• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a home medical system that integrates a self-diagnosing disease classification system and a tele-consulting system by communication technology. The proposed disease classification system supports to self-diagnose the health condition based on oriental medical science using fuzzy neural network algorithm. The prepared database includes 72 different diseases and their associated symptoms based on a famous medical science book "Dong-eui-bo-gam". The proposed system extracts three most prospective diseases from user's symptoms by analyzing disease database with fuzzy neural network technology. Technically, user's symptoms are used as an input vector and the clustering algorithm based upon a fuzzy neural network is performed. The degree of fuzzy membership is computed for each probable cluster and the system infers the three most prospective diseases with their degree of membership. Such information should be sent to medical doctors via our tele-consulting system module. Finally a user can take an appropriate consultation via video images by a medical doctor. Oriental medical doctors verified the accuracy of disease diagnosing ability and the efficacy of overall system's plausibility in the real world.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.191-202
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• 1985

As the result of a significant improvement in the economic situation and development of scientific techniques in Korea during the last 20 years, the life expectancy of the Korean people has lengthened considerably and as a result the number of old aged people has markedly increased. Such an increase of the number of aged people brought about many problems. Authors would like to take a medical look at the "Problem of old aged people" presently facing us in Korea. Currently the number of people over 65 has increased rapidly and is 1,620,000, 4% of total population. But it is still much lower than 8.9% in Japan, 10.7% in U.S.A., and 14.9% in the United Kingdom. Over 25% of these aged people were found to have at least more than one disease which requires medical care. Diseases occur in the circulatory system, 30.9%, respiratory system, 17.1%, digestive system 8.6%, mental disorders, 8.4%, malignant neoplasms, 7.0%. About 51% of the aged over 65 are under medical security benefit, mostly with partial coverage plan. Their clinic visit rate was very low (2.0% in 1981), which might be due to financial reasons. Since diseases affecting the aged progress chronically, early detection and long term care are utter most important. However there is almost no special facility, long term care center or geriatric specialist. For proper management of medical problems in the growing population of the Korean eldery expansion of medical security coverage, greater number of specialized facilities, education of geriatric special manpower and efficient operating system should be established.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.200-208
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to analyze the dental consultation of pediatric inpatients to the department of pediatric dentistry in Yonsei University Severance Hospital, and to investigate the change in patterns. In 2017, 268 pediatric patients (384 cases) admitted to the Severance Hospital were referred to the department of pediatric dentistry. The mean age was 6.6 years, and most of the patients were referred from the Department of Pediatric Hematology Oncology and Rehabilitation Medicine. The chief complaints were as follows: oral examination (31%), dental caries (20%), oral pain (10%), tooth mobility (10%), pre-operative evaluation (9%) and others (20%). 41% of the patients received only oral examination without treatment. Dental caries were the most frequent dental diagnosis of the patients. 28% (111 cases) of patients received operative treatments, 22 cases were treated under general anesthesia. Oral health is closely related to systemic diseases, especially for hospitalized patients. Dental consultations should be encouraged for prevention and early appropriate treatments. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish a referral system and perform dental treatment under general anesthesia.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2024

Background: Korea's population of children and adolescents has decreased by 2.88 million over the past decade and is expected to decline further due to the unprecedented low birth rate. In the fee-for-service compensation system, the decline in the pediatric population relates directly to the profit decrease in the pediatric clinics. This study analyzed whether the worsening profits of pediatric clinics impacted their closure. Methods: We built annual data for pediatric and other department clinics (internal medicine, otolaryngology, and family medicine) using the status of medical institute and health insurance claims data from 2012 to 2022. Then, we analyzed whether institutional variables such as annual profit and regional variables (Herfindahl-Hirschman index, the number of clinics per 100,000, etc.) affected the closure of clinics. The methods used in this study are descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. Odds ratios for each variable were estimated by generalized estimating equations (GEE). Results: The closure rate of pediatric clinics was 2.66%-7.04% in 2012-2022, which was consistently higher than those of internal medicine, otolaryngology, and family medicine clinics. The profit gap per institution between the pediatric and the other clinics grew from 126 million won in 2012 to 245 million won in 2019. In the GEE analysis, profit decrease compared to the previous year with lower profit was the main factor that increased the closure of pediatric and other department clinics. After adjusting profit-related variables, the decrease in the pediatric population itself did not relate to the closure of pediatric clinics. The number of pediatric clinics or monopolies also did not affect the closure of pediatric clinics. Conclusion: The worsening profit is the crucial factor for the closure of pediatric clinics, while the pediatric population is decreasing. For this reason, it is necessary to actively seek ways to maintain a stable treatment system for children and adolescents.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.9
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• pp.105-115
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• 2018

