• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권8호
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• pp.3587-3590
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• 2015

In spite of limited data regarding the safety or effectiveness of electronic cigarette introduced into the market as a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking, its popularity has increased enormously. E-cigarettes have penetrated the market rapidly owing to the elaborate marketing network and attractive marketing strategies. Stated advantages include the claim that they help quit smoking and produce less exposure than conventional smoking. The list of disadvantages is even more elaborate. While the majority of the studies supporting health claims and efficacy for quitting smoking are not scientifically sound, they are also challenged by studies providing contradictory results. Owing to the limited evidence on the potential advantages and disadvantages of e-cigarettes, the debate on their safety continues.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.377-383
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• 2001

In this paper, we present an intensive patient monitoring service through the Internet, which enables medical doctors to watch their patients in a remote site, to monitor their vital signs and to give them some advices for first-aid treatment. The service consists of three service objects: Monitoring Information Service(MIS), Vital Sign Monitoring Service(VSMS) and Multimedia Consulting (MCS). Through the MIS, medical doctors can get information about the patients currently under monitoring, including their names, ages, genders, symptoms, current main complaints and current locations. The VSMS enables medical doctors to monitor in real-time patients' vital signs such as electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, temperature, blood oxygen saturation (SpO$_{2}$), invasive blood pressure (IBP), and non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP). It also generates alarms when the patients are likely to be in a critical situation. The MCS provides a real-time multimedia desktop conferencing facility for watching patients and instructing attendants to administer some first-aid treatment. We carried out some experiments according to two different scenarios. The intensive patient monitoring service was functioning well in a 100Base-T Ethernet LAN environment.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.485-495
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• 1991

This study examined the effects of referral requirements for insurance patients which have been enforced since July 1, 1989 when medical insurance coverage was extended to the whole population except beneficiaries of medical assistance program. The requirements are mainly aimed at discouraging the use of tertiary care hospitals by imposing restrictions on the patient's choice of a medical service facility. The expectation is that such change in the pattern of medical care utilization would produce several desirable effects including increased efficiency in patient care and balanced development of various types of medical service facilities. In this study, these effects were assessed by the change in the number of out-patient visits and bed-days per illness episode and the share of each type of facility in the volume of services and the amount of expenditures after the implementation of the new referral system. The data for analysis were obtained from the claims to the insurance for government and school employees. The sample was drawn from the claims for the patients treated during the first six months of 1989, prior to the enforcement of referral requirements, and those of the patients treated during the first six months of 1990, after the enforcement. The 1989 sample included 299,824 claims (3.6% of total) and the 1990 sample included 332,131 (3.7% of total). The data were processed to make the unit of analysis an illness episode instead of an insurance claim. The facilities and types of care utilized for a given illness episode are defined to make up the pathway of medical care utilization. This pathway was conceived of as a Markov Chain process for further analysis. The conclusion emerged from the analysis is that the enforcement of referral requirements resulted in less use of tertiary care hospitals, and thereby decreased the volume of services and the amount of insurance expenses per illness episode. However, there are a few points that have to be taken into account in relation to the conclusion. The new referral system is likely to increase the use of medical services not covered by insurance, so that its impact on national health expenditures would be different from that on insurance expenditures. The extension of insurance coverage must have inereased patient load for all types of medical service organizations, and this increase may be partly responsible for producing the effects attributed to the new referral system. For example, excessive patient load for tertiary care hospitals may lead to the transfer of their patients to other types of facilities. Another point is that the data for this study correspond to very early phase of the new system. But both patients and medical care providers would adapt themselves to the new system to avoid or overcome its disadvantages for them, so as that its effects could change over time. Therefore, it is still necessary to closely monitor the impact of the referral requirements.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.55-66
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• 1990

1. 임종통고에 대한 반대는 노인군과 환자가족군이 40.2%, 40.9%로 환자군과 의료인군의 23.%, 13.3%보다 유의하게 높았다(p<0.001). 2. 임종환자에 대한 의료인의 회피적 태도에서는 의료인군의 44%가 반대하여 전체평균 28.5%보다 유의하게 높았다(p<0.001). 3. 불치병 환자의 생명 연장에 대한 태도에서는 환자군과 보호자군의 반대율이 33.3%, 22.5%로 노인군과 의료인군의 54.5%, 56.0%보다 유의하게 낮았다(p<0.001). 4. 임종환자를 위한 특수시설 및 교육문제에 있어서는 의료인군의 찬성율이 81.3%로 가장 높았고 환자군이 56.8%로 가장 낮았다. 5. 임종환자에 대한 가족의 회피적 태도에 대해서는 노인군의 찬성율이 81.3%로 가장 높았고 가족군이 34%로 가장 낮았다. 6. 임종에 대한 지각문제에 있어서는 의료인군의 찬성율이 77.3%로 전체평균 58.8%보다 높았다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.404-418
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• 1988

The household survey was performed in a urban slum and a rural Chonnam areas to measure the level of illness and medical care utilization and to find the determinants of physician utilization. The data revealed that age-adjusted prevalence rates of acute and chronic diseases were much the same in both areas ranged between 10.0 to 11.3%. But medical care utilization was more frequent in urban slum than in rural area. The facility of the first medical contact was also different. Some personal and disease related variables including disease severity and activity restricted day were significantly, but somewhat differently by area, associated with physician utilization pattern. When applying Anderson model, the medical need factors explained 42.2 and 40.4% of physician utilization in urban slum and in rural areas respectively, while the enabling factors explained 18.0 and 12.2% and the predisposing facotrs explained 17.1 and 8.9% correspondingly.

