• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.197-206
• /
• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationship among nurses' workplace bullying experience, organizational culture, and organizational commitment. Methods: Nurses who had worked for more than 6 months (N=299) were selected from 5 general hospitals. Data were collected from August to September 2014, using a self- reported questionnaire, and were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Among the participants, 17.7% reported having experienced workplace bullying. Those who had experienced workplace bullying reported significantly lower relation-oriented culture, innovation-oriented culture, and organizational commitment as compared to the other group (t=-2.50, p=.016; t=-2.60, p=.011; t=-2.91, p=.004, respectively). Rank-oriented culture was higher in those who had experienced workplace bullying as compared to those who had not (t=2.76, p=.007). Conclusion: Those who had experienced workplace bullying had higher scores on rank-oriented culture and lower scores on innovation-oriented culture, relation-oriented culture, and organizational commitment. To reduce workplace bullying among nurses, hospital managers should improve the relation-oriented organizational culture and alleviate the rank-oriented culture.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.73-87
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a Action Learning(AL) program in terms of problem solving, communication skills, emotional creativity and innovation behaviors. Design for this was a nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental study. The participants were C-hospital staff nurses in G city (Experimental group=29, Control group=30). The AL program was composed of fourteen sessions in eight weeks. Data were collected and the program was conducted from May. 26 to July. 18, 2008. Data were analyzed with ${\chi}^2$-test, Fisher's exact test, t-test and ANCOVA, and utilized the SPSS win 20.0 program. There were significant increases in problem solving skills, communication skills and emotional creativity in the experimental group compared to the control group. Considering the above results, AL program has proven to be an effective educational program for improving the problem solving, communication skills and emotional creativity of nurses.

• Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.49-55
• /
• 2023

Tumors are encircled by various non-cancerous cell types in the extracellular matrix, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, immune cells, and cytokines. Fibroblasts are the most critical cells in the tumor stroma and play an important role in tumor development, which has been highlighted in some epithelial cancers. Many studies have shown a tight connection between cancerous cells and fibroblasts in the last decade. Regulatory factors secreted into the tumor environment by special fibroblast cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), play an important role in tumor and vessel development, metastasis, and therapy resistance. This review addresses the development of FAP inhibitors, emphasizing the first, second, and latest generations. First-generation inhibitors exhibit low selectivity and chemical stability, encouraging researchers to develop new scaffolds based on preclinical and clinical data. Second-generation enzymes such as UAMC-1110 demonstrated enhanced FAP binding and better selectivity. Targeted treatment and diagnostic imaging have become possible by further developing radionuclide-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitors (FAPIs). Although all three FAPIs (01, 02, and 04) showed excellent preclinical and clinical findings. The final optimization of these FAPI scaffolds resulted in FAPI-46 with the highest tumor-to-background ratio and better binding affinity.

• Journal of Information Technology and Architecture
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.45-52
• /
• 2014

Recently, more and more hospitals have become interested in the innovation of healthcare services and processes through IT convergence based on RFID, NFC, smart devices and so on. This paper presents a case of process innovation by implementing a smart health checkup system using these advanced information technologies. The existing inefficient health checkup process based on the paper chart and manual work has been innovated using the advanced information and communication technologies. The newly developed smart health checkup system has been used successfully in a tertiary university hospital named Samsung Medical Center since April 2013. The contributions of the system include improvement of service quality, enhancement of customer satisfaction, reduction in workload of staffs, improvement of work accuracy, and accordingly reinforcement of the competitiveness of the hospital.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.5229-5235
• /
• 2016

Prostate cancer (PCa) remains one of the most widespread and perplexing of all human malignancies. Assessment of gene expression is thought to have an important impact on cancer diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic decisions. In this context, we explored combined expression of PCa related target genes AMACR and PCA3 in 126 formalin fixed paraffin embedded prostate tissues (FFPE) from Moroccan patients, using quantitative real time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR). This quantification required data normalization accomplished using stably expressed reference genes (RGs). A panel of twelve RG was assessed, data being analyzed using GenEx V6 based on geNorm, NormFinder and statistical methods. Accordingly, the hnRNP A1 gene was identified and selected as the most stably expressed RG for reliable and accurate gene expression quantification in prostate tissues. The ratios of both PCA3 and AMACR gene expression relative to that of the hnRNP A1 gene were calculated and the performance of each target gene for PCa diagnosis was evaluated using receiver-operating characteristics. PCA3 and AMACR mRNA quantification based on RT-qPCR may prove useful in PCa diagnosis. Of particular interesting, combining PCA3 and AMACR quantification improved PCa prediction by increasing sensitivity with retention of good specificity.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.47-63
• /
• 2023

Purpose:This study aims to suggest the future direction for applying service design to improve the quality of healthcare as part of hospital service innovation and present implementation plans in Korea, based on a review of quality improvement activities and the current status of service design applications. Methods: Through a literature review, we examined the status of service design introduction and application in the healthcare field, focusing on cases in the US and Europe. The possibility and limitations of service design in the healthcare field were examined through a comparison of oversea and domestic cases. Results: Recently, service design has begun to be applied to the healthcare field worldwide. Service design shows the possibility of an alternative that alleviates and complements the limitations of existing quality improvement activities. It also offers the possibility of creating new organizational improvement and innovation approaches through integration and convergence with existing quality improvement activities and management innovation. Conclusion: To effectively apply service design to hospitals, it is necessary to integrate internal organizations related to service improvement, combine methods, and objectively measure and evaluate performance. To this end, we propose the operation of a nationwide education and training center for quality improvement and service design led by academic society. Service design will provide an opportunity to change the management innovation and organizational culture of hospitals beyond the scope of the current quality improvement, which deals only with micro-subjects of individual hospitals.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.58-72
• /
• 2020

