• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.9-35
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• 2007

The Health care program in Korea has now been systemized after 30 years of declaring the inauguration of the national health insurance system by the current government. The national health care covering all Korean citizens was achieved after 12 years of implementing the national health insurance and the health care program since 1977. Hundreds of multiple operational agencies managing the insured individually had undergone the amalgamation process from 1998 to 2000, and had been restructured as one agency, the National Health Insurance Corporation. In 2003, the community/area based financial management was also merged together with the employment based financial management. The National health care system of Korea offer various merits, compared with that of other countries, such as health care provision covering all Koreans, low insurance premium, accessibility of medical services/facilities etc. However, there are still some weak features which need to be addressed for improvement; below expectation insurance cover system, mistrust on the medical services, low medical charges resulted from excessive restrictions, and unstable financial status of the national health insurance etc. Therefore, the National health care system should continue to evolve to re-establish itself as more effective national health care system by further strengthening its merits, and by improving its weaknesses; with adopting the positive system to optimize the costs of prescribed medicines/drugs, applying simpler insurance coverage system to calculate the optimum medical charges, promoting private medical insurances, and increasing insurance premium etc.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.397-404
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• 2015

Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate microbial contamination in the school food service environment for the assessment of microbial food safety. Methods: We collected both swab samples from tables and desks and airborne bacterial samples from an elementary school (School A) and a high school (School B). Heterotrophic plate count, total coliform, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus cereus were measured with selective media to quantify microbial concentration. PCR assay targeting 16S rRNA genes was performed to identify the strains of S. aureus and B. cereus isolated. In addition, we made a food service checklist for the locations to evaluate the food service environment. A Wilcoxon test was employed to examine the differences in microbial concentration between before lunchtime and afterwards. Results: Heterotrophic plate counts showed higher levels after-lunch compared to before-lunch at School B. However, levels of S. aureus were higher in the after-lunch period (p<0.05) in both classrooms and in the cafeteria in School A. B. cereus was only sparsely detected in School B. Several samples from food dining carts were found to be contaminated with bacteria, and facilities associated with food delivery were found to be vulnerable to bacterial contamination. Although microbial concentrations in the air showed little difference between before- and after-lunchtime in the cafeteria in School A, those in classrooms were greater after-lunchtime at both schools. Conclusion: Our results suggested that the microbial safety in schools after lunchtime of concern. Necessary preventive measures such as hygiene education for students and food handlers should be required to minimize microbial contamination during food service processes in schools.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.265-273
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• 2010

Objectives: Due to the economic crisis and globalization, many workers have been suffering from severe occupational stress due to job insecurity and struggles related to downsizing and restructuring. This study aims to assess the stress levels among workers involved in fierce labor disputes and massive layoffs and to evaluate their specific needs and satisfaction with counseling services set up to help workers cope with severely stressful situations? Methods: The authors provided crisis intervention to workers in traumatic situations to compare the differential level of stress responses and needs among the workers remaining employed in a large auto factory, those laid off by it, and those laid off by other companies in the same region (Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province). We measured stress levels using the worker's stress response inventory (WSRI) and heart rate variability (HRV), and assessed workers' satisfaction with the counseling services. Results: 502 workers participated in the program. Fifty-seven percent of them consulted with occupational problems. The mean WSRI score of the workers remaining employed in the automobile factory was higher than that of the unemployed (employed: $39.8{\pm}19.9$ unemployed: $29.3{\pm}18.8$). Ninety-five percent of workers responded that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the counseling services. Conclusions: This study suggests the urgent need for the establishment of a national crisis intervention program dedicated to supporting workers in severely stressful situations.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 2022

Objectives: In the health care industry, the influence of online reviews is growing. As medical services are provided mainly by providers, those services have been managed by hospitals and clinics. However, direct promotions of medical services by providers are legally forbidden. Due to this reason, consumers, like patients and clients, search a lot of reviews on the Internet to get any information about hospitals, treatments, prices, etc. It can be determined that online reviews indicate the quality of hospitals, and that analysis should be done for sustainable hospital marketing. Method: Using a Python-based crawler, we collected reviews, written by real patients, who had experienced Korean medicine, about more than 14,000 reviews. To extract the most representative words, reviews were divided by positive and negative; after that reviews were pre-processed to get only nouns and adjectives to get TF(Term Frequency), DF(Document Frequency), and TF-IDF(Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency). Finally, to get some topics about reviews, aggregations of extracted words were analyzed by using LDA(Latent Dirichlet Allocation) methods. To avoid overlap, the number of topics is set by Davis visualization. Results and Conclusions: 6 and 3 topics extracted in each positive/negative review, analyzed by LDA Topic Model. The main factors, consisting of topics were 1) Response to patients and customers. 2) Customized treatment (consultation) and management. 3) Hospital/Clinic's environments.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.375-382
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• 2022

Objectives: This study analyzes factors related to English communication skills in the dental health services of clinical dental hygienists who provide dental medical services to foreigners. Methods: Surveys were conducted to measure students' English communication skills. Participants comprised 195 clinical dental hygienists working at dental English study cafes or who provided dental medical services to foreigners. After analyzing the differences in English communication skills, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed on the factors related to English communication skills. Results: English communication skill of dental hygienists was 1.96 points out of 5 points. The factors related to the English communication skill of the clinical dental hygienists were foreign patient care, language training experience, overseas living experience, and certified English proficiency. The adjusted explanatory power of this model was 53.0%. Conclusions: Dental hygienists in charge of foreign patients have experience in language training and overseas residence, have a language qualification certificate, and have higher English communication skills. It is necessary to develop English language learning programs based on metaverse to develop the English communication skills of dental hygienists who provide dental health services to foreign patients and to operate a creative educational environment to increase interest in learning English.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.457-478
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• 2023