• 한국응급구조학회지
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.41-52
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• 2007

In Korea, Crowds, as well as more complex and larger structures, have been caused more victims in the event of fire. In that situation, EMSS should have done triage the patients according to their severity in the field, treat with standard guidelines as like advanced burn life support and transfer to appropriate facility. But in many cases, they didn't practice like that. The purpose of this study is to give basic data for proper emergency medical services by analysing EMSS of large scaled fire in Korea and suggesting some improvement methods. The improvment methods are like this ; First, developing of protocols about burn patient is needed for EMT and dispatcher. Second, Legal approval for advanced treatment is needed for EMT. Third, Fire-helicoptors are needed in Daejeon and Jeju. And Emergency Medical Helicoptors are needed in EMSS. Forth, more advanced emergency medical centers of burn must be established. Sixth, more pocket-mask and burn sheet are needed for 119 rescuer. Finally, building owners must change inflammable materials as non-inflammable materials and educate fire-prevention and first-aid to employees.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.270-277
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• 2023

Exposure to ionizing radiation induces free radicals in human nails. These free radicals generate a radiation-induced signal (RIS) in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Compared with the RIS of tooth enamel samples, that in human nails is more affected by moisture and heat, but has the advantages of being sensitive to radiation and easy to collect. The fingernail as a biological sample is applicable in retrospective dosimetry in cases of localized hand exposure accidents. In this study, the dosimetric characteristics of fingernails were analyzed in fingernail clippings collected from Korean donors. The dose response, fading of radiation-induced and mechanically induced signals, treatment method for evaluation of background signal, minimum detectable dose, and minimum detectable mass were investigated to propose a fingernail-EPR dosimetry protocol. In addition, to validate the practicality of the protocol, blind and field experiments were performed in the laboratory and a non-destructive testing facility. The relative biases in the dose assessment result of the blind and field experiments were 8.43% and 21.68% on average between the reference and reconstructed doses. The results of this study suggest that fingernail-EPR dosimetry can be a useful method for the application of retrospective dosimetry in cases of radiological accidents.

• 한국실내디자인학회논문집
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.225-233
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• 2010

At this point in time South Korea is rapidly metastasizing to a aging society. A major cause of aging can be summarized as increased life expectancy, decrease of nuclear family and birthrate, and South Korea's progress is faster than any other country. From the 1970s, western society has changed social welfare to deinstitutionalization and community care because of problems about economic reason and facilities protection, so the type of elderly social service has also changed from the facility welfare service which is accommodated old people in certain facility to community welfare service which provides various welfare services with living together. Public facilities for low income group which are supported by government are lower, 6.6%, than the United States or Japan, 50%. They are divided into private manage facilities and subscription elderly facilities. These subscription elderly residential facilities show poor administration because of focusing on development and market analysis for investment returns. Therefore, in order to vitalize the elderly welfare residential facilities in Korea, we need plans about systematic services facilities for welfare and phased medical treatments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is that (1) the types and functions of residents for community elderly residential facilities in elderly welfare policies of U.S., and supported policies are researched as a transcendental model, (2) data about operating system with the principles of the market is analyzed, and (3) basic data about welfare facility plan for community residential elderly people is provided.

• 대한물리치료과학회지
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.77-85
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• 2002

Patient satisfaction is an important factor in evaluating the quality of care. Patient satisfaction may be used to evaluate provider services and facilities, and used to predict the patient returns to a facility. The patients decision whether the patient returns to a facility or whether the patient recommends the facility to other people may be affected by a variety of factors of patient satisfaction. This study is to develop and test of a translated and modified Goldstein's instrument that measures patient satisfaction among physical therapists patients and clients. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in Seoul, Chung-Joo and Bu-Cheon cities. Survey data was obtained from 743 patients who visited the physical therapy practice at university hospitals, general hospitals and clinics. The instrument developed by Goldstein was used and translated into Korean. Several items were added to the instrument. Patient's opinions of service in each domain measured using 5-point Likert-type scales that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to indicate which questions examined similar components of patient satisfaction. Component analysis indicated eight scales (kindness, scheduling, recommendation, convenience of parking, privacy, and waiting time). Different types of validity were established well. The coefficient of reliability (Cronbach alpha =.97) obtained for the instrument was clearly within a desired range.

• 가정과삶의질연구
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• 제20권5호
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• pp.113-124
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• 2002

This study has been performed to explore conveniences and inconveniences of daily lives in rural residential care facilities among the elderly residents. In this study, five males and seven females aged 68 to 78 were asked about socio-familial and physical aspects of their daily lives in the facilities such as meals, social activities, family visits, recreation, and health care. The answers of the qualitative interview were drawn as follow; first, the residents perceived well planned regular meals and snacks, free visits of friends, regularly supervised daily sanitary activities, periodic outdoor activities, education programs provided by religious experts, and pastoral farming lives as most convenient aspects of the retirement facilities. In addition, some felt that facility life made them free of familial conflicts, while others appealed fear of being forgotten because of distant location. On the other hand, they perceived the supervised group activities and meals as major inconveniences. They also felt persistently depressed when closely observing serious illness or deaths of their co-residents. Therefore in this study, suggestions were made as follows: first, combination of normal family life and retirement facility should be developed in the mixed form of community welfare center and shared home. Second, intensive medical care facilities should be in collaboration with the retirement facilities, so that the residents are relieved from stressful contacts with extremely ill patients in the residential area.