Seoul St. Mary's Hospital

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital is the flagship hospital of the Catholic University of Korea's medical system, one of South Korea's largest and most respected private healthcare networks. Located in the Seocho-gu district of southern Seoul, the hospital was originally established in 1944 as part of the Catholic medical mission in Korea. After decades of growth and expansion, the current state-of-the-art hospital building was completed in 2009, making it one of the most modern hospital facilities in the country.

With 1,400 beds and approximately 6,000 staff members, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital has earned an international reputation that extends well beyond its size. The hospital is most globally recognized for its Department of Hematology, which operates one of the world's largest and most experienced hematopoietic stem cell transplant (bone marrow transplant) programs. The Catholic Hematology Hospital within St. Mary's has performed thousands of stem cell transplants and is a global reference center for the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, and other blood disorders.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital holds JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation and is accredited by the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation (KOIHA). The hospital is the primary teaching facility of the Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, ranked among the top medical schools in the country. Its clinical programs extend far beyond hematology, with strong departments in cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and organ transplantation, particularly kidney transplantation where it has one of Korea's longest track records.

As a Catholic institution, the hospital integrates a mission of compassionate, patient-centered care that emphasizes the dignity of every patient. This ethos is reflected in its holistic approach to treatment, strong pastoral care services, and commitment to serving underserved populations alongside its role as a leading tertiary care center.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's International Health Care Center provides dedicated support for patients traveling from abroad, with particular expertise in coordinating complex hematological treatments that require extended stays. Services include pre-arrival medical record review and specialist consultation by hematologists and other specialists, assistance with medical visa applications and official invitation letters, airport pickup and transportation to the hospital or nearby accommodation in the Seocho and Gangnam areas, dedicated international patient coordinators who manage scheduling and serve as the communication bridge between patients and medical teams, professional medical interpretation in English, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages, assistance with international insurance claims and billing, private rooms equipped for international patient comfort, guidance on long-stay accommodation for patients undergoing extended treatments such as stem cell transplant (which may require weeks to months in Seoul), and structured post-discharge follow-up including coordination with referring hematologists and oncologists abroad.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's internationally defining clinical program is its hematology department — specifically the Catholic Hematology Hospital, which operates one of the world's most experienced and highest-volume hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) programs. The program performs autologous stem cell transplants for multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and certain solid tumors, and allogeneic transplants from matched sibling, unrelated matched, and haploidentical (parent/child) donors for acute leukemia (AML, ALL), chronic myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, aplastic anemia, and rare inherited blood disorders. The hospital's experience in haploidentical transplantation is of particular global significance — the SNUSM/Catholic group has contributed key research to making haploidentical donor transplants safer and more effective, expanding donor availability for patients without matched siblings. Kidney transplantation is another area of longstanding expertise — the Kidney Transplant Center has one of Korea's longest-running programs and consistently high graft survival rates for living and cadaveric donor transplants. Cardiology encompasses interventional cardiology, complex electrophysiology including catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation, and heart failure management. Gastroenterology and hepatology provide comprehensive upper and lower GI services and complex liver disease management including viral hepatitis and cirrhosis. Ophthalmology is particularly strong in retinal surgery, corneal transplantation, and glaucoma. Orthopaedics, nephrology, urology, rheumatology, neurology, and comprehensive cancer care through the hospital's cancer centre complete the clinical offering.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's most distinctive facility is the Catholic Hematology Hospital — a dedicated building within the St. Mary's campus exclusively for haematological malignancies and stem cell transplantation. This structure provides HEPA-filtered positive pressure isolation rooms essential for protecting severely immunocompromised transplant patients from airborne infections, a dedicated stem cell processing laboratory for conditioning and infusing harvested stem cells, apheresis units for peripheral blood stem cell collection, and dedicated nursing teams trained in transplant care. Over 45 operating theatres serve the hospital's elective and emergency surgical program, including dedicated renal transplant theatres for the high-volume kidney transplant program. The radiation therapy centre provides IMRT and stereotactic radiosurgery capability. PET-CT and 3T MRI imaging are available on-site for haematological and oncological staging. Cardiac catheterization laboratories support the interventional cardiology program. The clinical research centre houses laboratory space for haematological and transplant research, and has been the site of pivotal trials in haploidentical transplantation published in leading journals including Blood and the New England Journal of Medicine. An international patient ward provides private rooms with international amenities. Pastoral care facilities reflecting the hospital's Catholic mission provide spiritual and psychological support for patients and families.

Seoul St. Mary's Hospital holds JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation — the internationally recognized benchmark for hospital quality and patient safety — as well as KOIHA (Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation) accreditation at the national level. As the flagship hospital of the Catholic University of Korea medical system, clinical faculty are subject to Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine academic standards and the governance of the Catholic Medical Centre system. The haematological stem cell transplant program is registered with the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and the Asia-Pacific Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (APBMT), providing access to international unrelated donor searches through networks including BMDW and NMDP. Transplant activity is conducted under KONOS (Korean Network for Organ Sharing) regulatory oversight. The hospital's research activities are governed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Seoul St. Mary's Hospital and the Korean MFDS (Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) GCP framework. Clinical outcomes in haematology — including transplant-related mortality, graft-versus-host disease rates, and disease-free survival data — are reported to the APBMT registry, enabling international comparative outcome assessment that validates the program's quality beyond local accreditation.