• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.281-313
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• 2016

Our Constitution obliges the state to protect the health of the people, and the Medical Law, which embodied Constitution, sets out in detail the matters related to open the medical institution and one of them is to prohibit the operation of multiple medical institutions In the past, there was a provision stipulating the same purpose. But because the Supreme Court interpreted that several medical institutions could be opened if the medical treatment was not made at the additional medical instition which was opened in the another doctor,s license, multiple medical institutions could be opened and operated. However, some health care providers opened the several medical institutions to another doctor's license just by the excuse of the business management and then did illegal medical cares like the unfair luring of patients, overtreatment, and commition treatment for more profits. So, the health rights of the people came to be infringed on. Accordingly, lawmakers amended the Medical Law for medical personnel not to open and to operate more than one medical institution. As the amended medical law prohibited a medical personnel to open multiple medical institution, some medical personnels insisted that the amended medical law is unconstitutional under which they could not be able to open and operate medical institutions on based on free investment and bring out the benefits of network hospitals. But the regulation to prohibit multiple institutions does not apply only to a medical personnel. Many other experts like lawyer and pharmacist can open only one office under such a restriction. If the regulation goes out of force, the procedure that multiple medical institutions should be opened and operated in the capacity as a medical corporation or a non-profit corporation does not have to be followed. And we should keep in mind that the permission for medical personels to open multiple medical institutions could lead virtually to commercial hospital. If in the nation with a very low rate of public medical service, If only a few medical personnels with capital own many medical institutions and operate commercially them, this could cause a falling-off in quality of medical service, ultimately infringe on the health rights and the life right of the people.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1293-1309
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• 2010

This study is aimed to evaluate the effects of community-based prehabilitation program developed to prevent functional decline in the frail elderly and to provide a basis to practically operate this program in the public health care service. From March to August 2009, 110 frail elderly people were recruited among the registered participants of the home visit program in Korea to perform a prospective randomized community trial. We randomly assigned these people into two groups. One group (n=50) participated in the visiting prehabilitation program for 3 months focusing on improving their muscle strength of upper and lower limbs, walking ability, and balancing. The other group (n=60) underwent our visiting fall prevention program for control. To assess the effectiveness of prehabilitation program, physical functioning (PF) and short physical performance battery (SPPB) were measured for the primary outcomes and also some other indicators: exercise performance, nutritional status, emotional functioning, experience of admission, and events of fall. As a result, significant improvements of geriatric functional status were noticed among the participants. After 3 months, PF increased by 1.3 ± 3.8 points in prehabilitation group and decreased by 1.1 ± 5.4 points in controls (p=.020). SPPB improved by 2.4 ± 2.0 points in prehabilitation group and increased only 0.3 ± 1.5 points in controls (p<.001). Significant effects were also shown in their exercise performance tests and emotional status, the number of multiple falls, and the experience of functional decline after the fall (p .002-.038). Visiting prehabilitation program is safe and effective program for frail older adults. Thus, it is strongly recommended to universally adopt this program to prevent functional decline in the frail elderly.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.293-297
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to evaluate recognition of occupation title for dental hygienist in high school students. Total 210 students of one high school completed a self-reported questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, dental service utilization and occupation title awareness for health care personnels. Female and science tract students showed higher level of awareness for dental hygienist but showed no differences according to dental service utilization pattern. The study showed association between occupation recognition for dental hygienist and other health technicians. But there were no association between occupation awareness for dental hygienist and dentist, nurse. Gender, occupation recognition for medical laboratory technologists and physical therapist affect occupation recognition for dental hygienist.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.14-24
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• 2009

