Chapter 35
Saturday morning.
A convention hall in Seoul.
Beside the sign for the OB-GYN continuing-education course stood another sign for pediatric continuing education.
At the registration desk, staff checked each doctor's name against the attendance list and even verified their medical-license number before handing over a badge.
A continuing-education credit section was printed on the back of the badge.
After each lecture, staff at the exit would apparently place a sticker there.
Gain hung the badge around her neck and walked between the booths.
Before she could refuse the pens being handed to her, she had already collected three.
The place was as crowded as a marketplace.
Pharmaceutical company booths lined both sides.
Employees had stacked pens, notepads, and folding umbrellas while calling out to passing doctors.
Almost everyone carried a paper bag printed with some company's logo.
The best booth location belonged to Dongju Pharmaceutical.
Employees in blue vests continuously bowed as the free nutritional supplements disappeared at an incredible speed.
"Are you Director Im Gain?"
One of the blue vests pushed through the crowd toward her.
His badge read:
[Dongju Pharmaceutical - Chae Giseok]
He looked to be in his mid-thirties.
A professional smile seemed permanently attached to his face.
"Do you know me?"
"Hyundai OB-GYN Clinic is the hottest clinic in Somang City right now. I even watched your video on PandoraBox."
He offered his business card with both hands.
"I'm the representative responsible for your clinic."
Gain accepted it.
"We can provide a patient water dispenser and a blood-pressure monitor for your clinic. No need to feel burdened."
"Thank you, but I'm fine."
"Haha. Everyone says that at first."
Instead of backing away, Chae Giseok moved half a step closer.
"Then how about this? Our company just released a new digestive medicine. If you add it whenever you prescribe morning-sickness medication, we'll give you a certain amount per prescription..."
Lee Seyoung's words immediately came to Gain's mind.
I really hated when they added expensive, unnecessary stomach medicine to morning-sickness prescriptions because of pharmaceutical-company lobbying.
"I'm fine."
Gain held the business card back out.
Chae Giseok did not take it.
He kept smiling.
"Please keep it. If you ever need a certain medication, contact me anytime."
He bowed, then smoothly moved on to the next doctor.
Gain looked at the business card for a moment before slipping it into an outer pocket of her bag.
For some reason, he felt like someone she would meet again.
"Oh."
Gain stopped in the poster section.
Research posters covered the wall.
Follow-up ultrasound strategies in twin pregnancies.
Five-year outcomes after laparoscopic myomectomy.
How to distinguish predictors of preterm birth.
All kinds of precious knowledge filled the walls.
I'm happy.
Gain carefully read every poster.
She was delighted simply to see how far medicine in this world had progressed.
Yet no matter how much she read, she remained hungry for more.
In the other world, Gain had always stood alone at the very front of medical knowledge.
She had been forced to play the role of a sage because she was constantly teaching others knowledge they did not possess.
If I don't know, nobody on this continent knows.
There had been nobody she could ask.
But here, there was so much knowledge she did not know.
Other doctors had spent ten years discovering things, summarized them on a single page, and hung them up for anyone to read.
If she asked a question, there were people who could answer.
Inside this building alone, there were probably hundreds of people who knew things Gain did not.
This is wonderful.
It truly was.
Standing on the side that got to learn felt incredibly freeing.
The fact that there were people who could correct her if she was wrong gave her a sense of security.
Gain moved toward the next poster.
A huge banner hung over the entrance to the main lecture hall.
[Introduction of the Cervical Cancer Vaccine: What Will Change?]
A shot can prevent cancer?
Gain stared at the banner.
In the other world, cervical cancer had been incurable.
There had been no knowledge of prevention either.
People prayed and died.
But here, cancer could be prevented with a vaccine.
Hmm. It works well for young women.
But what about middle-aged and elderly women who had already been infected?
Gain remembered the faces of elderly patients walking through her clinic door.
For them, the vaccine did not seem useful.
At least, based on everything she had read so far.
Then the people who can't benefit from the vaccine need screening so we can find it early.
There was no other choice but to discover the disease before it fully settled in.
"Hey, Im Gain!"
Yoon Jihu waved from the registration area.
There was pediatric continuing education next door, so apparently he had come to earn credits too.
They had not arranged to meet.
"Let's have lunch together later. I'm probably going to sleep through the morning lectures anyway, so I should at least make sure I eat."
The morning lectures turned out to be extremely useful.
The first lecture was about cervical screening.
