• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2014

Background: Since December 2010, online computerized prospective drug utilization review (pDUR) has been implemented in Korea. pDUR involves the review of each prescription before the medication is dispensed to the individual patient. The pDUR is performed electronically by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), which is a Korean governmental agency, and then HIRA provides medical institutions and pharmacies with information that can be helpful to them in preventing potential drug problems such as drug/drug interactions or ingredient duplication. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Korean pDUR implementation on the proportion of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) using claims data from HIRA. Methods: A before-after comparison of the prevalence of DDIs between prescription was conducted, using HIRA administrative claims data of medical institution from January 2010 to December 2011. The analysis unit was the prescription issued and pairs before and after. The main outcome measures were the proportion of DDIs within- (control group) or between- physician encounters. To examine the difference, a paired t-test was applied. Results: We found that DDIs proportion between prescription decreased significantly (t=3.04, p=0.0026) after the implementation of pDUR, whereas there is no significant reduction within prescription (t=1.15, p=0.2518). With respect to the prevalence of DDIs between drug groups, the most dramatic reduction was occurred between 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors and anti-fungal agents. Conclusion: It seems effective that giving a direct feedback to prescribers by a prospective DUR. Further research is needed to assess the impact of DUR to final outcomes such as hospitalization.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2016

Background: Selective health benefit was introduced for decreasing economic burden of patients. Medical devices with economic uncertainty have been covered as selective health benefit by National Health Insurance since December 2013. We aimed to analyze impact of selective health benefit to medical expenditure and provider behavior focused on electrosurgery (ultrasonic shears, electrothermal bipolar vessel sealers) for gastric cancer patients covered since December 2014. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance claims data of 2,698 patients underwent gastric cancer surgery between August 2014 and March 2015. Medical cost and patient sharing per inpatient day were analyzed to verify that covering electrosurgery increased medical expenditure and changed provider behavior from open surgery to endoscopic or laparoscopic surgery. Additionally, we analyzed the claim rate of medical device or goods relating gastric endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery. Results: Medical cost and patient sharing per inpatient day were increased after covering electosurgery as selective health benefit (39,724/1,421 won). However, there were no medical expenditure increases after adjusting claim of electosurgery and patient sharing was decreased 1,057 won especially. The coverage of selective health benefit did not increase the claim rate of medical device or goods related endoscopic or laparoscopic surgery, either. Conclusion: Covering electosurgery decreased patient economic burden and did not change of provider behavior. Expanding selective health benefit is needed to decrease economic burden of severe patients. Further study should evaluate the long term effect with accumulated data.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.277-303
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• 2023

The importance of ecosystem service such as green spaces has risen due to restrictions on outdoor activities amid the climate crisis and COVID-19. While gardens significantly impact economic development, quality of life, and social well-being, comprehensive studies on their multidimensional values are lacking. This research categorizes garden values into social, cultural, environmental, and health dimensions and proposes an integrated assessment framework that introduces detailed elements and evaluation methods. An empirical assessment of carbon storage index in two Korean gardens, Semiwon and Juknokwon, reveals Semiwon's higher carbon storage per unit area. The proposed framework, emphasizing a quantitative approach, enables cross-national and regional comparisons, contributing to a broader understanding and evaluation of garden values beyond specific facilities.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.5-31
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• 1997

