• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-63
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• 2019

Purpose The motion due to respiration of patients undergoing PET/CT is a cause of artifacts in image and registration error between PET and CT images. The degree of displacement and distortion for tumor, which affects the measurement of Standard Uptake Value (SUV) and lesion volume, is especially higher for tumors that is small or located at the base of lungs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of prone position in the correction of image distortion due to respiration of patients in PET/CT. Materials and Methods The imaging equipment used in this study was PET/CT Discovery 600 (GE Healthcare, MI, USA). 20 patients whose lesions were identified in the middle and lower lungs from May to August 2018 were enrolled in this study. After acquiring whole body image in the supine position, additional images of the lesion area were obtained in the prone position with the same conditions. SUVmax, SUVmean, and volume of the lesion were measured for each image, and the displacement of the lesion on PET and CT images were measured, compared, and analyzed. Results The SUVmax, SUVmean, and volume, and displacement of the lesion were $4.72{\pm}2.04$, $3.10{\pm}1.38$, $4.68{\pm}3.20$, and $4.64{\pm}1.88$, respectively for image acquired in the supine position and $5.89{\pm}2.42$, $3.97{\pm}1.65$, $2.13{\pm}1.09$, and $2.24{\pm}0.84$, respectively for image acquired in the prone position, indicating that, for all the lesions imaged, SUVmax and SUVmean were higher and volume and displacement were smaller in the images acquired in prone position compared to those acquired in supine one(p<0.05). Conclusion These results showed that the prone position PET/CT imaging improves the quality of the image by increasing the SUV of the lesion and reducing the respiratory artifacts caused by registration error between PET and CT images. It is considered that the PET/CT imaging in the prone position is helpful in the diagnosis of the disease as an economical and efficient methods that correct registration error for the lesions in basal lung and reduce artifacts.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.5684-5691
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine effects of constraint-induced movement therapy(CIMT) and/or cognitive-perceptual training(CPT) on the change of hand function in cerebrovascular accident(CVA) patients and to evaluate the change in the amount and quality of use of the affected upper extremity in performing daily living tasks. The subjects of study were 10 patients who had been under rehabilitation for more than three months after CVA onset. They were all determined as mild cognition impairment according to NCSE or MVPT test. For CIMT group, to restrict the movement of the unaffected hand the subjects had been worn modified resting arm-splint in daytime for 4 weeks. For CIMT+CPT group, the subjects were performed CPT with CIMT and control group had been under conventional occupational therapy for the same period. CIMT+CPT group showed significant improvement in simulated feeding, lifting large light objects, and lifting large heavy objects of Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test. CIMT group also showed significant improvement compared with control group. The mean changes of the amount of use(AOU) of the affected arm had a statistically significant difference among groups (p<.05). While CIMT+CPT group had the biggest change in the quality of movement(QOM) of upper extremity of the affected side, CTL group showed the smallest change. Both CIMT and CIMT+CPT groups had statistically significant difference in the change in the quality of movement in upper extremity of affected side with CTL group(p<.05), but there was not significant difference between CIMT group and CIMT+CPT group. CIMT performed to the patients of stroke, with mild impairment in cognitive perceptual abilities showed the improvement in hand movement and AOU and QOM of upper extremity in the affected side and the combination of CIMT with CPT showed synergic effects.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.105-116
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• 2019

Purpose: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is emphasized as standard care for children with life-limiting conditions to improve the quality of life. In Korea, a government-funded pilot program was launched only in July 2018. Given that, this study examined various PPC delivery models in other countries to refine the PPC model in Korea. Methods: Target countries were selected based on the level of PPC provided there: the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and Singapore. Relevant literature, websites, and consultations from specialists were analyzed by the integrative review method. Literature search was conducted in PubMed, Google, and Google Scholar, focusing publications since 1990, and on-site visits were conducted to ensure reliability. Analysis was performed on each country's process to develop its PPC scheme, policy, funding model, target population, delivery system, and quality assurance. Results: In the United Kingdom, community-based free-standing facilities work closely with primary care and exchange advice and referrals with specialized PPC consult teams of children's hospitals. In the United States, hospital-based specialized PPC consult teams set up networks with hospice agencies and home healthcare agencies and provide PPC by designating care coordinators. In Japan, palliative care is provided through several services such as palliative care for cancer patients, home care for technology-dependent patients, other support services for children with disabilities and/or chronic conditions. In Singapore, a home-based PPC association plays a pivotal role in providing PPC by taking advantage of geographic accessibility and cooperating with tertiary hospitals. Conclusion: It is warranted to identify unmet needs and establish an appropriate PPD model to provide need-based individualized care and optimize PPC in South Korea.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.120-128
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• 2024

