• Title/Summary/Keyword: Procedure Quality

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Reading Deviations of Glass Rod Dosimeters Using Different Pre-processing Methods for Radiotherapeutic in-vivo Dosimetry (유리선량계의 전처리 방법이 방사선 치료 선량 측정에 미치는 영향)

  • Jeon, Hosang;Nam, Jiho;Park, Dahl;Kim, Yong Ho;Kim, Wontaek;Kim, Dongwon;Ki, Yongkan;Kim, Donghyun;Lee, Ju Hye
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.92-98
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    • 2013
  • The experimental verification of treatment planning on the treatment spot is the ultimate method to assure quality of radiotherapy, so in-vivo skin dose measurement is the essential procedure to confirm treatment dose. In this study, glass rod dosimeter (GRD), which is a kind of photo-luminescent based dosimeters, was studied to produce a guideline to use GRDs in vivo dosimetry for quality assurance of radiotherapy. The pre-processing procedure is essential to use GRDs. This is a heating operation for stabilization. Two kinds of pre-processing methods are recommended by manufacturer: a heating method (70 degree, 30 minutes) and a waiting method (room temperature, 24 hours). We equally irradiated 1.0 Gy to 20 GRD elements, and then different preprocessing were performed to 10 GRDs each. In heating method, reading deviation of GRDs at same time were relatively high, but the deviation was very low as time went on. In waiting method, the deviation among GRDs was low, but the deviation was relatively high as time went on. The meaningful difference was found between mean reading values of two pre-processing methods. Both methods present mean dose deviation under 5%, but the relatively high effect by reading time was observed in waiting method. Finally, GRD is best to perform in-vivo dosimetry in the viewpoint of accuracy and efficiency, and the understanding of how pre-processing affect the accuracy is asked to perform most accurate in-vivo dosimetry. The further study is asked to acquire more stable accuracy in spite of different irradiation conditions for GRD usage.

Comparative Research on the Health Information Manager(HIM) Duties of One Malaysian Hospital and Similar Scale Korean hospitals (말레이시아 1개 병원과 병상규모가 유사한 한국의 병원 간 보건정보관리자 직무 비교연구)

  • Kim, Hey-Kyung;Lee, Hyun-Ju
    • Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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    • v.15 no.10
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    • pp.6158-6167
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    • 2014
  • The aim of this study was to perform comparative analysis of the duties of 7 new roles of HIMs in Malaysian and Korean hospitals of a similar scale. A Malaysian general hospital with a scale of 272 hospital beds was chosen. The researcher visited a Malaysian hospital in person and interviewed the staff in charge over a 2 week period from July 22nd 2013 to August 2nd 2013. For domestic hospitals, 13 general hospitals with 270 hospital beds, similar to the Malaysian general hospital, were chosen. Phone interviews with the department recorded the duty recording work. Regarding 7 new roles of Health Information Manager (HIM), although the role as a Health information manager and Security Officer in Malaysian general hospital was not defined, 30.8% performed their role in Korean general hospitals. The classification of disease & procedure within the role of Clinical data specialist was performed by both countries, and while the tumor registry was done in a Malaysian general hospital, only 15.4% of Korean general hospitals were operating. The statistics of the discharged patients were not measured in the Malaysian general hospital but 76.9% of Korean general hospitals recorded these statistics. Although 22.1% of Korean general hospitals operated registration work of special disease, Malaysian general hospital not only had a total legal contagious disease registration, but also took charge of information registration of hospital births and deceased ones. Other than these, the Patient Information Coordinator, Data Quality Manager, Document and Repository Manager, Research and Decision Support Analyst roles were not done by either country. The new role of HIM is operated in a low percentage in Korean middle and small hospitals. Therefore, to clearly establish the role of HIM in Korea, and have middle and small hospitals to operate such a role, it is essential for the related association to give continuous education and provide support to clarify the role within the hospital working environment. It is desirable to benchmark Malaysian general hospital's registration work on special diseases and others, and expand the work to improve overall.

