• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.203-208
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• 2004

The Family of Man was a 1955 photographic exhibition that depicted normal people in all walks of life from around the world. The viewer was visually confronted with the similarity of all people. The people of the world are now facing common health challenges as a result of changing lifestyles and increasing healthcare costs. Dietary supplements have the potential to be part of the solution. Dietary supplementation with antioxidant vitamins may be the most effective intervention for preventing the onset of Alzheimer's disease in the rapidly expanding elderly population - and at a very low cost. AIDS is devastating much of the developing world, where few resources are available to treat it victims. Inexpensive multivitamin sup-plements have been demonstrated to slow the progression of AIDS, reduce the death rate, reduce AIDS-related morbidity, improve T cell counts, and reduce viral loads. Careful economic analysis demonstrate that calcium and folic acid supplementation could reduce healthcare costs in the USA by $13.9 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. Most supplements with therapeutic potential have not been subjected to sufficiently rigorous research to permit unqualified public health recommendations. Carefully directed research is needed to identify the supplements with the greatest potential and to verify their safety and efficacy.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.130-140
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• 2016

Purpose: The construction worker has diverse harmful factors such as noise, dust, and dealing with chemicals. Therefore this research aimed to examine the necessity of appointing a health manager in the construction industry by examining the cost-benefit analysis when the construction industry appoints a health manager. Methods: In order to calculate the healthcare staff employment cost and the benefits from their activities in 1,425 construction companies with the staff of 300 or more people during 2011, this study analyzed existing data and existing research data, as well as national data. Results: Total annual costs were 99,920,070,900 won and total annual benefits were 324,807,182,625 won. Benefits were found to be 224,887,111,725 won exceeding costs. Benefit/cost ratio resulting from appointing a health manager in the construction industry workplaces was 3.25 times. Conclusion: The findings of this research can be used as the base data to make rational decision to positively encourage the employment of healthcare staff in construction companies pursuant to relevant laws.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.169-176
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• 2015

This review has focused on important but less visible aspects of fibromyalgia (FM) with respect to the high impact of this disorder on patients and societies. FM is a common but challengeable illness. It is characterized by chronic widespread pain, which can be accompanied by other symptoms including fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, anxiety and depressive episodes. While our understanding of this debilitating disorder is limited, diagnosis and treatment of this condition is very difficult, even in the hands of experts. Due to the nature of disease, where patients experience invalidation by medical services, their families and societies regarding the recognition and management of disease, direct, indirect and immeasurable costs are considerable. These clinical and economic costs are comparable with other common diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and osteoarthritis, but the latter usually receives much more attention from healthcare and non-healthcare resources. Present alarming data shows the grave and "iceberg-like" burden of FM despite the benign appearance of this disorder and highlights the urgent need both for greater awareness of the disease among medical services and societies, as well as for more research focused on easily used diagnostic methods and target specific treatment.

• Clinical Endoscopy
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.434-445
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• 2024

Pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) have increased in prevalence due to the increased usage and advancements in cross-sectional abdominal imaging. Current diagnostic techniques cannot distinguish between PCLs requiring surgery, close surveillance, or expectant management. This has increased the morbidity and healthcare costs from inappropriately aggressive and conservative management strategies. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE) allows for microscopic examination and delineation of the surface epithelium of PCLs. Landmark studies have identified characteristics distinguishing various types of PCLs, confirmed the high diagnostic yield of EUS-nCLE (especially for PCLs with an equivocal diagnosis), and shown that EUS-nCLE helps to change management and reduce healthcare costs. Refining procedure technique and reducing procedure length have improved the safety of EUS-nCLE. The utilization of artificial intelligence and its combination with other EUS-based advanced diagnostic techniques would further improve the results of EUS-based PCL diagnosis. A structured training program and device improvements to allow more complete mapping of the pancreas cyst epithelium will be crucial for the widespread adoption of this promising technology.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.3767-3772
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• 2012

Objective: We estimated the total medical costs incurred during the 5 years following a cancer diagnosis and annual medical use status for the six most prevalent cancers in Korea. Methods: From January 1 to December 31, 2006, new patients registered with the six most prevalent cancers (stomach, liver, lung, breast, colon, and thyroid) were randomly selected from the Korea Central Cancer Registry, with 30% of patients being drawn from each cancer group. For the selected patients, cost data were generated using National Health Insurance claims data from the time of cancer diagnosis in 2006 to December 31, 2010. The total number of patients selected was 28,509. Five-year total medical costs by tumor site and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) stage at the time of diagnosis, and annual total medical costs from diagnosis, were estimated. All costs were calculated as per-patient net costs. Results: Mean 5-year net costs per patient varied widely, from $5,647 for thyroid cancer to $20,217 for lung cancer. Advanced stage at diagnosis was associated with a 1.8-2.5-fold higher total cost, and the total medical cost was highest during the first year following diagnosis and decreased by the third or fourth year. Conclusions: The costs of cancer care were substantial and varied by tumor site, annual phase, and stage at diagnosis. This indicates the need for increased prevention, earlier diagnosis, and new therapies that may assist in reducing medical costs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2024

