• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.106-118
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• 1998

Background : This study was done to assess the relationship among multiple patient outcomes of cataract surgery perioperatively, 3-4 months and 12 months after surgery. The patient outcomes include changes in visual acuity(operated eye, better eye), visual function(VF-14), patient satisfaction, subjective satisfaction with vision, and subjective overall health status. Methods : For the assessment of relationship, prospective study was performed with 92 patients who had undergone either one or both eye cataract surgery by 3 ophthalmologists practicing at a university hospital. Patients were interviewed. and clinical data were obtained. Doctors were questioned with self-entered questionnaire forms. Medical record was examined to understand surgery process. The survey was conducted at 4 stages : preoperatively, perioperatively, postoperative 3-4 months, and postoperative 12 months. Results : The correlations within patient outcomes at 4 stages - the visual acuity of operated eye and that of better eye, patient satisfaction and VF-14, subjective overall health status and relative health status as against others - were found to be positively correlated. The change in the visual acuity of operated eye and better eye was correlated with VF-14 as well as with patient satisfaction. The change was also correlated with overall health status. However, the correlations between variables were decreased as the postoperative period got longer. Conclusion : As for the postoperative clinical patient outcomes, VF-14 is acted to linker between visual acuity - clinical outcomes and overall health status - endpoint outcomes. Therefore. VF-14 is the index of patient-sided and disease-specific outcome for cataract surgery.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.37-51
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• 2012

Objectives : The objective of this study is to determine the present state of patients with breast cancer use of Korean medicine(KM) and predictive factors for the use. Through this, the present study is intended to present reasonable treatment approaches for patients with breast cancer as well as communicating correct information on KM to healthcare providers and presenting objective alternatives for patients with breast cancer management based on the subjects' experience in health benefits obtained from their use of KM. Methods : To collect data for the present study, questionnaire surveys were conducted on outpatients who visited four hospitals located in Seoul, Korea during around three weeks from May 31, 2012. Although the total number of the questionnaire sheet distributed in the form of directly asking questionnaire questions was 300, 12 incomplete questionnaire sheets were excluded. Therefore, the number of questionnaire sheets actually used in analyses was 288 and thus the collect rate was 96%. Results : Major results of this study are as follows. First, the number of subjects who responded to the questionnaire was 288 in total. Forty-six percent of the patients reported KM usage and the most commonly used ginseng and qigong/exercise. KM use was found to be associated with age, experiencing side effects of cancer treamnent. Factors that affect the use of KM were analyzed by Linear Logistic Regression and the results showed that age, experiencing side effects of cancer treatment, effectiveness of cancer treatment, and satisfaction of the treatment were factors that were related with relatively more frequent use of KM. Conclusions : Comparing the previous studies, it could be seen that patients with breast cancer were highly interested in and used KM in which conventional medicine and KM are used simultaneously. Knowledge on the integrative use of KM and conventional therapies is necessary for cancer physicians and traditional Korean medical doctors to help patients make informed choices. KM use may play a role in the positive benefits associated with process of breast center treatment. Healthcare providers should communicate correct information on the KM use that has been scientifically verified and talk with each other openly. The fact that the significant correlation between predictive factors for the use of KM was identified trough the present study is quite meaningful.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.857-864
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• 2019

Many countries, including Canada, operate a sonographer license system separately from a radiological technologist license. However, in Korea, radiological technologists perform ultrasound imaging under the guidance of doctors. Therefore, in order to have the opportunity to provide a systematic education by analyzing the job competency of the radiological technologist's ultrasound imaging, based on the Canadian National Competency Profile (NCP) lists, this study measured the job content validity of the job competences and detailed competencies required for performing ultrasonography in Korea. From the results of comparing and analyzing the importance of the core competencies included in the Korean radiological technologist's job competencies and the degree of job performance, the average overall importance was 4.087, the average of overall performance was 3.640, showing that the importance was higher than the performance and that there was a statistically significant difference. In conclusion, 'A Communication', 'B Professional responsibilities', 'D Operation of equipment' and 'G Workplace health and safety' showed high job content validity. However, it is said that as 'C Patient assessment and care', 'E Critical thinking and problem solving', and 'H Image' showed low job content validity, it is necessary to seek ways to strengthen and complement these competencies.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.136-142
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• 2015