Effects of Conversion of Infertility Treatment on Semen Quality (불임시술의 전환이 정맥상태에 미치는 영향)

  • Kim, Yong-Jin;Jee, Byung-Chul;Suh, Chang-Suk;Kim, Sook-Hyun
    • Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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    • v.34 no.3
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    • pp.159-166
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    • 2007
  • Objective: To investigate whether semen parameters in infertile couples who undergone intrauterine insemination (IUI) change in the subsequent IUI cycle and the subsequent in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle. Methods: Fifty-three infertile couples who had failed to become pregnant after the first IUI cycle with computer-assisted semen analysis (CASA) were included. After the first IUI, thirty-eight couples underwent the second IUI (Group 1), and fifteen underwent IVF-ET procedure (Group 2). All semen parameters including semen volume, concentration, motility and total motile sperm count were analyzed in the second IUI or IVF-ET procedure for comparison with the result of first IUI. Results: There were no significant differences in husband age, interval between the first and second procedure and cause of infertility. In Group 1, only sperm motility at the time of the latter IUI was significantly decreased when compared to the former IUI irrespective of the first semen parameters. In Group 2, sperm concentration, motility and total motile sperm count at the time of subsequent IVF were lower than the former IUI. By sub-analyses of Group 2, in the group of optimal semen parameter at IUI cycle, sperm concentration and total motile sperm count at the time of subsequent IVF were lower than the former IUI, while in the group of suboptimal semen parameter at IUI cycle, only sperm motility at the time of subsequent IVF were lower than the former IUI. Conclusion: The semen parameters in couples converted to IVF cycle were more adversely affected than those remained in IUI cycle. Further study on psychological stress should be necessary to explain the reason.

Determination of Grades and Design Strengths of Machine Graded Lumber in Korea (국내 기계등급구조재의 등급구분체계 및 기준설계값 결정방법 연구)

  • Hong, Jung-Pyo;Lee, Jun-Jae;Park, Moon-Jae;Yeo, Hwanmyeong;Pang, Sung-Jun;Kim, Chul-Ki;Oh, Jung-Kwon
    • Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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    • v.43 no.4
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    • pp.446-455
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    • 2015
  • Based on comparative studies on standards and grading procedures of machine graded lumber in Korea and other countries, this study proposed a procedure of determining the grade classification and design strengths of domestic machine graded lumber. Differences between machine stress rated lumber and E-rated laminations were detailed in order to clarify the need for the procedure improvement. To this improvement the use of average MOE requirement for grading was introduced instead of the fixed minimum MOE requirement which is currently used in the Korean standards. It was found that the fixed minimum MOE requirement method was easier for an inspector to grade but, less efficient as a strength predictor than the average MOE requirement method. The advantage of average MOE requirement method is statistically MOR-MOE regression-based MOR prediction and highly efficient in quality control though it requires a computer-aided operation system in an initial setup. A major weakness of the current Korean grading system was found that different strength characteristics depending on wood species were not reflected on the grade classification and the tabulated allowable design stress. The proposed procedures were developed taking advantages of respective merits of both methods and based on MOR-MOE regression analysis. Through this procedure, the grades of machine stress rated lumber should be revised to become interchangeable with E-rated lamination, which would be beneficial to the cost competitiveness of domestic machine graded lumber and glued laminated timber industry.

