Faculty   Jung Chaee Kang, MD,  Sang Hyung Kim, MD, Jae Sook Ma, MD,  Jong Chun Park, MD, Kyung Yeon Yoo, MD,  Byung Hee Ahn, MD,  Bong Suk Oh, MD,  Jeong Gwan Cho, MD, Myung Ho Jeong, MD,  Young Keun Ahn, MD,  Won Chae Chang, MD,  Weon Kim, MD    Introduction   The heart center consists of several clinics and laboratories, i.e. cardiology clinic, clinical cardiac catheterization laboratory, echocardiography laboratory, hypertension clinic, electrophysiology laboratory, pediatric cardiology, cardiac surgery, cardiac anesthetics and animal cardiac catheterization laboratory.Dr. JC Kang established the cardiac catheterization laboratory in 1982. Coronary intervention was started in 1986, and the number of annual coronary interventions has risen rapidly to over 1,000 cases per year. The average success rate of coronary interventions was 97.8% in 1999. Dr. JG Cho has performed approximately 100 cases of radiofrequency ablation annually since 1992. Dr. JS Ma performs about 120 cases of pediatric cardiac catheterization annually. Pediatric echocardiography and interventional procedures are also frequently performed. We have performed more than 2,600 open-heart surgeries since 1977. Dr. BH Ahn frequently performs MIDCAB (since 1992) and off-pump CABG (since 1998). Aortic surgery is also a frequently performed in our center. We have one of the leading experimental cardiology laboratories in Korea, in which new therapeutic methods and devices have been developed. Anesthesiologists and cardiac surgeons have independent animal experiment facilities. Research is funded by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korean Circulation Society, Korean Society of Internal Medicine, Chonnam National University and CNUH.    Achievements   1974 Systolic time interval was performed by Dr. OK Park for the first time in Korea 1977 Open heart surgery became available 1983 Permanent pacemaker program established by Dr. JC Kang 1984 Electrophysiology studies were performed by Dr. JC Kang 1991 The first coronary stent was placed 1996 Local drug delivery in stented patients for the first time in Korea 1996 First animal catheterization lab with animal care facility in Korea    Awards   Research awards from the Korean Circulation Society(1996) and Korean Society of Internal Medicine (1997)    Publications   462 publications, including 32 papers in international journals since 1982