Background: This study aims to contribute to the adjustment of the appropriate doctor manpower by analyzing the distribution, supply and demand, and estimation of the doctor manpower. Methods: This study utilized the medical personnel data of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, population trend data of the National Statistical Office, and health insurance benefit performance data of the National Health Insurance Service. Based on 2021, we compared the number of doctors in actual supply and the number of doctors in demand according to the amount of medical use by gender and age for 250 regions. Logistic regression analysis and scenario analysis were performed to estimate the future medical workforce by considering the demand for doctors according to the future demographic structure, the size of the quota in medical schools, and the retirement rate. Results: There were 186 regions in which the supply of doctors was below average, and the average ratio of the number of doctors in supply to demand in the region was 62.1%. Conclusion: In order to increase the number of active doctors nationwide to at least 80%, 7,756 people must be allocated. The number of doctors in demand is estimated to decrease after increasing to 1.492 times in 2059. The future projected number of doctors is expected to increase to 1.349 times in 2050 and then decrease taking into account the doctor quota and the retirement rate.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.117-131
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• 2021

Urban development is continuously being carried out to stabilize housing supply. The importance of ecosystem services assessments considering the various urban spatial structures is emerging as land use change in the wake of urban development has impact on the provision of ecosystem services. However, few studies are available as to the effects of land use transition in agricultural land due to urban development on ecosystem services. The purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of decision-making in the urban planning process by analyzing the impact of land use change on ecosystem services due to urban development. Therefore, the scenario was set on before and after the city development, targeting Namyangju Wangsuk Zone 1 and InVEST model was used to compare and analyze changes in value of ecosystem services. Analysis results of ecosystem services before the urban development, it turned out that habitat quality and water yield increased overtime but carbon storage and crop production decreased. Analysis results of ecosystem services after the urban development indicated that all items in ecosystem services by scenario decreased more than in 2018. Among the scenarios of urban development, compact city had the lowest value of water resource supply but had the highest value in terms of habitat quality, carbon storage amount, and crop production. The study results demonstrate that the compact city has positive effects on ecosystem services and is expected to be used as the basic data for supporting policy decision-making in the establishment of future urban development and management plans.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2021

Purpose: Demand for genetic counseling on cancer predisposition syndrome is increasing. We evaluated the psychological effect on counselees after genetic counseling at a clinic in a single center. Materials and Methods: We surveyed a total of 72 enrolled participants who visited a genetic counseling clinic at the Samsung Medical Center (SMC). The initial survey was conducted before the first genetic counseling session, and the second survey was conducted after the second genetic counseling session. A total of 43 participants completed both the initial and second surveys. Results: The initial survey of 72 participants indicated higher feelings of guilt in the group with religion, higher depression and anxiety in the group with a diagnosis of self, and higher anxiety in the group on self-referral to the genetic counseling clinic. In the completed survey of 43 participants, overall decreased depression was observed after the second genetic counseling session (P=0.013). Risk perception and anxiety decreased in the group diagnosed with benign variant/variant of uncertain significance (BV/VUS, 25/3) and increased in the group diagnosed with pathogenic variant (PV, 15). Risk perception and anxiety differed between the BV/VUS and PV groups (P<0.001 and P=0.03, respectively). Conclusion: The genetic counseling clinic at the SMC was effective in ameliorating the depression score. Assessment of survey results revealed different depression scores, feelings of guilt and anxiety, and different effects of the genetic counseling clinic, depending on the subgroups. Understanding the needs and psychological characteristics of different groups is necessary for improving genetic counseling services.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.140-146
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• 2013

PURPOSE. The aim of this study was to investigate the destructive effects of biofilm formation and/or biocorrosive activity of 6 different oral microorganisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Three different heat polymerized acrylic resins (Ivocap Plus, Lucitone 550, QC 20) were used to prepare three different types of samples. Type "A" samples with "V" type notch was used to measure the fracture strength, "B" type to evaluate the surfaces with scanning electron microscopy and "C" type for quantitative biofilm assay. Development and calculation of biofilm covered surfaces on denture base materials were accomplished by SEM and quantitative biofilm assay. According to normality assumptions ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis was selected for statistical analysis (${\alpha}$=0.05). RESULTS. Significant differences were obtained among the adhesion potential of 6 different microorganisms and there were significant differences among their adhesion onto 3 different denture base materials. Compared to the control groups after contamination with the microorganisms, the three point bending test values of denture base materials decreased significantly (P<.05); microorganisms diffused at least 52% of the denture base surface. The highest median quantitative biofilm value within all the denture base materials was obtained with P. aeruginosa on Lucitone 550. The type of denture base material did not alter the diffusion potential of the microorganisms significantly (P>.05). CONCLUSION. All the tested microorganisms had destructive effect over the structure and composition of the denture base materials.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.2064-2072
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• 2015

To improve performance, most of Web Services produce and manage User Access Logs. Through the Access Logs, the record provides information about time when the most traffic happens and logs and which resource is mostly used. Then, the log can be used to analyze. However, in case of increasing high traffics of Web Services at the specific time, the performance of Web Service leads to deterioration because the number of processing User Access Logs is increasing rapidly. To solve this problem, we should improve the system performance, or tuning is needed, but it makes a problem cost a lot of money. Also, after it happens, it is not necessary to build such system by spending extra money. Therefore, this paper described the effective Web Service's performance as using improved User Access Log performance. Also, to process the newest data in bulk, this paper includes a method applying some parts of NoSQL using Redis.