This study aims at deriving any useful information necessary to strengthen the competitiveness for growth through empirical analyses on general hospital located in a province in order to countermeasure the opening and competition of medical markets. The characteristics of user were identified on the basis of disease groups under KCD in the research method. In addition, the analysis on the expenses of diagnosis and treatment was divided into the treatment progress and degree of hospital resource utilization And the regression was carried out to identify the impacts of characteristics of inpatient users on the degree of hospital resource utilization. As a result of major research, the inpatient users of the general hospital located in the provincial area in consideration of inpatient users were formed around the inpatient disease groups representative for Korea(diseases of the respiratory system, injury and poisoning & certain other consequences of external causes). And it was understood that most of residents within a distance of 40 minute by the public transportation were using. And mostly were under the age of 9 or over 60, and the provision of medical features such as the degree of consultation and operational functions were inadequate. When we classify inpatient treatment cost for each resource application as the medical cost being the center of patient care function, the equipment and human resource application sector are constituted over half. Accordingly, the following suggestions are made as plans to strengthen the competitiveness for the growth of general hospitals located in the provincial areas on the basis of analytical results. First, it is necessary to have the characterization matching to the age and disease groups with a high frequency. Second, it is necessary to increase the degree of hospital resource utilization according to the characterization. Third, it is necessary to concentrate on public relations. The above suggestion, as a method for securing image improvement and competitive power as a general hospital, and through expansion of social function that a regional general hospital needs to secure not only as an individual institution but also as a general hospital, it can be seen that a general improvement of image as a regional general hospital is possible.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.325-335
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• 2021

Chronic diseases have been increasing recently as the average life expectancy of humans has been extended, and this trend has caused problems such as the widespread demand for health and rehabilitation services and rising medical costs. In order to solve this problem, the community-based rehabilitation has been developed and strengthened in Korea and gradually promoted since 2019. It is important to secure access to clients who want to use services to revitalize community-based rehabilitation. So in this study, as part of the community-based rehabilitation, intends to devise smartphone applications designs and develop a prototype to secure access to community-based occupational therapy services based on occupation and activities. For Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF), International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and Allen Diagnostic Module-2 (ADM-2) were used to devise and categorize occupation and activity based application content, and link OTPF, ICF, and ADM-2 through prior research analysis and expert meetings. The derived content was visualized through literature review and activity analysis, and was implemented to enable direct playback within the application using the YouTube API, and finally developed a prototype application. The Android Studio 3.5.2 for Windows 64-bit was used to build the application prototype. In further research, converging various digital technologies for user convenience and additionally researching community-based occupational therapy service providers opinions and service user satisfaction will improve accessibility to community-based occupational therapy services for clients who have difficulty occupational performance in the community.

• Design Convergence Study
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.123-135
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• 2017

In recent mobile health care service, health management using number of steps is becoming popular. In addition, a variety of activity trackers have made it possible to measure the number of steps more accurately and easily. Nevertheless, the activity tracker is not popularized, and it is a trend to use the pedometer sensor of the smartphone as an alternative. In this study, we tried to find out how much the number of steps collected by the smartphone versus the actual number of steps in actual situations, and what factors make the difference. We conducted an experiment to collect number of steps data of 21 people using the smartphone and wearable device simultaneously for 7 days. As a result, we found that the average number of steps of the smartphone is 62% compared to the actual number of steps, and that there is a large variation among users. We derived a regression model in which the accuracy of smartphone increases with the degree of awareness of smartphone. We expect that this can be used as a factor to correct the difference from the actual number of steps in the smartphone alone healthcare service.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1293-1299
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT) for chronic empyema-associated malignancy (CEAM). Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT images of 33 patients with chronic empyema, and analyzed the following findings: 1) shape of the empyema cavity, 2) presence of fistula, 3) maximum standardized uptake value (SUV) of the empyema cavity, 4) uptake pattern of the empyema cavity, 5) presence of a protruding soft tissue mass within the empyema cavity, and 6) involvement of adjacent structures. Final diagnosis was determined based on histopathology or clinical follow-up for at least 6 months. The abovementioned findings were compared between the ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT images of CEAM and chronic empyema. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was also performed. Results: Six lesions were histopathologically proven as malignant; there were three cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, two of squamous cell carcinoma, and one of poorly differentiated carcinoma. Maximum SUV within the empyema cavity (p < 0.001) presence of a protruding soft tissue mass (p = 0.002), and involvement of the adjacent structures (p < 0.001) were significantly different between the CEAM and chronic empyema images. The maximum SUV exhibited the highest diagnostic performance, with the highest specificity (96.3%, 26/27), positive predictive value (85.7%, 6/7), and accuracy (97.0%, 32/33) among all criteria. On ROC analysis, the area under the curve of maximum SUV was 0.994. Conclusion: ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can be useful for diagnosing CEAM in patients with chronic empyema. The maximum SUV within the empyema cavity is the most accurate ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT diagnostic criterion for CEAM.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.75-103
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• 2020