The study selected two regional public medical centers(G, N) in Jeollabuk-do to recognize problems and provide solutions for regional medical centers. The medical centers were analyzed, focusing on availability of medical personnel, budget and management thereof, medical treatment performance, public project performance, and patient satisfaction. The results showed that the medical centers were understaffed with doctors compared to private hospitals or national university hospitals and suffering financial debt. The number of patient with medical benefit was increasing in the medical center G, whereas it was decreasing in the medical center N. Patient satisfaction survey showed that the medical center G was scoring similar to the national average, whereas the medical center N was scoring slightly less than the average. Policies needed for development and efficient management of Regional public medical centers are clarification of Regional medical centers identity, modernization of medical equipment and facilities, recruitment of competent medical personnels, specialization of hospitals and establishment of stronger referral system. The regional medical centers should secure financial supports for public service from regional and national governments, and establish revenues from funerary service, leasing service, and national projects participation.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-78
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• 2007

Due to the concern of regional unbalance relating to healthcare resources, the government has set up a plan to expand public healthcare services and a policy to manage the supply of hospital beds. However, it is not clear what standards are needed to measure the degree of unbalance, and to what extent the gap needs to be narrowed. Unlike the previous methodology comparing the proportions of patients who move out from their administrative district to receive medical services, this study examines the inconvenience gap patients experience when they have to move out from their actual living area. The logit and multinomial logit models are employed. The regional unbalance decreases when the degree of movement is measured based on the living area. This result implies that essential standard for achieving regional balance relating to medical services need to be based not on the even distribution of medical resources, but the complications of regional people that require proper medical services.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.370-376
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• 2015

The aim of this study was to survey the recognition and utilization of traditional medicine among the clinical doctors who working at traditional medicine hospital in Vietnam. The survey was conducted for 3month from September to November, 2012. As a result, the highest recognized traditional medicine was acupuncture(91.4%) and herbal medicine(86.1%). Almost of respondents had ever used acupuncture(99.4%), massage or acupressure(97.6%) and herbal medicine(95.3%) in daily clinical practice. And commonly treated health problem was neurological and psychological disease(23.5%). The most used diagnostic methods were tongue diagnosis and pulse diagnosis(97.6%). This survey will help to explore the point of contact between the traditional medicine of Vietnam and Korea. This survey results could be used as basic materials to actively approach traditional medical markets through international exchange and cooperation in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2006.06b
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• pp.13-18
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• 2006

In this paper, occurrence tendency of the sick and wounded on board ship is analyzed. The medical management systems according to shipping companies are investigated. Furthermore, comparative analysis with the medical support system for seafarers in advanced country is carried out.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 1999

Purpose : To measure the basic structural characteristics of radiation oncology facilities in Korea during 1997 and to compare personnel, equipments and patient loads between Korea and developed countries. Methods and Materials : Mail serveys we conducted in 1998 and data on treatment machines, personnel and peformed new patients were collected. Responses were obtained from the 100 percent of facilities. The consensus data of the whole country were summarized using Microsoft Excel program. Results: In Korea during 1997, 42 facilities delivered megavoltage radiation theraphy with 71 treatment machines, 100 radiation oncologists, 26 medical physicist, 205 technologists and 19,773 new patients. Eighty nine percent of facilities in Korea had linear accelators at least 6 MeV maximum photon energy. Ninety five percent of facilities had simulators while five percent of facilities had no simulator, Ninety one percent of facilities had computer planning systems and eighty three percent of facilities reported that they had a written quality assurance program. Thirty six percent of facilities had only one radiation oncologist and thirty eight percent of facilities had no medical physicists. The median of the distribution of annual patients load of a facility, patients load per a machine, patients load per a radiation oncologist, patients load per a therapist and therapists per a machine in Korea were 348 patients per a year, 263 patients per a machine, 171 patients per a radiation oncologist, 81 patients per a therapist, and 3 therapists per a machine respectively. Conclusions : The whole scale of the radiation oncology departments in Korea was smaller than Japan and USA in population ratio regard. In case of hardware level like linear accelerators, simulators and computer planning systems, there was no big differences between Korea and USA. The patients loads of radiation oncologists and therapists had no significant differences as compared with USA. However, it was desirable to consider the part time system in USA because there were a lot of hospitals which did not employ medical physicists.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.39-51
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• 1996

Design scheme drawings of the two major corporate hospitals - Asan Medical Center and Samsung Medical Center - are analysed in the aspect of floor area distributions and their proportions for various users and user-functions. Primary users of hospitals are categorized into three ; patients, employees and others. Then, patient spaces are subdivided into patient private, patient/medical, patient/support staff, patient/nursing, patient/guardian, patient common ; employee spaces into doctors, trainees, doctors common, nurses, support staffs, non-medical staffs, employee common ; others spaces into subcontractors, general publics, non-living, and internal circulation. The purpose of this research is to develop a user-focused insight into hospital spaces and a new method of hospital programming and design.