The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (KSPID) has participated in the task force team consisting of government authorities as well as civil medical experts and facilities to block the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2015. KSPID posted the "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Pop-up" in the homepage of The Korean Pediatric Society and The Korean Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. KSPID also released the "Guidelines for testing for MERS in children and adolescents" and the "Instructions for the Operation of National Safe Hospital" for children and adolescents in a timely manner. Such actions were aimed to prevent unnecessary anxieties, studies and isolation of pediatric patients with respiratory symptoms and signs caused by other common microbial etiologies as being suspected for MERS patients. This strategy relieved the doctors and parents from unnecessary fear and prevented the loss of unnecessary health care costs, and has proven to be a well-judged guideline and management protocol as evaluated after the final end of MERS outbreak. KSPID and its members should support the presence of pediatric infectious disease (PID) specialists in every medium size hospitals in Korea by developing the need for consultation fees for PID consultation in the hospital based practice and promoting the potential for cost savings related to prevention of health care associated infections and optimal prescription of antimicrobial agents. KSPID and its members need to approach and develop a communication plan to political decision makers to demonstrate and convince them of the importance of a PID specialist service.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.172-182
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• 2020

Objectives : In this study, we conducted a focus group interview among expatriates living in Korea, to investigate their experiences and perceptions of acupuncture and Korean Medicine in order to improve the usage of Korean Medicine in the medical tourism market. Methods : The inclusion criteria for the focus group interview was: (1) participants between the age of 20 to 75 years old; (2) those who had lived in Korea for more than 90 days, and (3) those who were able to express their thoughts freely in English. The participants were informed that the interviews will be recorded and transcribed. We ended recruitment once saturation of materials was met. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the data was analyzed after each interview. Results : The interviews were held between June to December 2016. Twenty-four participants were recruited but four dropped out and a total of twenty participants successfully finished the interviews. Six focus group interviews were conducted. Analysis revealed that Korean Medicine was relatively less known compared to Traditional Chinese Medicine or Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Participants automatically associated acupuncture with the management of pain or stress and replied that these were the areas that they thought acupuncture would be most effective. Positive experiences with acupuncture and with the acupuncture practitioners were factors that promoted the use of acupuncture whereas lack of awareness, accessibility and accreditation were factors that hindered its use. Other factors that hindered the use of acupuncture was needle phobia and the perception that acupuncture lacks scientific evidence. Conclusions : Awareness on Korean Medicine and acupuncture is low. Participants lack awareness on what diseases acupuncture can treat, the scientific evidence behind the mechanism of action, and the rigorous education system that Korean Medicine doctors must go through to get their license. Rigorous marketing should be encouraged, which includes greater exposure in the media, more honest reviews from patients, and promotion of the scientific evidence base.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.443-451
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• 2021

This study is a qualitative research using focus group interviews with disabled people and their families to understand the unmet healthcare needs perceived themselves and to analyze the experiences of 'The 2^nd pilot project for primary care for people with disabilities', from 9 to 17 February 2021. The subjects of the study was the disabled who can express their opinions (group 1) or the guardians of the subjects who can not express their opinions (group 2). The participants were interviewed for about 100 minutes for each group once or twice. As a result of this study, the factors regarding unmet healthcare needs were extracted in subject, provider, institutional, and socio-cultural aspects. Further, the factors resolved and unresolved by the pilot project were extracted. Based on the results, we can recommend that the expanded application to the visiting service, inclusion of doctors from various departments, multidisciplinary approach including physical or occupational therapists, minimizing disconnection among the hospitals and healthcare centers, improvement of service quality by collecting opinions from people with disabilities, and more publicity activities should be applied.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.62 no.5
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• pp.502-518
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• 2019

Objective : Since less invasive endovascular treatment was introduced to South Korea in 1994, a considerable proportion of endovascular treatments have been performed by neuroradiology doctors, and endovascular treatments by vascular neurosurgeons have recently increased. However, few specific statistics are known regarding how many endovascular treatments are performed by neurosurgeons. Thus, authors compared endovascular treatments collaboratively performed by vascular neurosurgeons with all cases throughout South Korea from 2013 to 2017 to elucidate the role of neurosurgeons in the field of endovascular treatment in South Korea. Methods : The Society of Korean Endovascular Neurosurgeons (SKEN) has issued annual reports every year since 2014. These reports cover statistics on endovascular treatments collaboratively or individually performed by SKEN members from 2013 to 2017. The data was requested and collected from vascular neurosurgeons in various hospitals. The study involved 77 hospitals in its first year, and 100 in its last. National statistics on endovascular treatment from all over South Korea were obtained from the Healthcare Bigdata Hub website of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service based on the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) codes (in the case of intra-arterial (IA) thrombolysis, however, statistics were based on a combination of the EDI and I63 codes, a cerebral infarction disease code) from 2013 to 2017. These two data sets were directly compared and the ratios were obtained. Results : Regionally, during the entire study period, endovascular treatments by SKEN members were most common in Gyeonggido, followed by Seoul and Busan. Among the endovascular treatments, conventional cerebral angiography was the most common, followed by cerebral aneurysmal coiling, endovascular treatments for ischemic stroke, and finally endovascular treatments for vascular malformation and tumor embolization. The number of endovascular treatments performed by SKEN members increased every year. Conclusion : The SKEN members have been responsible for the major role of endovascular treatments in South Korea for the recent 5 years. This was achieved through the perseverance of senior members who started out in the midst of hardship, the establishment of standards for the training/certification of endovascular neurosurgery, and the enthusiasm of current SKEN members who followed. To provide better treatment to patients, we will have to make further progress in SKEN.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.9-16
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• 2018

