• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.47-69
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• 1990

The measures taken to reform the Dutch health insurance system hold valuable lessons for countries such as Korea, where there has been increased concern regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the health services provided. The growing literature on comparative health insurance policies suggests that nations can learn from each other. In addition, Korean policymakers have shown great interest in the health insurance systems of foreign countries, particularly in Japan. The development of Korea's health insurance scheme during the past 12 years has made a significant contribution to the increased accessibility of health care services. Although the insurance coverage is universal, the health insurance system today in Korea is by no means a product of systematic and planned efforts. Moreover, it lacks due considerations of insured's needs as well as the long-term objectives of the social security health care system. There are growing gaps in premium burdens and benefits between the rural health insurance program and the employee's health insurance programs. Furthermore, the regional health insurance program is experiencing financial difficulties in spite of the fact that the amount of the government subsidy has been sharply increased in recent years. Under the present payment method solely based on the fee-for-service schedule, both consumers and providers are encouraged to utilize and prescribe more services. The combination of the utilization-inducing reimbursement system and continuous pushes for expanding health insurance has played a crucial role in raising the country's medical bills. Current trends in Korea's health care sector and those anticipated in the near future necessitate changes in the structure and funding of health care. As indicated in the above, there are various shortcomings in this context, the health policy authority in Korea can draw valuable lessons from the Dutch experiences in reforming their health insurance system. The main elements of the Dutch reform measures are a restructuring of the insurance system and a greater role for market forces in the health care system. On this basis a new system will be created which reflects the social nature of health care while at the same time containing sufficient mechanisms to allow the health care sector to operate in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 1995

Health care marketing can be defined as a process of developing, promoting and administering health care services for the benefits of hospitals as well as consumers. Researchers have reported that one of the significant attributes in the selection of hospital is a client's perceived image of the hospitals. Especially the image of nursing services was one of the important factors of the hospital image. The main purposes of the study were 1) to define the positioning about 5 hospitals' image of nursing services. 2) to define the effects of image attributes to the iamage of hospital nursing services. Eighteen hundred questionnaires were distributed to the parents of middle schools and high schools in Seoul. Among them, 1340 cases were returned but 849 cases were turned out to be useful data and used in final analysis. In data analysis, $SPSS\;/PC^+$ and PC-MDS programs were used for descriptive statistics, multiple regression, and drawing perceptual maps. The image of hospital nursing services was measured developed by the author through literature review and content validation. Reliability coefficients was found to be statistically appropriate level of confidence(Cronbach's Alpha=.8617). The results were as follows : 3) The perceptual map shows that hospital A, B and C,D,E were divided into five groups(See Fig. 1). That is, hospital A, and B are located in a close position and hopital C & E are located at opposite position between X-axis, Hospital D was located in the middle area of the hospital C and:E. In conclusion, this research visiblely depicted perceptual maps using MDS of the consumer's image about hospital nursing services. Since hopital nursing services were differentiated by the image attributes in consumer's perception, the results of the study can help hospital managers plan marketing strategy according to their strong points or weak points. Because the necessity of marketing in recent health care was importantly recognized, this research which is adopting posititioning concept will contribute to the consumers and hospital organizations.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.7-15
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the current status and use of Gyungrodang located in Heungeop-myeon, Wonju-si and to present improvement and implication for community care in rural area. Methods: The survey of the current status was conducted with interview and observations. The use status of Gyungrodang was surveyed for the elderly over 65 years old who live in Heungeop-myeon using questionnaire. A face-to-face interview was conducted to complete a questionnaire and 181 samples were collected for the study. Results: In the current status, some of the Gyungrodang did not operate during farming season. The external environment, in terms of accessibility, 74.2% of Gyungrodang were located more than 60 minutes on foot from community center, health post, and pharmacy. In addition, the interval between buses run minimum 15 minutes to 120 minutes on average. The internal structure, 35.7% was divided room and toilets. In the use status, the reason for non-use of the Gyungrodang was discomfort(29.0%), and the reason for using was because friends go to the Gyungrodang(44.6%). The most satisfying program was te health care program(65.6%). Implications: First, it is necessary to develop and operate customized health promotion program for target population and seasons. Second, it is necessary to make a plan focused on consumers' needs through satisfaction and demand survey. Third, it is necessary to divide the space of each Gyungrodang by gender when planning the expansion or new construction of Gyungrodang.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.167-177
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• 2019