There is a growing voice that medical information should be shared because it can prepare for genetic diseases or cancer by analyzing and utilizing medical information in big data or artificial intelligence to develop medical technology and improve patient care. The utilization and protection of patients' personal information are the same as two sides of the same coin. Medical institutions or medical personnel should take extra caution in handling personal information with high environmental distinct characteristics and sensitivity, which is different from general information processors. In general, the patient's personal information is processed by medical personnel or medical institutions through the processes of collection, creation, and destruction. Still, the use of terms related to personal information in the Medical Service Act is jumbled, or the scope of application is unclear, so it relies on the interpretation of precedents. For the medical personnel or the founder of the medical institution, in the case of infringement of Article 24(4), it cannot be regarded that it means only medical treatment information among personal information, whether or not it should be treated the same as the personal information under Article 23, because the sensitive information of patients is recorded, saved, and stored in electronic medical records. Although the prohibition of information leakage under Article 19 of the Medical Service Act has a revision; 'secret' that was learned in business was revised to 'information', but only the name was changed, and the benefit and protection of the law is the same as the 'secret' of the criminal law, such that the patient's right to self-determination of personal information is not protected. The Privacy Law and the Local Health Act consider the benefit and protection of the law in 'information learned in business' as the right to self-determination of personal information and stipulate the same penalties for personal information infringement such as leakage, forgery, alteration, and damage. The privacy regulations of the Medical Service Act require that the terms be adjusted uniformly because the jumbled use of terms can confuse information subjects, information processors, and shows certain limitations on the protection of personal information because the contents or scope of the regulations of the Medical Service Law for special corporations and the Privacy Law may cause confusion in interpretation. The patient's personal information is sensitive and must be safely protected in its use and processing. Personal information must be processed in accordance with the protection principle of Privacy Law, and the rights such as privacy, freedom, personal rights, and the right to self-determination of personal information of patients or guardians, the information subject, must be guaranteed.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2013

Objectives: Korea has a dual medical system where traditional Korean Medicine (KM) and Western Medicine (WM) exist au equal terms with exclusive practice boundaries. The aim of this study was to identify complementary and substitute relationships between KM and WM in Korea. Methods: The data of 19,413 respondents were collected from the 2009 Korea Health Panel dataset. General characteristics and the medical utilization of respondents were analyzed descriptively. the Univariable Analysis was used to compare the factors that affected KM and WM utilization, and the Multivariable Analysis was applied to identify complementary or substitute relationships between the respondents' choices for KM and WM. The data were analyzed by the seven disease groups; diseases of nervous system, circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system, skin and subcutaneous tissue, musculoskeletal system, and connective tissue, injury, poisoning and others. Results: 13.6% and 76.9% of respondents used KM and WM respectively last 12 mouths. 12.7% used both, and 0.9% used KM only. In overall, respondents who visited KM institutions used also WM. However, according to the analysis of choices of medical institutions, non-pharmacological KM treatment and WM has been used as a substitute for another in the diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, and connective tissue, injury, poisoning and others. Conclusions: Despite some exceptional disease areas, Korean people use KM complementarily to WM, and this result can rationalize the recent Korean government policies encouraging the cooperation of KM and WM. This study can he used for the future policies development for KM service delivery.

• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2017

This study aims to investigate the utilization status of dental services by foreign children living in Seoul and their level of satisfaction with the treatments. We developed a structured questionnaire with 35 questions, which comprised 14 questions (demographic characteristics) and 21 questions (oral hygiene and dental experience of the child). In this study, the distribution of nationality of 391 participants differed from the actual statistics in Korea. It consisted of high percentage of participants from African countries (23.6%), as well as North American countries (24.1%). In addition, the education status of most parents was above the level of college graduate. Despite the relatively high socioeconomic status of the participants, they showed minimal dental health knowledge regarding the aspect of oral hygiene. Utilization of dental health services and the types of dental clinics visited by them were similar before and after coming to Korea. The participants showed overall satisfaction with the care, but many of them expressed the need for improvement with regard to treatment fee and communication. In conclusion, foreign children living in Seoul require appropriate dental health education and governmental support to promote regular dental check-ups, to improve their overall oral health, and prevent the incidence of dental caries.