• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.67-70
• /
• 2015

To establish an appropriate policy for robotic surgery in Korea, the National Evidence-based Collaborating Agency (NECA) and the Korean Society of Health Policy and Administration held a round-table conference (RTC) to gather opinions through a comprehensive discussion of scientific information in gastric cancer. The NECA RTC is a public discussion forum wherein experts from diverse fields and members of the lay public conduct in-depth discussions on a selected social issue in the health and medical field. For this study, representatives from the medical field, patient groups, industry, the press, and policy makers participated in a discussion focused on the medical and scientific evidence for the use of robotic surgery in gastric cancer. According to the RTC results, robotic surgery showed more favorable results in safety and efficacy than open surgery and it is similar to laparoscopy. When the cost-effectiveness of robotic surgery and laparoscopy is compared, robotic surgery costs are higher but there was no difference between the two of them in terms of effectiveness (pain, quality of life, complications, etc.). In order to resolve the high cost issue of the robotic surgery, a proper policy should be implemented to facilitate the development of a cost-effective model of the robotic surgery equipment. The higher cost of robotic surgery require more evidence of its safety and efficacy as well as the cost-effectiveness issues of this method. Discussions on the national insurance coverage of robotic surgery seems to be necessary in the near future.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.263-271
• /
• 2018

Health technology assessment (HTA) is defined as multidisciplinary policy analysis to look into the medical, economic, social, and ethical implications of the development, distribution, and use of health technology. Following the recent changes in the social environment, there are increasing needs to improve Korea's healthcare environment by, inter alia, assessing health technologies in an organized, timely manner in accordance with the government's strategies to ensure that citizens' medical expenses are kept at a stable level. Dedicated to HTA and research, the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA) analyzes and provides grounds on the clinical safety, efficacy, and economic feasibility of health technologies. HTA offers the most suitable grounds for decision making not only by healthcare professionals but also by policy makers and citizens as seen in a case in 2009 where research revealed that glucosamine lacked preventive and treatment effects for osteoarthritis and glucosamine was subsequently excluded from the National Health Insurance's benefit list to stop the insurance scheme from suffering financial losses and citizens from paying unnecessary medical expenses. For the development of HTA in Korea, the NECA will continue exerting itself to accomplish its mission of providing policy support by health technology reassessment, promoting the establishment and use of big data and HTA platforms for public interest, and developing a new value-based HTA system.

• The Journal of Health Technology Assessment
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.95-99
• /
• 2018

As technologies develop, the digital health sector is gradually expanding. Internationally, the global summit for Digital Health named Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) was launched in 2018. Many countries are participating in GDHP and share their policy experiences on digital health and find the ways to cooperate with participating countries (13 countries, including South Korea, and Hong Kong). This article reviewed the international trends in digital health policy environment and evidence assessment focusing on GDHP activities, and derived implications for health technology assessment of digital health. Consequently, to assess the intervention effects of digital health is very complex and the assessment should be considered multidimensional aspects (social, clinical, and technical). In addition the patient experience should be assessed qualitatively. Health technology assessment (HTA) should assess the effect of digital health policies to changes in health care systems resulting from the application of advanced technologies related to the 4th Industrial Revolution. Digital health is also related to new HTA, HTA of existing technologies, and R&D on the promising health technology. Therefore, it is necessary to review the trends of the technology's management policy consistently through the HTA of digital health.

• The Journal of Health Technology Assessment
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.88-94
• /
• 2018

This review aims to provide implications for relevant domestic policies and researches from Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), a reinforcement model for primary care and its evaluations in the United States. As chronic diseases became dominant, changes in the health care delivery system in which primary care is central was required. The United States initiated primary care-reinforcing policies based on the PCMH following the increased demand for evidence-based health care policies. The current activities of the United States such as sharing research tools used to evaluate primary care interventions and circulating evaluation findings provide examples to Korea. Systematic evaluations for primary care interventions are required and appropriate methods using various types of data to reflect the real-world settings should be prepared. It is necessary to conduct policy assessment studies of public interests considering regional context. Support for the researches to make and advance from the existing environment must be examined.

• CELLMED
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.15.1-15.4
• /
• 2016

Evidence based practice (EBP) is a system of applying the most current and valid high quality evidence to support clinical decision making in a healthcare setting. In the twenty five years since its inception, EBP has become the accepted benchmark for excellence in healthcare. Although the system emerged within the biomedical sciences, in the years since EBP has become normative across all healthcare modalities from dentistry, allied health to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Practicing evidence based medicine within any modality potentially offers the patient the best available care based on high quality evidence. Yet it is the nature of the evidence that provokes some questions about the suitability of EBP across all modalities of healthcare. The meta analysis of randomized controlled trial (RCT) stands at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of evidence in EBP. This forms a challenge to CAM due to the difficulty in reducing the elementals of a holistic naturopathic assessment of a patient into an answerable question to be tested within a RCT. On one level this makes EBP paradigmatically incompatible with CAM, yet on another level it presents the opportunity to redefine the parameters of what is considered high level evidence. EBP has become a tool, and at times a weapon wielded by governments and health insurance companies to direct healthcare funding and policy. The implications of the nature of accepted evidence are becoming far reaching. The pursuit of the best available healthcare for each individual is the focus of EBP. However, the injudicious use of this system to direct health policy is fraught with biomedical bias and dominance. This issue raises the challenge to CAM to present high level evidence according to the rules of evidence, or face the annihilation of centuries of empirical knowledge.