From February to now 2024, there continues to be controversy over the expansion of admission number to medical school. Some of the controversy arises from a mix of present and future time points. In the present time point, the controversy over whether physicians are some shortages or not has various aspects. Some aspects are presented as evidence of the physician shortage and others as non-shortage. Also, the presenting evidence of shortage is being disputed, and so is the evidence of the contrary. This controversy over whether there is a shortage or not in the present time point makes it difficult to reach a consensus. In 10 years, the shortage of doctors will increase due to the rapid increase in the elderly population, so the admission number of medical schools will need to be increased. However, the increase must be such that there is minimal deterioration in the quality of medical education. More admission numbers should be allocated to medical schools with a high quality of medical education. This study suggests that large-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 20%-30%, and small-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 40%-50%, if so, the total increasing number is 760 to 1,066. If the 2,000-person increase is enforced, the quality of medical education must be carefully evaluated and the results should be reflected in adjusting the admission number of medical schools. In 20 years later, the admission number of medical schools will have to be reduced. This is because the physician supply is changing to a linear function and the physician demand (medical care demand) is changing to a quadratic function. Even if the current number is maintained, there will be an excess of doctors from 2048, so the medical school admission number must be reduced and its size will be reduced to about 2,000, a 30% reduction from the current number. Because the same reduction rate for all medical schools will result in many small-scale medical schools, the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy should be considered with 40 medical schools and 12 Korean medical schools. In Korea, the main contributor to estimating physician demand is the change in population structure. Due to the rapid decrease in the total fertility rate, future population projections are uncertain. The recent rapid increase in healthcare utilization should be reexamined in the forecasting of physician demand. Since the various factors that affect the estimate of doctor supply and demand are unclear, the estimate of physician supply and demand must be continuously conducted every five years, and the Health Care Workforce Committee must be established and operated. The effects of increasing the admission number of medical schools should be evaluated and adjusted annually.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.305-332
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• 2010

This study was searching for elements affecting satisfaction of customers by comparing health management service businesses such as wellbeing care, yoga, and fitness. The discovered elements were analyzed and verified to find which elements are affecting what businesses through case studies. Multidirectional analysis was implemented for each service type using program, physical environment, and provided service drawn from the previous researches with SERVQUAL criteria and measured values on customer satisfactions. According to the analysis, physical environment in forest wellbeing care, program in yoga, and provided service in fitness were the most affecting elements. Thus, each health management service business must consider the lifestyle and trend of customers, and the specialized service corresponding to its uniqueness must be provided to customers. Surely, modernized exercise equipment, personalized program, and comfortable-luxurious settings are must have in order to be competitive. In addition, the business owners have to realize that customers are moving to quality from quantity. This means exercise must be brought up to the level of social value for relationship and links rather than left at the level of simple physical and mental trainings. To achieve these, other programs to support relationship among customers and circulating system with friendly environment must be considered at the same time.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.38C no.12
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• pp.1106-1113
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• 2013

For patients who have senile mental disorder such as dementia, quantity of excercise and amount of sunlight are important clue for dose and the treatment. Therefore, monitoring health information of daily life is necessary for patients' safety and healthy life. Portable & wearable sensor device and server configuration monitoring data are needed to provide these services for patients. Watch-type device(smart watch) which patients wear and server system are developed in this paper. Smart watch developed includes GPS, accelerometer and illumination sensor, and can obtain real time health information by measuring the position of patients, quantity of exercise and amount of sunlight. Server system includes the sensor data analysis algorithm and web server that doctor and protector can monitor through sensor data acquired from smart watch. The proposed data analysis algorithm acquires quantity of exercise information and detects step count in patients' motion acquired from acceleration sensor and to verify this, the three cases with fast pace, slow pace, and walking pace show 96% of the experimental result. If developed u-Healthcare System for dementia patients is applied, more high-quality medical service can be provided to patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2015