Background: In recent years, studies have shown conflicting results regarding the benefits of dietary supplements in reducing healthcare expenditures. This study aimed to address this inconsistency by examining the association between supplement consumption and health expenditures using nationally representative data from the Korea Health Panel Survey (2019-2020). Methods: A 1:1 matched case-control dataset was established using propensity score matching technique based on supplement consumption. Then, total annual healthcare expenditures were compared between the two groups. In addition, a multivariate regression analysis (Proc Surveyreg) was performed to determine the association between the supplement consumption and medical costs. Results: The supplement user group spent about 1.72 million Korean won, while the non-user group spent about 1.43 million Korean won on medical services (p=0.0186). The results of multivariate regression showed that the costs were approximately 26.15% higher in the user group than in the non-user group (p=0.0004). Conclusion: Contrary to the previous studies that have shown the benefits of supplement use in reducing healthcare costs, this study showed that those who consistently consumed supplements spent more on medical services. This can be interpreted in the same context as previous studies suggesting that dietary supplement intake is a healthy behavior for managing one's health. However, we caution against drawing firm conclusions due to data limitations. Further analysis using patient-level epidemiologic data is needed.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.331-335
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• 2005

The fusion technology of small sensor and wireless communication was followed by various application examples of the embedded system, where the social infrastructural facilities and ecological environment were wirelessly monitored. In addition, this technology represents the primary application area being extended into the healthcare field. In this study, a body area network for ubiquitous healthcare is presented. More specifically this represents a wireless biomedical signal acquisition device characterized by small size, low power consumption, pre-processing and archiving capability. Using this device, a new method for monitoring vital signs and activity is created. A PDA-based wireless sensor network enables patients to be monitored during their daily living, without any constraints. Therefore, the proposed method can be used to develop Activities of Daily Living (ADL) monitoring devices for the elderly or movement impaired people. A medical center would be able to remotely monitor the current state of elderly people and support first-aid in emergency cases. In addition, this method will reduce medical costs in society, where the average life expectancy is increasing.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.75-86
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• 2020

As the elderly population is becoming an aging society, the elderly are experiencing many problems. Social security costs for the elderly are increasing and the un-linked social phenomenon is emerging. Thus, the social infrastructure and welfare system established in the past economic growth period are in danger of not functioning properly. People socially isolated or with chronic diseases among the elderly are exposed to various accidents. Thus, an active healthcare management service is imperative. Additionally, in the event of a dangerous situation, the system must have ways to notify guardians (family or medical personnel) regarding appropriate action. Thus, in this paper, we propose the smartphone-based healthcare and emergency response service platform. The proposed service platform aggregates movement of relevant data in real-time using a smartphone. Based on aggregated data, it will always recognize the user's movements and current state using the human motion recognition mechanism. Thus, the proposed service platform provides real-time status monitoring, activity reports, a health calendar, location-based hospital information, emergency situation detection, and cloud messaging server-based efficient notification to several subscribers such as family, guardians, and medical personnel. Through this service, users or guardians can augment the level of care for the elderly through the reports. Also, if an emergency situation is detected, the system immediately informs guardians so as to minimize the risk through immediate response.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.974-992
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• 2021

Recently, the healthcare field has undergone rapid changes owing to the accumulation of health big data and the development of machine learning. Data mining research in the field of healthcare has different characteristics from those of other data analyses, such as the structural complexity of the medical data, requirement for medical expertise, and security of personal medical information. Various methods have been implemented to address these issues, including the machine learning model and cloud platform. However, the machine learning model presents the problem of opaque result interpretation, and the cloud platform requires more in-depth research on security and efficiency. To address these issues, this paper presents a recent technology for Internet-of-Things-based (IoT-based) health big data processing. We present a cloud-based IoT health platform and health big data processing technology that reduces the medical data management costs and enhances safety. We also present a data mining technology for health-risk prediction, which is the core of healthcare. Finally, we propose a study using explainable artificial intelligence that enhances the reliability and transparency of the decision-making system, which is called the black box model owing to its lack of transparency.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.3383-3389
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• 2014

Background: Prostate cancer is rapidly increasing in Korea and professional societies have requested adding prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing to the National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP), but this started a controversy in Korea and neutral evidence on this issue is required more than ever. The purpose of this study was to provide economic evidence to the decision makers of the NCSP. Materials and Methods: A cost-utility analysis was performed on the adoption of PSA screening program among men aged 50-74-years in Korea from the healthcare system perspective. Several data sources were used for the cost-utility analysis, including general health screening data, the Korea Central Cancer Registry, national insurance claims data, and cause of mortality from the National Statistical Office. To solicit the utility index of prostate cancer, a face-to-face interview for typical men aged 40 to 69 was conducted using a Time-Trade Off method. Results: As a result, the increase of effectiveness was estimated to be very low, when adopting PSA screening, and the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) was analyzed as about 94 million KRW. Sensitivity analyses were performed on the incidence rate, screening rate, cancer stage distribution, utility index, and treatment costs but the results were consistent with the base analysis. Conclusions: Under Korean circumstances with a relatively low incidence rate of prostate cancer, PSA screening is not cost-effective. Therefore, we conclude that adopting national prostate cancer screening would not be beneficial until further evidence is provided in the future.