Purposes: This study aims to investigate the determinants of change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior(CO-OCB) of hospital employees and test the mediating effect of the job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the CO-OCB. Methods: Data were collected from the self-administered questionnaire survey for hospital employees of ten hospitals located in five regions, including Seoul. Out of 1,100 questionnaires which were distributed through the administrative routes, a total of 617 copies were returned(response rate 56.1%) and analyzed by frequency analysis, t-tests, correlation analysis, multiple regression, and path analysis using SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0. Findings: The study results revealed that the explanatory power(56.4%) of the model was most significantly increased by the variables of psychological attributes(R²-change 33,5%). Also, the variables of self-efficacy, followed by hope, the organizational climate for innovation, the psychological safety climate, team-member exchange, and leader-member exchange were found to have positive total effects on CO-OCB, through the mediating variables of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Practical Implications: The study results imply that, in order to improve the CO-OCB of hospital employees, the administrators have to take the integrated approach considering the various domains of factors including the psychological attributes, job characteristics, interpersonal relations, and organizational climate simultaneously.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.411-418
• /
• 2017

Background: Recently, protein from ginseng was studied and used for the treatment of several kinds of diseases. However, the effect of ginseng total protein (GTP) on proliferation and wound healing in fibroblast cells remains unclear. Methods: In this study, cell viability was analyzed using the MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] assay. Cell cycle distribution was analyzed by flow cytometer. The levels of transforming growth factor ${\beta}1$, vascular endothelial growth factor, and collagens were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunofluorescence staining. The expressions of cyclin A, phosphorylation of extracellular signal-related kinase (p-ERK1/2), and ERK1/2 were analyzed by Western blotting. Results: Our results showed that GTP promoted cell proliferation and increased the percentage of cells in S phase through the upregulation of cyclin A in NIH/3T3 cells. We also found that GTP induced the secretion of type I collagen, and promoted the expression of other factors that regulate the synthesis of collagen such as transforming growth factor ${\beta}1$ and vascular endothelial growth factor. In addition, the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 at Thr202/Tyr204 was also increased by GTP. Conclusion: Our studies suggest that GTP promoted proliferation and secretion of collagen in NIH/3T3 cells by activating the ERK signal pathway, which shed light on a potential function of GTP in promoting wound healing.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.147-155
• /
• 2024

Gallium-68-prostate-specific membrane antigen-11 (⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11) is a positron emission tomography radiopharmaceutical that labels a Glu-urea-Lys-based ligand with ⁶⁸Ga, binding specifically to the PSMA. It is used widely for imaging recurrent prostate cancer and metastases. On the other hand, the preparation and quality control testing of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11 in medical institutions takes over 60 minutes, limiting the daily capacity of ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generators. While the generator provides 1,110 MBq (30 mCi) nominally, its activity decreases over time, and the labeling yield declines irregularly. Consequently, additional preparations are needed, increasing radiation exposure for medical technicians, prolonging patient wait times, and necessitating production schedule adjustments. This study aimed to reduce the ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11 preparation time and optimize the automated synthesis system. By shortening the reaction time between ⁶⁸Ga and the PSMA-11 precursor and adjusting the number of purification steps, a faster and more cost-effective method was tested while maintaining quality. The final synthesis time was reduced from 30 to 20 minutes, meeting the standards for the HEPES content, residual solvent EtOH content, and radiochemical purity. This optimized procedure minimizes radiation exposure for medical technicians, reduces patient wait times, and maintains consistent production schedules, making it suitable for clinical application.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.600-605
• /
• 2019

Background: The leaves and roots of Panax ginseng are rich in ginsenosides. However, the chemical compositions of the leaves and roots of P. ginseng differ, resulting in different medicinal functions. In recent years, the aerial parts of members of the Panax genus have received great attention from natural product chemists as producers of bioactive ginsenosides. The aim of this study was the isolation and structural elucidation of novel, minor ginsenosides in the leaves of P. ginseng and evaluation of their antiinflammatory activity in vitro. Methods: Various chromatographic techniques were applied to obtain pure individual compounds, and their structures were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance and high-resolution mass spectrometry, as well as chemical methods. The antiinflammatory effect of the new compounds was evaluated on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells. Results and conclusions: Two novel, minor triterpenoid saponins, ginsenoside $LS_1$ (1) and 5,6-didehydroginsenoside $Rg_3$ (2), were isolated from the leaves of P. ginseng. The isolated compounds 1 and 2 were assayed for their inhibitory effect on nitric oxide production in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells, and Compound 2 showed a significant inhibitory effect with $IC_{50}$ of $37.38{\mu}M$ compared with that of NG-monomethyl-L-arginine ($IC_{50}=90.76{\mu}M$). Moreover, Compound 2 significantly decreased secretion of cytokines such as prostaglandin $E_2$ and tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$. In addition, Compound 2 significantly suppressed protein expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2. These results suggested that Compound 2 could be used as a valuable candidate for medicinal use or functional food, and the mechanism is warranted for further exploration.