• The Journal of Health Technology Assessment
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.156-161
• /
• 2018

Objectives: To evaluate results and workloads of the horizon scanning of the emerging health technology since 2014 to 2016. Methods: In order to analyze the results of the emerging health technology, we identified the number of research procedure between 2014 and 2016. The sixteen findings were calculated annual workload by person, and categorized by medical phase, classification of disease, and healthcare technology. Results: An average of 5.67 personnel were involved over three years, assessment of each emerging healthcare technology was performed for each person of identifying 54 cases, filtering 2.4 cases, prioritizing 0.9 cases were performed. According to the mapping by healthcare technologies, nine medical devices (56.3%), six drugs (37.5%), and one material of the medical treatment (6.3%) were assessed. Among sixteen findings, fifteen cases were health technologies for treatment and only one case for diagnosis. Conclusion: Future plans of the horizon scanning of the emerging health technology is required appropriate manpower in charge each target number of assessment. And a legal basis should be provided for policy reflection rate. Furthermore, an evaluation criteria and procedures should be transparent to avoid a conflict of interest.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.111-117
• /
• 2017

Getting evidence in to practice tends to focus on strategies, theories and studies that aim to close the gap between research knowledge and clinical practice. The evidence to practice gap is more about systems than individual clinician decision making. The absence of evidence for administration and management in the organization of healthcare is persistent. Teaching nurses and providing evidence as the solution to evidence-based healthcare is no longer axiomatic. Previous studies have concluded that unit level strategies integrate multi-professional teams with organizational needs and priorities. This 'best fit' approach that characterizes how healthcare is structured and delivered. The published literature shows that increased readiness for change is aligned with integrated approaches informed by conceptual models. The Joanna Briggs Collaboration is the largest global collaboration to integrate evidence within a theory informed model that brings together academic centres, hospitals and health systems for evidence synthesis, transfer and implementation. The best approaches to implementation are tailored to local culture and context, benchmark against international evidence, combine a theory informed model and stakeholder perspectives to improve the structure and processes of health care policy and practice.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 2005

Quality of care and patient safety have become today's agenda for healthcare industry in worldwide. This paper describes experiences to improve quality of care and patient safety in USA and identifies some future tasks for better implementation of quality improvement efforts. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for Korean healthcare system.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.146-159
• /
• 2019

Background: The purpose of this study is to measure the Korean health literacy level and to analyse its gaps according to the factors of socioeconomic and health status and health behaviors. Based on this, policy implications were reviewed to improve the understandability on health information and to reduce the gap among socioeconomic groups. Methods: HLS-EU-Q47, a tool developed by the European Health Literacy Project, was used to conduct a face-to-face interview survey on the health literacy for the samples from general population. Results: The public general health literacy (HL) index was 34.5 out of 50. HL is consisted of three sub-dimensions: healthcare (HC-HL), disease prevention (DP-HL), and health promotion (HP-HL). And a HL analysis found scores of 34.7 points for HC-HL, 35.4 points for DP-HL, and 33.3 points for HP-HL. The level of all HL was different according to socioeconomic characteristics and health behavior. Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, more research activities on health-related literacy need to be conducted, and monitoring system on the HL level needs to be developed and implemented. In addition, a program to improve HL levels needs to be developed in order to strengthen the basis for a more sustainable healthcare system as an agenda with national health policy priority.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.154-163
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop an evidence-based guideline for stoma management providing institutional policy, assessment, complications and follow-up care. Methods: The guideline adaptation manual consisting of 23 steps developed by the National Evidence-Based Healthcare Collaborating Agency was used for this study. It presents an overview of the process used to develop the guideline and lists specific recommendations from the guideline. Results: It provides 55 recommendations that include the following 8 topics: 1) Organization and policy recommendations, 2) Preoperative nursing; Ostomy education, stoma site marking, 3) Ostomy formation, 4) Postpoperative nursing; education, assessment, high output stoma management, 5) Selection of ostomy products, 6) Colostomy irrigation, 7) Stomal and peristomal complications, 8) Follow-up care after discharge. Conclusion: The guideline can be used to address stoma management in hospital settings. The intent of the guideline is to provide information that will assist healthcare providers to manage adult patients with ostomies, prevent or decrease complications, and improve patients' outcomes.