The Accuracy of the Table Movement During a Whole Body Scan (전신 영상 검사 시행 시 테이블 이동속도의 정확성에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Ju-Young;Jung, Woo-Young;Jung, Eun-Mi;Dong, Kyung-Rae
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.86-91
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    • 2009
  • Purpose: The whole body scan in Nuclear Medicine is a widely accepted examination and procedure. Especially, it is mainly used in bone, I-131, MIBI, and HMPAO WBC scans. The diverse uses of the whole body scan range from the HMPAO WBC scan with a speed of 13cm/min, to a whole body bone scan using the Onco. Flash technique with a speed of 30cm/min. The accuracy of table movement has a strong correlation with the image quality, and inaccuracy of speed could negatively affect the image quality. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of the table movement while considering the influence of the age of the equipment and the variability in the weight of the patients. Material and Methods: The study was conducted using two of Seoul Asan Medical Center's SIEMENS gamma cameras which are commonly used in our whole body study. The first one is the oldest gamma camera, an ECAM plus (installed in 2000), and the last is brand new one, a SYMBIA T2 (installed in 2008). Three trials were conducted with the tables moving at a different speed each time; 10, 15 and 30 cm/min. The tables' speeds were measured by checking how long it took for the table to move 10cm, and this was repeated every 10cm until the table reached 100 cm. With an average body weight of the patients of about 60~70 kg, the table speed was measured with weights of 0 kg, 66 kg and 110 kg placed on the table, then compared among conditions. Results: The coefficient of variance (CV) of the ECAM plus showed 1.23, 1.42, 2.02 respectively when the table movement speeds were set at 10, 15, and 30 centimeters per minute. Under the same conditions, the SYMBIA T2 showed 1.23, 1.83 and 2.28 respectively. As table movement speed more, the variance of CV as the speed increases. When the patient body weight was set to 0, 66 and 110kg, the CV values of both cameras showed 0.96, 1.45, 2.08 (0 Kg), 1.32, 1.72, 2.27 (66 Kg) and 1.37, 1.73, 2.14 (110 Kg). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) in 95 percent of confidence intervals and measured CV values were acceptable. However, the CV value of the SYMBIA T2 was relatively larger than the ECAM plus. Conclusion: The scan speed of the whole body scan is predetermined based on which examination is being performed. It is possible for the accuracy of the speed to be affected, such as the age of the equipment, the state of the bearings or the weight of a patient. These factors can have a negative impact on the diagnostic consistency and the image quality. Therefore, periodic quality control should be needed on the gamma cameras currently being used, focusing on the table movement speed in order to maintain accuracy and reproducibility.

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Evaluation of Roadmap Image Quality by Parameter Change in Angiography (혈관조영검사에서 매개변수 변화에 따른 Roadmap 영상의 화질평가)

  • Kong, Chang gi;Song, Jong Nam;Han, Jae Bok
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.53-60
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    • 2020
  • The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting picture quality in Roadmap images, which were studied by varying the dilution rate, collimation field and flow rate of contrast medium. For a quantitative evaluation of the quality of the picture, a 3mm vessel model Water Phantom was self-produced using acrylic, a roadmap image was acquired with a self-produced vascular model Water Phantom, and the SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio) and CNR (Contrast to Noise Ratio) were analyzed. CM:N/S In the study on the change of dilution rate, CM:N/S dilution rate changed to (100%~10%:100%), and the measurement of the roadmap image taken using the vascular model Water Phantom showed that the measurement value of SNR gradually decreased as the N/S dilution rate was increased, and the measurement of CNR was gradually reduced. It was confirmed that the higher the dilution rate of CM:N/S, the lower the SNR and CNR, and also significant image can be obtained at the dilution rate of CM:N/S (100%~70:30%). The study showed the value of SNR and CNR in Roadmap image was increased as the Collimation Field was narrowed to the center of the vascular phantom; the Collimation Field was narrowed to the center of the vessel model by 2cm intervals to 0cm through 12cm. To verify the relationship with Roadmap image and Flow Rate, volume of the autoinjector was kept constant at 15 and the flow rate was gradually increased 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. The value of SNR and CNR of images taken by using water Phantom gradually decreased as the Flow Rate increased, but at Flow Rate 9 and 10, the SNR and CNR value was increase. It was not possible to confirm the relationship with SNR and CNR by ROI mean value and Background mean value. It is considered that further study is needed to evaluate the correlation about Roadmap image and Flow Rate. In conclusion, as the dilution rate of N/S in contrast medium was increased, the value of SNR and CNR was decreased. The narrower the Collimation Field, the higher image quality by increasing value of SNR and CNR. However, it is not confirmed the relationship Roadmap image and Flow Rate. It is considered that appropriate contrast medium concentration to minimize the effects of kidney and proper Collimation Field to improve contrast of image and reduce exposure X-ray during procedure is needed.