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is an assessment process integrated with policy and planning processes considering environmental impacts, not at the level of individual project, but at higher level of policy and plan. Presently, two systems for the SEA are being implemented in Korea. One is "the consultation of environmental investigation into a change in national land utilization", which is to be pre-discussed with the head of the related central administrative organizations, based on the respective individual code. The other is "the consultation of environmental investigation into an administrative plan and project", which is to be pre-discussed with the minister of the environments for the administrative plan. However, these two systems are not integrated procedures with the planning process. In other words, there is a separate post-environmental assessment after planning. Also concrete proposal is not yet prepared for the method and procedure of environmental investigation about details of the planning. Therefore, they do not playa role in taking precautions for environmentally sustainable development. In this study, for the effective environmental investigation at the level of planning, environmental assessment model to be integrated with urban comprehensive plans was developed. The results of this study can be summarized as follows: First, based on the analysis of systematic problems in environmental investigation of this country, the study compared and analysed the SEA method of foreign countries. derived the potential limitations in its applications to this country. Also, the new method in this study, is integrated into planning process by improving the limitations. Thus, we developed the SEA model for this country, which consists of seven steps ; Phase 1; establishing a work program, Phase 2; defining the scop. of the SEA, Phase 3; analyzing an existing environmental situation, Phase 4; examining the consistency with environmental policy, Phase 5; appraising and synthesizing the plan content, Phase 6; proposing recommendations, Phase 7; monitoring and feedback. Second, the two types of application program of the developed assessment model were proposed. One is to integrate this model into planning process, and the other is for the institute and ministry of environments to implement SEA after planning. An aim of this study was developing an environmental assessment model at the planning level which was not yet established in this country and was to apply the model to urban comprehensive plan for inspection. This research will make the effective operation of environmental investigation system possible at the planning level in this country and contribute to the environmental protection at the global level.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 2001

This paper presents the policy directions of total maximum daily loads(TMDL), which was recently adopted in Korea, for scientific management of water quality. The basic principles of water quality management are also discussed in this paper, along with the TMDL policy in United States as well as the previous policy in Korea. We discussed several unreasonable points out of the previous approaches, such as regulation of all point sources with equal standards, negligence of an assimilative capacity of the receiving water, and emphasis only on drinking water supply, etc.. For successful applications of the TMDL policy in Korea, the following directions are suggested: 1) the unit drainage basin for each TMDL application should be given, 2) the water body where the water quality standards should be maintained, needs to be guided, 3) the water quality parameters of TMDL should be given, 4) the technical guidances should be given for applications of water quality models, and 5) the seasonal TMDL would be allowed. In order to maximize the benefits of the TMDL policy, the local governments would need to implement the following strategies: 1) the increment of an assimilative capacity of the receiving water, 2) the effective controls of the non-point source pollution, 3) the advanced treatment of the point sources, 4) application of system optimization techniques along with effluent trade, and 5) utilization of watershed management systems.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.63-82
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• 2009

Because many people suffer from physical and mental damage caused by the noise created by transportation infrastructure, including road traffic, rail, and aircraft, developed countries have conducted research on predicting and solving the impact to human health from being exposed to transportation noise. Therefore, this study suggests a fundamental plan to assess the health impact of transportation noise on the basis of domestic and foreign prediction results regarding the health impact of transportation noise. The domestic and foreign exposure-response expressions, including the noise index and the health impact indicator of annoyance and sleep disturbance, are compared, and it is found that domestic individuals show a more sensitive response to transportation noise. Based on domestic and foreign research, and a case study regarding the health impact of transportation noise, a fundamental plan to assess the health impact of transportation noise comprises the preparation of objective assessment standards through the improvement of exposure-response models, and the establishment of reduction measures which can improve the quality of the transportation noise environment.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.113-124
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• 2008