Background: In order to find out the effect of therapy methods through Flexion-distraction technique and drop technique on pain, sacral angle of patients with lumbar herniated intervertebral disc targeting patients with lumbar herniated intervertebral disc due to L5-S1. Method: This study was to present the directivity of the therapy method for lumbar herniated intervertebral disc by comparing and analyzing the spinal decompression therapy and provide an effective treatment method to patients with lumbar herniated intervertebral disc by identifying the therapeutic effect of Flexion-distraction technique and drop technique. The research period is March 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018 and subjects are the patients diagnosed as lumbar herniated intervertebral disc due to L5-S1 by their doctor through clinical findings and medical equipment such as X-ray, CT, MRI etc. Among patients who visited and hospitalized in S Orthopaedics located in Daegu and 30 female patients with sacral angle of more than $30^{\circ}$ were randomly classified into 15 people and we carried out treatment three times a week for 8 weeks for 15 people in the experimental group applying Flexion-distraction technique and drop technique and 15 people in the control group applying spinal decompression therapy to compare and analyze the changes in pain, sacral angle of patients with lumbar herniated intervertebral disc. Result: According to the results of this study, changes in the Visual Analogue Scale showed statistically significant differences in both the experimental group and control group(p<.05), while there was statistically significant difference in the comparison between groups before and after measurement of experimental group (p<.05). In the comparison within two groups of sacral angle, both groups showed statistically significant difference(p<.05) but there was no statistically significant difference in the comparison of scores between groups before and after measurement of each group(p>.05). Discussion: All those results the above proved that we need to confirm various benefits of the therapy with the flexion-distraction technique and drop technique, and the findings of the concerned study will possibly become useful information when doctors actually work on a therapy to treat patients with the lumbar herniated intervertebral disc.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.1052-1065
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• 2020

Objectives: To evaluate the reliability of a pattern identification tool for benign prostatic hyperplasia and to examine the relationship between pattern identification tool readings and IPSS and uroflowmetry. Methods: We analyzed 56 patients diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia from December 27th, 2017 to December 26th, 2018 by two different Korean medical doctors and followed with a pattern identification tool and by IPSS and uroflowmetry. One week later, the patients were retested to analyze the reliability of the pattern identification tool, determined with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) using the test-retest method. The correlation between IPSS and uroflowmetry was analyzed with the Pearson coefficient. Result: The reliability of the pattern identification tool for benign prostatic hyperplasia was evaluated as "poor agreement beyond chance" (ICC=0.349). The reliability of each pattern identification score was evaluated as "good" for Yang Deficiency of Kidney, Yin Deficiency of Kidney, Deficiency of Middle Qi, and Dampness-heat of Lower Energizer. The internal consistency was evaluated as "good" for Yang Deficiency of Kidney, Yin Deficiency of Kidney, and Dampness-heat of Lower Energizer, and as "excellent" for Deficiency of Middle Qi. The correlation between pattern identification and IPSS was evaluated as a "moderate positive correlation" for all pattern identifications. The average flow rate and maximum flow rate using uroflowmetry was evaluated with "moderate negative correlation" for Yang Deficiency of Kidney and Dampness-heat of Lower Energizer. Conclusion: The reliability of a pattern identification tool for benign prostatic hyperplasia was evaluated as "poor agreement beyond chance." Further research is needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.231-250
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• 2021

Despite the increasing number of international students in Korea, there is a lack of research on the health information-seeking behavior of international students. This study examined the health information search behavior of international students in Korea through a questionnaires and in-depth interviews adopting Critical Incident Technique. Most frequent health information needs that the participants experienced were related to Covid-19 and locating doctors/hospitals. The difficulties in seeking health information were language barriers, lack of knowledge of the Korean medical system, insufficient or overflowing information on the Internet. However, despite the language barrier, international students mainly used Korean sources (friends/family, websites, social media) for searching health information. In order to search health information on Korean websites, they used Google Translator or got help from bilingual friends/family members. The participants who have lived in Korea for a shorter period of time or who have lower Korean language proficiency tend to obtain health information through the community on social networks; whereas the longer the period of residence in Korea and the better the Korean language proficiency, the more likely to use websites. Only 28% of the participants gave positive answers to the question asking their confidence in finding the health information they needed. It is discussed how to help international students find accurate and credible health information.