Innovation of genomics technology has recently been extended to Direct To Consumer Genetic Test (DTC-GT) which consumers purchase without requesting the service on medical institutes. In 2016, Korea has introduced the DTC-GT but the market size is small comparing to global market. This study analyzes consumers' purchase intentions and purposes and their influential factors based on 2018 consumer survey. According to the results of binominal and multinominal logistic regression, knowledge after purchase, attitude on medical care benefit, health status are statistically significant on purchase intentions. Purchase purposes are different on age group and related on medical care rather than health care. These results imply that DTC-GT is needed to improve consumer satisfaction, re-purchase and effective care service. This paper is expected to contribute on strategic directions for the new DTC-GT product development.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.155-168
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of Blockchain to introduce Blockchain technology to the medical industry. Thus, the 5 factors such as Security, Availability, Reliability, Diversity and Economic feasibility were used as the characteristics of Blockchain, which are independent variable, based on precedent studies. Also, Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) that are widely used in the research on Acceptance Intention in order to introduce new technology accept was utilized for intervening variable and dependent variable. For the purpose of this study, the health professionals and ordinary people were classified into health care providers and medical service consumers respectively to conduct survey and comparative analysis. The researching findings discovered that Hypothesis1-1(Security-Perceived Easiness-Acceptance Intention), Hypothesis2-1(Security-Perceived Usefulness-Acceptance Intention) and Hypothesis 3-1(Security-Perceived Easiness-Perceived Usefulness-Acceptance Intention) were rejected in all participants including health professionals and ordinary people. Additionally, all characteristics of Blockchain such as Availability, Reliability, Diversity and Economic feasibility were rejected in Hypothesis3-2 and Hypothesis 3-5 that pass through Easiness and Usefulness to Acceptance Intention, in case of the medical service consumers. Thus, this study discovered and confirmed that there's difference between the health care providers and medical service in the characteristics of Blockchain, as they pass through Perceived Easiness and Perceived Usefulness to Acceptance Intention. The significance of this study can be found, as it suggested activation plan through empirical analysis, which was hardly ever used in the study on Blockchain activation.

• Preventive Nutrition and Food Science
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.305-310
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• 2006

The Web is an important source of information for health care consumers, and the resources they find on the Web have a direct affect on their health outcomes. Despite the enormous benefits of online health care, the quality of health information on the Internet is an area of increasing concern. Therefore, there's a need to develop quality assessment tools that can filter out poor quality online health information. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical attributes for assessing website quality and for developing quality assessment measurements. We completed three focus group discussions with 24 participants that were administered by a moderator and based on specifically focused group questions. The results suggest that the most important quality criteria, as identified by the respondents, were related to issues of credibility and accuracy. To determine the credibility of Internet health information, the respondents stated one must consider the following: the information source, disclosure of the author's or organization's credentials/qualifications, disclosure of ownership and the updating of the content. For the accuracy of content, elements such as a statement of purpose, evidence-based information, relevance and completeness should be considered. Interactivity, accessibility, and design were additional quality criteria.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.51-60
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• 2016

Consumers who use mobile applications for their skin care are increasing due to increasing interest in skin care and smart phone use. A survey was conducted to select popular skin care mobile applications to be installed in the smart phone targeting 1,000 men and women in South Korea who are interested in their skin care. Questioned items included skin care awareness and recognition, skin care type, and the intention of using skin health care mobile services. The respondents thought the best skin as 'Flawless skin (52.3%)'. Also, 'Skin trouble' and 'Skin aging' were their major concerns. 47.1% of the respondents used mobile skin care applications, and 56.6% intended to try new mobile skin care services. The results on interesting field of skin care showed significant difference depending on gender, marital status, and annual average household income. Moreover, the results on effort made for skin care showed significant difference depending on age, gender, and marital status. They wanted the functions such as 'Review on cosmetic products by brand (23.8%)', 'Self skincare method (16.8%)', 'Continuous monitoring service (16.2%)', 'Information on cosmetic products (13.4%)'. The result of this study would be reliable as basic material for skincare mobile service area. Further studies could be focused on developing application in accordance with needs and how it should be applied.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-23
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• 1999