A worldwide trend of permitting system for industrial installation to achieve a high level of protection of the environment has been moved from single media to multimedia in approach. The Council of the European Community issued the Directive 96/61/EC, the IPPC Directive, concerning integrated pollution prevention and control in 1996. The IPPC Directive is one of the most ambitious legal measures that the European Union (EU) has initiated with a view to applying the prevention principle for industrial activities. The IPPC aims to achieve the integrated prevention and reduction of environmental pollution emitted by those industrial installations with a higher potential of emissions to the environment. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommended on Environmental Performance Reviews of Korea in 2006 that IPPC permitting concept should be considered for large stationary sources at the national and regional levels. Any Korean law doesn't provide for integrated pollution control with a single process covering all pollution from economic activities. However, one exception might be the "environmentally-friendly companies" certification scheme, introduced in 1995, in which participants agree to meet targets beyond the legal emission limit values in exchange for government technical and financial support to operate environmental management systems. The other exception might be Environmental impact assessment (EIA) of projects, in 1977, which has been strengthened and reinforced to be more preventive through development of the prior environmental review system (PERS) in 1999. The aim of this work is to introduce the contents of IPPC Directive at the viewpoint of Korea policy and to survey the integrated approaching concept of Environmentally-Friendly Companies (EFC) Certification Scheme and EIA policy of Korea. The study will be helpful in the future to prepare the infrastructure of integrated permitting system and to enforce the integrated permit which the authorities of local government issues on industrial activities. It can be said that the data calculated through both EFC Certification Scheme and EIA will be discussed as worthful information to determine Korean BAT reference notes for integrated permitting process.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2021

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) practitioners play a very pivotal role in establishing EIA policies, and when implementing EIA environmental conflicts can be prevented and resolved by sharing information with stakeholders and coordinating opinions. For this reason, grasping the perceptions of stakeholders including practitioners about the overall system, such as EIA policies and implementation, can be helpful in setting improvement directions and policy directions for EIA. However, there is an insufficient information on the perception and understanding of stakeholders about the EIA system and operation currently in effect in Korea. Therefore, this study diagnoses operational and procedural problems for the EIA system, which is a decision-making tool and a precautionary technique that can minimize adverse effects through the environmental information analysis method, and improvement points and systems of the EIA system in the future. We tried to find a complement of an online survey of 37 questions,responses from 95 responses from stakeholders of EIA were summarized. Stakeholders were aware of the problems of the operation of the current system and the preparation of the evaluation form, and this was reflected. Period and cost of preparation of EIS (49%), the introduction of a new method (26%) and the items of collecting opinions and conflict management (41%), which showed high negative response rates (dissatisfied and very dissatisfied), are considered to be areas that we need to supplement further in the future. As society develops rapidly, the system needs to be supplemented accordingly, and policy improvement efforts are needed for items with high negative responses as a result of the survey.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 1997

The object of this study is the introduction and the application of Ecological Footprint(EF) for sustainability of regional people activities. It is a tool for the evaluation of specific projects through various lifestyles or consumption to area of broad policy and budgets. But in Korea there is no assessment for consumption level of human activities by EF. Therefore this study try to analyse ecologically productive land for human activities of Cheju-island in order to assess the sustainability in Cheju and compares with another industrized countries. We analyze the human activities level of Cheju-island then the EF is about 0.9(ha/cap). This value is not more than another countries like Canada and United States. EF assists in choosing technologies, policies and Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) which can perform a certain task with the smallest ecological footprint. It will help society to avoid collapse and move towards sustainability and ecological efficiency.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.347-357
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• 2009

This study conducted a vulnerability assessment on Korea's physical infrastructure to provide base data for developing strategies to strengthen Korea's ability to adapt to climate change. The assessment was conducted by surveying professionals in the field of infrastructure and climate change science. A vulnerability assessment was carried out for seven climate change events: average temperature increases, sea level rise, typhoons and storm surges, floods and heavy rain, drought, severe cold, and heat waves. The survey asked respondents questions with respect to the consequences of each climate change event, the urgency of adaptation to climate change, and the scale of investment for adaptation to each climate change event. Thereafter, management priorities for infrastructure were devised and implications for policy development were suggested. The results showed that respondents expected the possibility of "typhoons and storm surges" and "floods and heavy rain" to be the most high. Respondents indicated that infrastructure related to water, transportation, and the built environment were more vulnerable to climate change. The most vulnerable facilities included river related facilities such as dams and riverbanks in the "water" category and seaports and roads in the "transport and communication" category. The results found were consistent with the history of natural disasters in Korea.