• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 1984

For nearly a century it has been known that chemical activity accompanies mental activity, but only recently has it been possible to begin to examine its exact nature. Positron-emitting radioactive tracers have made it possible to study the chemistry of the human mind in health and disease, using chiefly cyclotron-produced radionuclides, carbon-11, fluorine-18 and oxygen-15. It is now well established that measurable increases in regional cerebral blood flow, glucose and oxygen metabolism accompany the mental functions of perception, cognition, emotion and motion. On May 25, 1983 the first imaging of a neuroreceptor in the human brain was accomplished with carbon-11 methyl spiperone, a ligand that binds preferentially to dopamine-2 receptors, 80% of which are located in the caudate nucleus and putamen. Quantitative imaging of serotonin-2, opiate, benzodiazapine and muscarinic cholinergic receptors has subsequently been accomplished. In studies of normal men and women, it has been found that dopamine and serotonin receptor activity decreases dramatically with age, such a decrease being more pronounced in men than in women and greater in the case of dopamine receptors than serotonin-2 receptors. Preliminary studies in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders suggests that dopamine-2 receptor activity is diminished in the caudate nucleus of patients with Huntington's disease. Positron tomography permits quantitative assay of picomolar quantities of neuro-receptors within the living human brain. Studies of patients with Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, acute and chronic pain states and drug addiction are now in progress. The growth of any scientific field is based on a paradigm or set of ideas that the community of scientists accepts. The unifying principle of nuclear medicine is the tracer principle applied to the study of human disease. Nineteen hundred and sixty-three was a landmark year in which technetium-99m and the Anger camera combined to move the field from its latent stage into a second stage characterized by exponential growth within the framework of the paradigm. The third stage, characterized by gradually declining growth, began in 1973. Faced with competing advances, such as computed tomography and ultrasonography, proponents and participants in the field of nuclear medicine began to search for greener pastures or to pursue narrow sub-specialties. Research became characterized by refinements of existing techniques. In 1983 nuclear medicine experienced what could be a profound change. A new paradigm was born when it was demonstrated that, despite their extremely low chemical concentrations, in the picomolar range, it was possible to image and quantify the distribution of receptors in the human body. Thus, nuclear medicine was able to move beyond physiology into biochemistry and pharmacology. Fundamental to the science of pharmacology is the concept that many drugs and endogenous substances, such as neurotransmitters, react with specific macromolecules that mediate their pharmacologic actions. Such receptors are usually identified in the study of excised tissues, cells or cell membranes, or in autoradiographic studies in animals. The first imaging and quantification of a neuroreceptor in a living human being was performed on May 25, 1983 and reported in the September 23, 1983 issue of SCIENCE. The study involved the development and use of carbon-11 N-methyl spiperone (NMSP), a drug with a high affinity for dopamine receptors. Since then, studies of dopamine and serotonin receptors have been carried out in over 100 normal persons or patients with various neuropsychiatric disorders. Exactly one year later, the first imaging of opitate receptors in a living human being was performed [1].

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.113-116
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• 2014

This paper has been forged to suggest 'Medical Information Searching System'. This system sets itself to conduct searching of medical information stored in a wide variety of medical institutions. This system aims to suggest a flexible, compatible and effective standard on medical information searching through this. So, In this paper, we present a framework to help medical institutions search the requiring medical information in conjunction with analysis on 'medical information request'.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.359-395
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• 2012

