CMA

Educational materials, training and best practices know no boundaries.  Quality medical education and training is essential for providing quality patient care.  This conviction fuels the passion and personal mission of Dr. Arthur Gan Hok Bing’s passion and he has made it his mission to share with the world.  

During Dr. Bing’s medical training and teaching experience in Indonesia, he was denied additional educational opportunities because of his Chinese origins.  This left Dr. Bing more determined than ever to pursue his dreams.  He left Indonesia and immigrated to the United States in 1969.  Dr. Bing earned his medical specialty degree and after only 5 years, American citizenship.  Today, Dr. Bing is among a select group of board-certified plastic surgeons who have attained the highest level of achievement in cosmetic surgical training, continuing education and clinical experience.  

Dr. Bing returned to Indonesia about 10 years after immigrating to the United States.  There he visited medical schools in Bandung, a big university town south of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the same medical schools where he taught medical and dental students.  He found the printed educational materials to be the same materials that had been made available to him 10 years earlier.  The materials were 10 – 20 years behind.  This is when Dr. Bing knew that he could make a difference in medical education, and out of it the Dr. Arthur G. H. Bing Family Fund was born.  

Upon returning to the United States, Dr. Bing visited Columbus area medical libraries at Riverside Hospital Hospital, Grant Hospital and St. Ann’s Hospital where he collected medical books and journals that were no longer being used.  The materials were gathered and shipped to three medical education institutions all in Bandung - Pajajaran University, the Christian Maranatha University and Bandung's Central Hospital (the largest teaching hospital in Bandung).  Subsequent visits to Indonesia found the materials that the Dr. Arthur G. H. Bing Family Fund sent were the only materials available to students.  

“My wife always questioned my project: Why would I give back to the University that did not allow me to specialize?   I always told her that if they had not "pushed me out", I would not have ended up in the United States and would not have been so successful!” said Dr. Bing.  

As an American citizen, Dr. Bing feels that his first obligation is to give back to the United States, which is his home - the country where he was allowed to be successful.  
But he has not forgotten where he came from and feels that his success could help those less fortunate and allow them to have the same opportunities he was granted here in the United States.  “In helping developing countries, I believe that it is better to teach them how to fish rather than give them the fish.”  Shared Dr. Bing of his motto for helping others.   

The Arthur G. H. Bing Family Fund not only collects medical books and journals, it has also begun a program of sponsoring education and training visits to the United States.  The sponsorship of directors and teachers from blood banks in Bandung and Denpasar has proven to be beneficial to both Indonesia and the United States medical training programs.  Dr. Nadjwa Zamalek Dalimoenthe, the head of the Blood Bank and Hematology Division at Hasan Sadikan Hospital, a state-owned enterprise under the Indonesian Ministry of Health located in Bandung, is the most recent visitor. She was in Columbus for a two week period to study blood bank standards and management and also traveled to the national American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) meeting in California.  

Dr. Bing plans to expand his program by involving all local hospitals and universities. His ultimate goal is to expand his effort into a nationwide charitable foundation not only helping Indonesia, but other countries that are in dire need of updated medical education materials; places such as Peru, Kenya and the Philippines.  “Most American physicians at some point will throw away their medical books and journals.  I pick them up and find a second use for them.  The students are so grateful to receive them and I am so thankful to the participating hospitals and physicians in Columbus for helping to make this possible,” said Dr. Bing.       

Dr. Bing credits the Columbus Medical Association Foundation for helping to make it possible to extend medical help to developing countries. Through the flexibility of CMAF Unlimited Dr. Bing has been able to utilize his personalized charitable fund to fulfill his health vision. “The CMAF has been very helpful in facilitating and promoting my charitable work” said Dr. Bing.   

Work that extends more than 10,000 miles.