good people. But now that they’re older, I’ve had time to reconsider my contribution to society. A central goal is to increase awareness of Asian health concerns and gain a better understanding of cardiovascular disease risks within Asian subpopulations.”
He continued, “My dad hailed from a small Korean town and rose to influential positions in the government. I have more resources than he did, so why not strive to do more?”