In a broad term, health and medical data means all patient information that has been generated or circulated in government health and medical policies, such as medical research and public health, and all sorts of health and medical fields as well as patients' personal data, referred as medical data (filled out as medical record forms) by medical institutions. The kinds of health and medical data in medical records are prescribed by Articles on required medical data and the terms of recordkeeping in the Enforcement Decree of the Medical Service Act. As EMR, OCS, LIS, telemedicine and u-health emerges, sharing and protecting digital health and medical data is at issue in these days. At medical institutions, health and medical data, such as medical records, is classified as "sensitive information" and thus is protected strictly. However, due to the circulative property of information, health and medical data can be public as well as being private. The legal grounds of health and medical data as such are based on the right to informational self-determination, which is one of the fundamental rights derived from the Constitution. In there, patients' rights to refuse the collection of information, to control recordkeeping (to demand access, correction or deletion) and to control using and sharing of information are rooted. In any processing of health and medical data, such as generating, recording, storing, using or disposing, privacy can be violated in many ways, including the leakage, forgery, falsification or abuse of information. That is why laws, such as the Medical Service Act and the Personal Data Protection Law, and the Guideline for Protection of Personal Data at Medical Institutions (by the Ministry of Health and Welfare) provide for technical, physical, administrative and legal safeguards on those who handle personal data (health and medical information-processing personnel and medical institutions). The Personal Data Protection Law provides for the collection, use and sharing of personal data, and the regulation thereon, the disposal of information, the means of receiving consent, and the regulation of processing of personal data. On the contrary, health and medical data can be inspected or delivered of the copies, based on the principle of restriction on fundamental rights prescribed by the Constitution. For instance, Article 21(Access to Record) of the Medical Service Act, and the Personal Data Protection Law prescribe self-disclosure, the release of information by family members or by laws, the exchange of medical data due to patient transfer, the secondary use of medical data, such as medical research, and the release of information and the release of information required by the Personal Data Protection Law.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.3 s.71
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• pp.23-36
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• 2007

Objective : To poll oriental medical doctors on their opinions about the necessity of standard medical charts and of detailed items in their development. Currently, oriental medical institutions use their own medical charts, but a standard medical chart is necessary for medical information sharing. Methods : Report by 912 of the 10,490 oriental medical doctors surveyed on their general aspects, actual conditions, and requirements. Results : The oriental medical doctors surveyed who worked in oriental medicine clinics, oriental medicine hospitals, and public health centers said medical examination programs should consist of chief complaints (said by 814 respondents or 89.25%), history (792 or 86.84%), ordinal symptoms (753 or 82.57%), diet (727 or 79.71%), emotions and overstrain (654 or 71.71%), side effects and allergies (622 or 68.20%), improvement of symptoms (605 or 66.34%), a questionnaire on particular diseases (558 or 61.18%), social aspects (523 or 57.35%), a physical examination (520 or 57.02%), a questionnaire on syndrome differentiation (514 or 56.36%), diagnosis using medical devices and laboratory tests (471 or 51.64%), and Sasang constitution (357 or 39.14%). Ninety-one percent of the respondents said they intended to use a standard chart, and 82.19% agreed to share patient information with medical institutions. Conclusions : Over 90 percent of the oriental medical doctors surveyed said they need a standard medical examination program. Oriental medical examination items that correspond with the opinions of the oriental medical doctors surveyed and of experts will thus be developed, and the draft chart will be distributed to oriental medical institutions with the developed medical forms and electronic medical chart.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.43-59
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• 2018

This study aims to review various efforts required by medical institutions to prevent medical accidents in advance and to suggest the necessity of introducing liability insurance for medical accidents based on cases abroad and compulsory professional indemnity insurance at home. Over the past five years between 2013 and 2017, the number of inquiries regarding medical accidents and medical disputes has increased by 11.1 percent from 36,099 to 54,929, and the number of mediation and arbitration for medical disputes has increased by 14.3 percent from 1,304 to 2,225. Since some medical accidents even cause social problems, a compulsory insurance system for the liability of medical institutions for damages need to be introduced to promptly compensate the victims of medical accidents and to ensure compensation by medical personnel. In Korea, a system is in place to provide compensation for a client who suffers an accidental damage after receiving professional services, regardless of whether or not the professional service provider can provide compensation. In major foreign countries, a medical liability system is in place that is applied either by the principle of liability with fault, or the principle of liability without fault. In this study, the cases of compulsory insurance and semi-compulsory insurance in the US and Japan to which the principle of liability with fault is applied, as well as the case of New Zealand to which the principle of liability without fault is applied, were examined. It is necessary to urgently introduce the compulsory insurance system for the liability of compensation to prevent medical disputes and to compensate for the life and physical damages of the victims of medical accidents in domestic medical institutions. Doing so is expected to ensure fair compensation for the victims of medical malpractice and compensation by medical personnel, thereby improving medical practice.

