Sir,
Dr. Shih Chun-Jen M.D.; IFAANS, (2 December 1923–18 June 2017), was internationally
renowned Taiwanese neurosurgeon, mentor of a generation of neurosurgeons across the
continents, former head of the National Health Administration, great teacher, acclaimed
academician, politician and Minister of the Health department, Taiwan.
Shih was born in 1923 at Taichung, Taiwan, Empire of Japan. He received early education
during the Japanese colonial period. He studied medicine at National Taiwan University
and after completing medical graduation in the year 1947.
In second phase of professional career, Shih started working for the National Defense
Medical Center and continued to worke for 38 years. Dr. Shih went to work with Dr.
Shi-Kai Wang and then, travelled to Montreal to continue his studies in neurosurgery
under Dr. Penfield at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Shih completed 2-year (1956–1958)
residency at the Montreal Neurological Institute in Canada. After completing his studies
for 2 years, he returned to the National Defense Medical College, became a pioneering
neurosurgeon.
In 1958, Dr. Shih advocated a cancer registry by implementing his experience at the
Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University in Canada and promptly started
a cancer registry among three Taiwanese health-care systems: National Taiwan University
Hospital, Tri-Service General Hospital, and the Veterans' General Hospitals. He was
the first neurosurgeon in Taiwan to regularly perform brain tumor surgery, while at
the same time conducting research.
Prof. Shih was a great teacher, many of his student hold chair of Neurosurgical center
across Taiwan including, Dr. Albert L. Y. Shen, who became the first chair of the
neurosurgery department at the Taipei Veteran's General Hospital, which was the first
department to include neurosurgical subspecialty programs.
Dr. Shih was cofounder of the Taiwan Neurological Society in 1977, which grown expeditiously
and currently have around 600 board-certified neurosurgeons as member serving 23.5
million Taiwan population.
Shih served as the head of the general surgery department at Tri-Service General Hospital,
which was the dedicated teaching hospital of the National Defense Medical Center during
1975–1984.
In the third phase of professional and academic career, Shih left Tri-Service general
hospital and the National defense medical center to lead the Department of Health.
He headed the Taiwan National Health Administration also popularly later on known
as Department of Health during 1986–1990 under presidents Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee
Teng-hui. Prof. Shih facilitated the revision of the Physicians Act and helped push
through the Medical Care Act and the Human Organ Transplant Ordinance. Shih's memoir
was published in Taipei in 2009. Dr. Shih created multiple landmark medical legislations
and improved Taiwan's health-care system. In particular, Dr. Shih established the
medical professional criteria for determining brain death and created the Human Organ
Transplant Ordinance.
He started cranial surgery for traumatic brain injury, neoplasm, aneurysm and vascular
malformation, cervical disc herniation, and meningomyelocele, spinal surgery. He remained
actively involved in progress of neurosurgery in patient care, operative procedure,
and advancement of research. He was active with World Federation of Neurosurgical
Society, Asian-Australasian society of Neurological surgeon, Asian surgical Association,
and closely associated with many international neurosurgical Journal and published
about 100 publications in international neurosurgical reputed Journals.
His areas of interest included traumatic brain injury, hyperhidrosis, heat stroke,
Moyamoya disease, epidemiology of head injury in Taiwan, an animal study on the potential
benefit of cold stress in the management of brain edema and intracranial hypertension,
neurogenic pulmonary edema, experimental study of intracerbral and intraventricular
hematoma in rabbit, myelography with iopamidol, and microneurorrhapy in peripheral
nerve injury.
Shih had thousands of happy patients treated by him and many neurosurgeons trained
under him. Shih died of a heart attack at a hospital in Taipei at the 93 years of
age.
