• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.100-112
• /
• 2008

Objectives: The purpose of this survey is to monitor the changes that have occurred in the business environment surrounding Oriental medicine clinics, with the focus on their facilities, staff, patients, and service fee revenue. Method adopted: A questionnaire was sent in December 2006 to 1,000 Oriental medicine clinics nationwide, of which 122 (or 12 percent of them) replied. Previous questionnaires similar to this one in nature were checked for comparison. Results: As a result of analyzing the aforesaid replies, the average Oriental medicine clinic appears to have a floor size of 156 square meters (= 47.2 pyeong) and is equipped with 6.6 beds. The number of helpers and nurse's aids at each Oriental medicine clinics comes to 3.2 and 1.58, respectively. The number of patients coming to see a practitioner of Oriental medicine stands at 36.3 persons per day, of whom 32.06 come for acupuncture treatment. 50.2 percent of the Oriental medicine clinics' service fee revenue is paid from the health insurance. Each clinic spends on average 2.42 million won per month on the purchase of medicinal substances and so forth. The foregoing indicates a 27 percent increase from 1999 in terms of floor size, a 30 percent increase in the number of beds, a 47 percent increase in the number of helpers, a 45 percent increase in the number of nurse's aides, and an 11 percent increase in the number of patients who visit a practitioner of oriental medicine. As for the latter figure, there was an increase of 3.64 over a seven-year period. The number of patients coming for acupuncture treatment increased by 7.06 in the same period, whereas the number of those coming for medication treatment decreased by 4.28 percent. Health insurance payments as a proportion of Oriental medicine clinics' service fee revenues increased by 23.9 percentage points from 26.29 percent in 1997 to 50.2 percent in 2006. The amount that a clinic spends on the purchase of medicinal substances, etc, decreased by 250,000 won or by 9.3 percent from 1999. The estimated value of the domestic Oriental medical service market for 2006 stood at 2,422.2 billion won in total. Conclusion: Oriental medicine clinics in Korea appear to be getting larger, with an increase in the number of beds and helpers. Health insurance payments now account for a greater proportion of Oriental medicine clinics' service fee revenues, and management conditions at the clinics are deteriorating.

• The Journal of Korean Medical History
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2015

Purpose : Local medicinal herb festivals present the history of the Korean medicine and cultural resources in the regions to play an important role in attracting tourists, vitalizing local economy, and improving the local image. Therefore, it is important to understand the origin of the festival and grasp historical and cultural meaning of local medicinal herb festivals. Methods : I compared the books and articles presented in the reference list. Results & Conclusions : Local medicinal herb festivals originates from traditional yangnyeongsi. Since the $17^{th}$ century, yangnyeongsi has grown up as a special market. Implementation of the Daedong Act promoted commodity and monetary economy that helped commerce and industry develop and market grow up. It also made changes in the social status system and yangnyeongsi has been such a historical phenomenon appeared in this social background. The growth of yangnyeongsi contributed to the progress in the private medicine that triggered the gradual transfer of power in the medicine to the private sector which has long been held by the government. In yangnyeongsi, there were many cultural events to attract visitors. It's the same case in China that preserves stages that were used for cultural events in the medicine market to pass down the historic sites while those in Korea are disappearing as yangnyeongsis are being pulled out of the city areas to the suburban areas due to the redevelopment projects. For this reason, restoration of the place for traditional yangnyeongsi should be taken into account through local medicinal herb festivals.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.77-89
• /
• 2005