• The Journal of KAIRB
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.37-48
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the operational status and level of understanding among IRB and HRPP staffs at a hospital or a research institute to the HRPP guideline set by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) and to provide recommendations. Methods: Online survey was distributed among members of Korean Association of IRB (KAIRB) through each IRB office. The result was separated according to topic and descriptive statistics was used for analysis. Result: Survey notification was sent out to 176 institutions and 65 (37.1%) institutions answered the survey by online. Of 65 institutions that answered the survey; 83.1% was hospital, 12.3% was university, 3.1% was medical college, 1.5% was research institution. 23 institutions (25.4%) established independent HRPP offices and 39 institutions (60.0%) did not. 12 institutions (18.5%) had separate IRB and HRPP heads, 21 (32.3%) institutions separated business reporting procedure and person in charge, 12 institutions separated the responsibility of IRB and HRPP among staff, and 45 institutions (69.2%) had audit & non-compliance managers. When asked about the most important basic task for HRPP, 23% answered self-audit. And according to 43.52%, self-audit was also the most by both institutions that operated HRPP and institutions that did not. When basic task performance status was analyzed, on average, the institutions that operated HRPP was 14% higher than institutions that only operated IRB. 9 (13.8%) institutions were evaluated and obtained HRPP accreditation from MFDS and the most common reason for obtaining the accreditation was to be selected as Institution for the education of persons conducting clinical trial (6 institutions). The most common reason for not obtaining HRPP accreditation was because of insufficient staff and limited capacity of the institution (28%). Institutions with and without a plan to be HRPP accredited by MFDS were 20 (37.7%) each. 34 institutions (52.3%) answered HRPP evaluation method and accreditation by MFDS was appropriate while 31 institutions (47.7%) answered otherwise. 36 institutions answered that HRPP evaluation and accreditation by MFDS was credible while 29 institutions (44.5%) answered that HRPP evaluation method and accreditation by MFDS was not credible. Conclusion: 1. MFDS's HRPP accreditation program can facilitate the main objective of HRPP and MFDS's HRPP accreditation program should be encouraged to non-tertiary hospitals by taking small staff size into consideration and issuing accreditation by segregating accreditation. 2. While issuing Institution for the education of persons conducting clinical trial status as a benefit of MFDS's HRPP accreditation program, it can also hinder access to MFDS's HRPP accreditation program. It should also be considered that the non-contact culture during COVID-19 pandemic eliminated time and space limitation for education. 3. For clinical research conducted internally by an institution, internal audit is the most effective and sole method of protecting safety and right of the test subjects and integrity for research in Korea. For this reason, regardless of the size of the institution, an internal audit should be enforced. 4. It is necessary for KAIRB and MFDSto improve HRPP awareness by advocating and educating the concept and necessity of HRPP in clinical research. 5. A new HRPP accreditation system should be setup for all clinical research with human subjects, including Investigational New Drug (IND) application in near future.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2017

Purpose : The easiest and most cost-effective way to prevent medical-related infections is known as proper hand washing of health care workers. The experience of MERS in domestic medical institutions has increased the importance of hand hygiene for medical workers to prevent infections in hospitals. It is necessary to investigate the level of hand hygiene practice by type of medical institutions and the factors influencing the infection prevention. Methods : Domestic and overseas hand hygiene related business cases and literature data were collected and analyzed in order to investigate the hand hygiene status of medical institutions in Korea. Result : As a result of hand hygiene monitoring of all hospital-level medical institutions in 2016, the total number of observations was 24,328 and the hand hygiene performance rate was 75.9%. The hand hygiene performance rate of hospitals was 71.5% for general hospitals, 75% for general hospitals, and 81.3% for hospitals. Implications : In general hospitals and hospitals, the HR(Hand Rubbing) method is preferred as a way of performing hand hygiene, whereas the HW(Hand Washing) method is relatively high in the small hospitals. It is estimated that the HW system is preferred because of the cost burden at the hospital medical institution. Therefore, it is necessary to compensate the related expenses to improve the hand hygiene performance of the physicians who are engaged in the hospitals.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.26-37
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• 2022

