• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.255-267
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• 2012

High Internet usage and the public's keen interest on health have influenced the health care system, and a potential value of the online health information and medical consultation market is immense. This study reveals results from data collected from Seoul residents in the age group of 20s in 2011. Out of 499 respondents, 75.2% answered that they used online health information; however, only 7.2% answered that they have used online medical consultation services. Findings on the purposes of using online medical consultation included treatments of symptoms(33.6%) and self-disciplines of one's health(19.5%). Mostly used Websites for health information search included search engines and blogs, but respondents preferred to use government sites and hospital sites in the future. When choosing a medical consultation, respondents preferred a certain website for different reasons including creditability of the consultant(23.7%), creditability of the organization(23.7%), rapid responses(21.2%), and more. Overall, although health information search via web is being highly utilized among people in their 20s, utilization of online medical consulting is not. Thus, promotion efforts to increase awareness and utilization of online medical consulting based on the site selection criteria, type of personal information disclosure, and other preferences are essential. Also, creating websites meeting these criteria is important.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.189-208
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• 2011

In the digital environment where the Internet and IT change rapidly, researchers have utilized scientific information by relying on more complex and various media than before. This study performed a group interview with thirteen questions derived from five categories in order to understand information needs and information seeking behaviors of Korean doctoral researchers in this information environment. The five categories are (1) identifying information resource usage pattern, (2) attitude towards information resources and reasons for use, (3) IT skills and information literacy, (4) physical library use vs electronic access, and (5) attitudes toward the digital library. In particular, this study focused on analyzing similarities and differences of two groups of researchers selected equally in the humanities and social sciences and in science and technology by doing the interview. The research showed that there are no differences in the goal of using scientific information, information literacy, the ratio of using written materials to electronic resources, and routes of acquiring research ideas or knowledge, but there are differences in materials used for studies or researches and in favorite scientific portal sites.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.297-316
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• 2006

The increasing tendency of medical disputes is one of the remarkable social phenomena. Especially we must not overlook the phenomenon that production and circulation of information related to medical accidents is increasing rapidly through the internet. In this research, we evaluated the web sites which provide the information related to medical accidents using the keyword "medical accidents" in March 2006, and classified the 28 web sites according to the kinds of establishers. We also analyzed the contents of the sites, and checked and compared the current status of the web sites and problems that have to be improved. Finally, we suggested the possible solutions to prevent medical accidents. The detailed results were listed below. 1. Medical practitioners, general public, and lawyers were all familiar with and prefer the term "medical accidents" mainly. 2. In the number of sites searched by the keyword "medical accidents", lawyer had the most sites and medical practitioners had the least ones. 3. Many sites by general public and lawyers had their own medical record analysts but there was little professional analysts for dentistry. 4. General public were more interested in the prevention of medical accidents but the lawyers were more interested in the process after medical accidents. The sites by medical practitioners dealt with the least remedies of medical accidents, compared with other sites. 5. General public wanted the third party such as government intervention into the disputes including the medical dispute arbitration law or/and the establishment of independent medical dispute judgment institution. 6. In the comparison among the establishers of web sites, medical practitioners dealt with the least examples of medical accidents. 7. The suggestion of cases in counseling articles related to dental accidents were considered less importantly than the reality. 8. Whereas there were many articles about domestic cases related to the bloody dental treatment, in the open counseling articles the number of dental treatment regarding to non insurance treatment was large. 9. In comparing offered information of medical accidents based on the establishers, general public offered vocabularies, lawyers offered related laws and medical practitioners offered medical knowledge relatively. 10. They all cited the news pressed by the media to offer the current status of domestic medical accidents. Especially among the web sites by general public, NGOs provided the plentiful statistical data related to medical accidents. 11. The web sites that collect the medical accidents were only two. As a result of our research, we found out that, in the flood of information, medical disputes can be occurred by the wrong information from third party, and the medical practitioners have the most passive attitudes on the medical accidents. Thus, it is crucial to have the mutual interchange and exchange of information between lawyer, patients and medical practitioners, so that based on clear mutual comprehension we can solve the accidents and disputes more positively and actively.