Since 1990's, the Korean society, experiencing the low fertility and aging society, has been confronting with the threats in health care sector. The threats are the increases in the demand for health care, health care financial burden, and so on. In particular, the change of disease pattern and aging population result in the increases patients' demand for not only western medical services but also oriental medical services and complimentary medicine. Recently, the increases in availability of oriental medical services and the health care resources related to oriental medicine are raising some issues and conflicts in the Korean health sector. Theses circumstance required policy makers, central and local government, and public health sector to develop health policies related to oriental medicine and interface or integrate of traditional Korean medicine and Western medicine. For the near future, these issues will probably remain the focus of integration of traditional Korean medicine and Western medicine in public health sector. To cope with the threats in health care sector, one of the opportunities is to scale-up e public role of traditional Korean medical services. The main purpose of this study was to develop strategies to scale-up the Public role of traditional Korean medical services for the future society. The research questions are: what are the trends and problems in traditional Koran medical sector; what are the causes of or associated factors to the problems; how to cope with the problems and how to resolve the cause?; what are the health policy directions and its strategies that the government should take to cope with the future demand and the burden on health care sector? The results of this study are as follows. In order ta scale-up the public role of traditional medicine, this research offered health policy directions for traditional Korean medicine in response to a change environment of health care sector. There are four directions to be addressed: 1) the development of and investment in public oriental medicine infra-structure; 2) the development of public policy on oriental medicine; 3) modernization and globalisation of traditional Korean medicine; 4) the expansion of academic exchange between Western medicine and traditional Korean medicine. Finally, we discussed stakenholders' on traditional Korean medicine in the health care market. Then, public policy options for future society was suggested.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2012

Objectives: This study was conducted to explore the contemporary perception of traditional Korean medical doctors (TKMDs) on traditional Korean medicine (TKM) policies and issues. Methods: A questionnaire that included traditional medicine policy- and treatment-related issues was sent to 130 TKM medical centers and 4,300 TKM local clinical offices in Korea, and received responses from total 648 TKMDs in 122 TKM medical centers and 465 TKM local clinical offices. Results: Of the responding TKMDs, 40% believed that unification of Western and traditional medicines would benefit both modes of medical treatment, 67.6% were against allowing Chinese doctor certification to be effective in Korea through the Korea-China FTA (Free Trade Agreement), and 57.8% believed that the number of TKMDs should be reduced. We also found that 46.1% of TKMDs believed that more lectures on Western medicine would be needed in schools of TKM. Moreover, 87.5% of respondents regarded medical knowledge as necessary for treatment, and 49.4% believed National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine (NCCAOM) would be not necessary. TKMDs regarded governmental efforts as more vital than education in schools or individual efforts for enhancement of the traditional medical care market in Korea. To efficiently provide the advantages of complementary CAM, such as cost and safety, detailed research is required when policy is made. Conclusions: The TKM industry must implement policies how the relationship with Western medicine can be better defined under the current dual medical system. On the issue of human resources, more research will be needed on the current policy, which serves to maintain the status quo by blocking the importation of Chinese practitioners and by reducing the number of new practitioners.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The abdominal examination is a diagnosis method for determining a morbid condition of the chest and abdomen by touching and pressing. This study reviewed research trends concerning the abdominal examination and suggested of future research directions for quantification of abdominal examination. Methods: A systematic literature search was carried out for relevant articles published between 2000 and 2016 in five databases such as Korean studies Information Service System(KISS), Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System(OASIS), DataBase Periodical Information Academic (DBpia), National Digital Science Library and PubMed based on the Keywords 'abdominal examination'. Results: 128 articles were collected for analysis. Overview on the abdominal examination based on selected 17 articles. Then selected articles have been reclassified by diseases of clinical research and parameters for diagnosis of abdominal examination. Conclusions: Taken together, instrument for quantitative evaluation of abdomen characteristic fit to the traditional Korean Medicine have not yet developed. It is suggested that in order to dominate the market about abdominal examination in advance, more concern should be paid to establishing appropriate development of quantitative criteria and instrument. This review will help researcher to systematically understand and to develop Korean medical device as globally competitive device.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.101-109
• /
• 2010

The medical and healthy paradigm is changing by various reasons such as improving of life quality, the limit of western medicine, demographic changes and so on. And the demand, interest and market size of traditional medicine(TM) and complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) are increasing continuously and there is a good traditional medicine called TKM(Traditional Korean Medicine) in Korea. TKM have differentiated characteristics like nature-friendly, systematic, preventive and personalized medicine from western medicine. TKM with these characteristics have possibility to increase national competitiveness and contribute to growth of economy. At this time, it is necessary to select key area of TKM R&D to increase competitiveness of TKM and to create new growth engine. In this paper, we suggest key area of TKM R&D through SWOT analysis, the analysis of world traditional medicine and expert's counsel. As a result, 3 key area and 10 specific fields of TKM R&D was selected, which they are 'the standardization for TKM technology and technique', 'the development of generic technology based on TKM' and 'the establishment of infrastructure for TKM information and material'. This study may contribute to make plan for TKM research and policy such as TKM middle and long term plan and TKM promotion plan.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2006