The purpose of this paper is to survey the current status of service utilization in oriental medicine, to identify the determinants of consumers' decision in the service utilization, and then suggest policy implications for promoting the consumers' utilization. A multiple regression model was adopted to analyze the factors that influence consumer's decision in purchasing the oriental medical services. Data used in this research relied on National Survey Data conducted by Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, and sampling survey. The results could be summarized as follows.: 1. the number of visits to oriental medical institutions has shown an overall increase during the last decade since the inception of health insurance for oriental medical services. It still, however, revealed a relatively iow figure to western medical services. 2. the main factors, after controlling demographic variables, that determine consumers' selection between oriental medical services and western medical services are considered to be price, belief in effectiveness of services, waiting time for service. Implications for policy recommendation include 1. to reduce a barrier to service utilization by discounting dramatically the price of herb medicine, which is believed to be crucial in expanding market share, 2. to encourage consumer's belief in clinical effectiveness through a specialization in competitive services compared with wertern medicine, 3. to keep the affirmative image among consumers alive through an active participation of oriental medical doctors in community activities, 4 to change the health care system in favor of oriental medicine in the long run.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.183-192
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify the status of utilization of healthcare services and self-care behaviors, knowledge level and influencing choice factors of non-prescription drugs (OTCs) on consumers since sales of OTCs at the outside of pharmacy in Korea, and to confirm the changes in perception of consumers for OTCs policy through check of perception level for current OTCs policy. Methods: Data was collected from April 2014 to May 2014 from questionnaires by 418 adults who are in university located in Seoul or live in Seoul Metropolitan area but not health science major and healthcare providers. Results: The female gender was 56.6% and University students were 73.9%. The ratio by age was as follows: below 25 (60.9%), 26-30 (18.2%), 30-40s (14.9%) and 50-60s (6.0%). The knowledge level of OTCs for use of medicine, dose and side effects was generally low and especially they knew little how to deal with side effects after taking OTCs on sale at the outside of pharmacy, even though over one year has passed since the policy. The proportion of those who thought the current OTCs policy has problems regarding safety issues since the policy was very high and it was also high that the study group thought there are problems with the current way to sale OTCs and educate employees. Conclusion: After selling OTCs at the outside of pharmacy, the consumers still lacked knowledge of OTCs and did not get correct information properly. Especially, they had little information about the way to deal with side effects after taking OTCs. Public policy should be based on the health of the people and the public health is a national health priority. When all these things are taken into consideration, the government has to strengthen the OTCs policy and provide a safer environment with the accurate drug information for people than developing OTCs policy in the future.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.314-323
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• 2001

Purpose : Complementary and alternative therapies(CAT) are defined as those treatments and healthcare practices not taught widely in medical schools, not generally used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by health care insurance. Recently, CAT have become increasingly popular with health care consumers and health care professionals. This study investigated nurses' perceptions and experiences with CAT. Method: 124 nurses who were working in university hospitals in Seoul and Inchon were randomly selected as participants for this study. They answered open and closed questionnaires on their Perceptions and experiences with CAT. Results: Most of the subjects recognized the existence of CAT (86.3%), and expected a treatment effect from CAT when it is combined with conventional therapy (84.7%). Nurses accepted CAT positively as complement for conventional therapy and useful modalities of psychological support when its effects have been proven scientifically. Forty nurses (32.3%) had learned CAT including soojichim, aroma therapy, relaxation, meditation, music therapy, massage, and acupressure. Eight nurses (6.5%) used CAT with patients including soojichim, hand massage, relaxation, and music therapy. Conclusion: In spite of the nurses' positive perceptions of CAT, the nurses' professional experiences were quite limited. Nurses need authorized training programs and continuing education opportunities in CAT. This would increase their ability to use CAT. But to improve scientific knowledge more evidence based research is.