Breakthrough cancer pain is a transient exacerbation of pain that occurs despite relatively well controlled background pain with around-the-clock analgesia. It is highly prevalent in patients with cancer pain, with an overall prevalence of 70~90%. Breakthrough cancer pain has several negative effects on quality of life, including a decrease in functional status and social relationship, and higher incidence of anxiety/depression. It also places a detrimental burden on their families, society, and the healthcare system. According to the pathogenic mechanism, breakthrough cancer pain is classified into two categories: idiopathic (or spontaneous) pain and incident pain. Episodes of breakthrough cancer pain have typical characteristics, including rapid onset (5~10 min), severe intensity, and short duration (30~60 min). However, there are some variations in timing and severity of pain among patients and episodes. Therefore, a thorough assessment of pain episodes is needed and management plan must be individualized to provide optimal treatment. Several immediate-release formulations such as oxycodone, morphine, and hydromorphone are widely used despite relatively slow onset of action. Recent studies have shown that transmucosal fentanyl preparations were effective for faster control of breakthrough pain. We hope to improve management of breakthrough cancer pain with more efficient analgesics in line with currently available evidence.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine how patients' coping style and social support affect post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in breast cancer patients who are treated with chemotherapy. Methods: The sample consisted of 134 outpatients who received breast cancer treatments at the cancer clinic of a university hospital. The collected data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, ${\chi}^2$-test, Pearson correlation coefficients using SPSS for Windows, version 18.0. Results: Among total, 26.9% of patients were classified into a high-risk PTSD group. In the high-risk group, a positive correlation was found between active and passive coping styles and between social support and active coping styles. Conclusion: In this study, the stronger the social support was, the more active the coping style was for high-risk PTSD patients with breast cancer. Considering the fact that cancer requires life-long self-management, strong social support could improve patients' healthcare capability. Furthermore, solid social support could effectively reduce the stress level and improve the quality of life for breast cancer patients in the high-risk PTSD group.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.220-235
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate how clinical nutrition services is provided at a long term care hospital in Korea and to investigate job satisfaction levels of the clinical dietitians. Methods: Survey questionnaire was sent to dietitians working at a long term care hospital in Korea. The participating hospitals (n=240) were randomly selected from 1,180 long- term care hospitals using a stratified sampling method. A total of 134 long term care hospital s and 223 dietitians completed the survey of clinical nutrition service s and job satisfaction questionnaires The job satisfaction questionnaire included 27 job satisfaction questions on task, stability vision, working conditions, and relationship areas. Results: The average nutritional screening rate was 17.9% and the rate of computerized nutritional screening system was 9.7% in the participating hospitals. Nutritional intervention rate was only 3.2% of all patients. KOIHA (Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation) accreditated hospitals showed only 50% performance rate of nutrition service evaluation area. This shows that after achieving KOIHA accredition, many hospitals do not emphasize the performance of nutritional services. The job satisfaction scores in all four areas ranged from 2/5 to 3/5, implying generally low job satisfaction level in hospital dietitians. Linear regression analysis results showed that the "hospital adequacy grade" type was a significant predictor of job satisfaction level for two areas (working conditions & relationship). Conclusions: There is a need to provide proper standardized clinical nutrition services as a primary treatment and we observed large variations in the quality of nutritional service s in long term care hospitals. Therefore, government and local hospitals have to work on implementing nutritional programs and policies for improved service and care.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.27-41
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to discern the level of satisfaction of postpartum care in hospitals. the level of importance of traditional postpartum care and the need for home health care for postpartum women. The study's design was to obtain data needed to develop a community-based postpartum care program and to improve the quality of nursing for postpartum care recipients. Data for the study was collected from 1 March to 31 June 2000 from 116 postpartum care recipients treated in Chung-Buk, Korea. Data analysis consisted of frequency, percentage, t-test, and ANOVA. using SPSS win program. The results the of analysis were as follows: 1) The level of satisfaction of postpartum care in the hospital (mean 1.31) was very low. The most laudable items of nursing care by category were: moderate satisfaction with 'perineal wound care' (2.04) and 'afterpain observation'(2.09). The overall level of satisfaction of postpartum care in the hospital. however, was very low. 2) Among other items of postpartum care in the hospital, 'postpartum exercise' $(25.9\%)$. 'assessment and support for postpartum depression' $(25.9\%)$, 'operation wound care for women who underwent Caesarean sections' $(24.5\%)$. and 'contraception and family planning' $(20.4\%)$ showed a need for home health care for postpartum care recipients above $20\%$. 3) The level of importance of traditional postpartum care (Sanhujori) was relatively high (mean 2.72). The importance of Sanhujori by category was as followed: 'the fourth principle: protecting the body from harmful strains' was the highest (2.88), 'the third principle: eating well', 'the first principle: invigorating the body by augmenting heat and avoiding cold', 'the second principle: resting without working', 'the fifth principle: keeping clean' and 'the sixth principle: handling with the whole heart' showed 2.85, 2.80, 2.70, 2.51 and 2.46 respectively. 4) The need for home health care with Sanhujori was very low. 5) The relationship between demographic factors and the level of satisfaction with postpartum care in the hospital was as follows: the satisfaction levels were significantly different among' delivery frequency' and 'health status' alteration after delivery'. 6) The relationship between demographic factors and the importance of the Sanhujori category was as follows: There were no significant differences in the level of importance of the first and the forth principle of Sanhujori. The level of importance of the second principle of Sanhujori was significantly different among 'income' and 'family type'. The level of importance of the third principle of Sanhujori was significantly different among 'having a boy'. The level of importance of the fifth principle of Sanhujori was significantly different among 'income' and 'feeding type'. The level of importance of the sixth principle of Sanhujori was significantly different among 'education background' and 'feeding type'. In conclusion. the findings of this study illustrate the nursing needs of postpartum care recipients. It provides a challenge to caregivers in the healthcare industry to develop a continuous postpartum care program and integrative postpartum care system that embodies the oriental and western paradigm for the promotion of women's health.