Recently, there has been prevailing of the combined utilization (CU) with herbs and prescribed drugs in medical therapies in the world. But the information about frequency, efficacy and safety of this CU has not well known in Korea, yet. This study aimed to identify the status of CU by Koreans, and to inquire which side effects of CU represent to those people. A self-completed questionnaire survey was performed through each health examination center in twenty general hospitals and one oriental hospital. Of the initial 2,100 health examinees, 1,851 were participated in this survey, resulting in a response rate of 88.1%. The proportion of CD was 26.3%. The most commonly mentioned reason of CD was 'to promote general health and well-being' (17l persons, 35.5%). The main route of taking CD was self-purchase at drugstore or at herbs market, followed by the prescription of (oriental)physicians. 33.0% (151 persons) of those who took the CD rated it as effective. 93 respondents (19.8%) were experienced several adverse effects including nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. The growing simultaneous use of herbal products and pharmaceutical drugs by Korean consumers may be continuously increased the risk of herb-drug interactions. The medical professionals should be provided with comprehensive and up-to-date information about potential benefits and risks of herbs and prescribed drugs. In the future studies it may be recommended to deal common cold, health promotion, indigestion, headache, and hypertension for the effect and safety of the CD by well-organized prospective study design.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.140-148
• /
• 2009

The primary market of acupuncture treatment is concentrated on disorders of the musculoskeletal system. This study researches the clinical use of the musculoskeletal system evaluation with a computer simulation. Two fields are examined - patient evaluation and patient treatment. In the field of evaluation, the simulation is used to evaluates the prognosis of medical treatment. In the field of treatment, the simulation is used to decide the most suitable way to perform surgery using the quantitative evaluation about various cases of surgical results.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.262-271
• /
• 2005

Cordyceps, one of the most valued traditional Chinese medicines, consists of the dried fungus Cordyceps sinensis growing on the larva of caterpillar. It is also known as 'winter-worm and summer-grass' because of its appearance during different seasons. The parasitic complex of the fungus and the caterpillar is found in soil of a prairie at an elevation of 3,500 to 5,000 meters in northwestern part of China. According to Chinese medicinal theory, Cordyceps is used to replenish the kidney and soothe the lung, and indeed many clinical applications have been reported. The natural Cordyceps is rare and expensive on the local market, and therefore, several mycelial strains have been isolated from natural Cordyceps and manufactured in large quantities by fermentation technology, and they are commonly sold as health food products in Orient. The adulterants of Cordyceps are commonly found on the market, and therefore the authentication of these products has to be defined. Having the urgent need from current market, different chemical markers such as nucleoside, ergosterol, mannitol and polysaccharide are being used for quality control of Cordyceps. Unfortunately, these markers are far from optimization, and therefore extensive works are needed to define the pharmacological efficiency of these markers.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
• /
• v.15B no.5
• /
• pp.397-406
• /
• 2008

Despite the effectiveness of oriental medical practice in the diagnosis of symptoms and providing cure to it, the preferences in western medicinal values is socially prevalent. The diagnosis of a disease using western medicinal practices provides us with an objective diagnostic result, however, decisions by oriental doctors are based on their heuristic intuitions developed by practice and experience. Objective solutions for the cure of symptoms using oriental medical therapy can have a high impact on the world market. Therefore, development of diagnostic machines based on oriental therapy can enhance the Ocular Inspection which is evaluated as one of the best diagnostic treatment among Oriental Medical Science, is not researched much compared to other diagnoses. Because there is no color diagnosis rules for digital machines to analyze the actual color, looking at the person's face color is one of the most important components to diagnose the disease or illness. The thesis proposes the implementation of absolute observing a person's face color standards of the color settings for objective diagnosis. As a results, comparative digital color analysis for observing a person's face color can be the most effective rule based Color scheme system to diagnose disease. A standard solution for the researching conditions is suggested to reduce the variable which may occur depending on the differences between the researching conditions.