Purpose: Japan established the convalescent rehabilitation wards, corresponding to Korea's rehabilitation medical institutions, in 2000 and developed it into the present system through continuous revisions. This study sought to analyze the issues and tasks faced by Japan segregated by the period of revision of convalescent rehabilitation ward-related medical fee regulations, through a literature review and further aimed to explore the direction of development of domestic rehabilitation medical institutions. Methods: Ten revisions of the medical fee regulations were classified into three stages based on quality evaluation: (1) the quantitative expansion stage (2000-2006); (2) quality evaluation introduction stage (2008-2014); and (3) quality evaluation maturity stage (2016-2020). Results: The following issues and tasks emerged: (1) For the quantitative expansion stage; insufficient rehabilitation within the ward, insufficient after-hour rehabilitation, insufficient connection with acute-stage hospitals and maintenance facilities, and the low ratio of specialists. (2) For the quality evaluation introduction stage; disparity in the manpower between institutions, the necessity of a 365-day rehabilitation system, avoidance of critical patients, and the problem that an increase in the amount of rehabilitation did not lead to a qualitative improvement. 3) For the quality evaluation maturity stage; cream-skimming issues in selecting patients, inappropriate evaluation of rehabilitation effects, and the necessity of follow-up measures after discharge. Conclusion: It is worth referring to the established regulations in Japan, and concurrently it is necessary to strengthen the evaluation of the structures, processes, and results when operating and evaluating rehabilitation medical institutions in Korea taking into account the side effects that could be identified in Japan.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.62-71
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• 2020

Background: The purpose of this study is to analyze the current status and factors of elderly patients' hospitalization for hip replacement, knee replacement, and general spine surgery. Methods: National health insurance data in 2018 was provided by the National Health Insurance Service. We used multiple regression to analyze factors associated with the medical utilization of hip replacement, knee replacement, and general spine surgery in elderly patients over 65 years old. The dependent variables are the length of stay and total health expenditure. The independent variables are the demographic-social factors (sex, age, region, insurance type, income level) and surgery-related factors (institution type, location of the hospital, surgery classification). Results: The most common factor affecting surgery was the location of medical institutions. Compared with the medical institutions located in metropolitan, the length of stay in rural medical institutions was higher and total health expenditure was lower. The lower quartile of income, the higher the length of stay and total health expenditure. In addition, the variables of age, type of health insurance, and type of medical institution were statistically significant. Conclusion: In this study, we confirmed the effect of sociodemographic factors and medical institution factors on the Healthcare Utilization of spinal and joint surgery.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.75-84
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• 2017

As there has been growing interests in PHR-based personalized health management project, various institutions recently explore safe methods of recording personal medical and health information. In particular, innovative medical solution can be realized when medical researchers and medical service institutes can generally get access to patient data. As EMR data is extremely sensitive, there has been no progress in clinical information exchange. Moreover, patients cannot get access to their own health data and exchange it with researchers or service institutions. It can be operated in terms of technology, yet policy environment are affected by state laws as well as Privacy and Security Policy. Blockchain technology-independent, in transaction, and under test-is introduced in the medical industry in order to settle these problems. In other words, medical organizations can grant preliminary approval on patient information exchange by using the safely encrypted and distributed Blockchain ledger and can be managed independently and completely by individuals. More apparently, medical researchers can gain access to information, thereby contributing to the scientific advance in rare diseases or minor groups in the world. In this paper, we focused on how to manage personal medical information and its protective use and proposes medical treatment exchange system for patients based on a permissioned Blockchain network for the safe PHR operation. Trusted Model for Sharing Medical Data (TMSMD), that is proposed model, is based on exchanging information as patients rely on hospitals as well as among hospitals. And introduce medical treatment exchange system for patients based on a permissioned Blockchain network. This system is a model that encrypts and records patients' medical information by using this permissioned Blockchain and further enhances the security due to its restricted counterfeit. This provides service to share medical information uploaded on the permissioned Blockchain to approved users through role-based access control. In addition, this paper presents methods with smart contracts if medical institutions request patient information complying with domestic laws by using the distributed Blockchain ledger and eventually granting preliminary approval for sharing information. This service will provide an independent information transaction and the Blockchain technology under test will be adopted in the medical industry.