Quality Control of Agro-meteorological Data Measured at Suwon Weather Station of Korea Meteorological Administration (기상청 수원기상대 농업기상 관측요소의 품질관리)

  • Oh, Gyu-Lim;Lee, Seung-Jae;Choi, Byoung-Choel;Kim, Joon;Kim, Kyu-Rang;Choi, Sung-Won;Lee, Byong-Lyol
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.25-34
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    • 2015
  • In this research, we applied a procedure of quality control (QC) to the agro-meteorological data measured at the Suwon weather station of Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The QC was conducted through six steps based on the KMA Real-time Quality control system for Meteorological Observation Data (RQMOD) and four steps based on the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) QC modules. In addition, we set up our own empirical method to remove erroneous data which could not be filtered by the RQMOD and ISMN methods. After all these QC procedures, a well-refined agro-meteorological dataset was complied at both air and soil temperatures. Our research suggests that soil moisture requires more detailed and reliable grounds to remove doubtful data, especially in winter with its abnormal variations. The raw data and the data after QC are now available at the NCAM website (http://ncam.kr/page/req/agri_weather.php).

A Store Recommendation Procedure in Ubiquitous Market for User Privacy (U-마켓에서의 사용자 정보보호를 위한 매장 추천방법)

  • Kim, Jae-Kyeong;Chae, Kyung-Hee;Gu, Ja-Chul
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.123-145
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    • 2008
  • Recently, as the information communication technology develops, the discussion regarding the ubiquitous environment is occurring in diverse perspectives. Ubiquitous environment is an environment that could transfer data through networks regardless of the physical space, virtual space, time or location. In order to realize the ubiquitous environment, the Pervasive Sensing technology that enables the recognition of users' data without the border between physical and virtual space is required. In addition, the latest and diversified technologies such as Context-Awareness technology are necessary to construct the context around the user by sharing the data accessed through the Pervasive Sensing technology and linkage technology that is to prevent information loss through the wired, wireless networking and database. Especially, Pervasive Sensing technology is taken as an essential technology that enables user oriented services by recognizing the needs of the users even before the users inquire. There are lots of characteristics of ubiquitous environment through the technologies mentioned above such as ubiquity, abundance of data, mutuality, high information density, individualization and customization. Among them, information density directs the accessible amount and quality of the information and it is stored in bulk with ensured quality through Pervasive Sensing technology. Using this, in the companies, the personalized contents(or information) providing became possible for a target customer. Most of all, there are an increasing number of researches with respect to recommender systems that provide what customers need even when the customers do not explicitly ask something for their needs. Recommender systems are well renowned for its affirmative effect that enlarges the selling opportunities and reduces the searching cost of customers since it finds and provides information according to the customers' traits and preference in advance, in a commerce environment. Recommender systems have proved its usability through several methodologies and experiments conducted upon many different fields from the mid-1990s. Most of the researches related with the recommender systems until now take the products or information of internet or mobile context as its object, but there is not enough research concerned with recommending adequate store to customers in a ubiquitous environment. It is possible to track customers' behaviors in a ubiquitous environment, the same way it is implemented in an online market space even when customers are purchasing in an offline marketplace. Unlike existing internet space, in ubiquitous environment, the interest toward the stores is increasing that provides information according to the traffic line of the customers. In other words, the same product can be purchased in several different stores and the preferred store can be different from the customers by personal preference such as traffic line between stores, location, atmosphere, quality, and price. Krulwich(1997) has developed Lifestyle Finder which recommends a product and a store by using the demographical information and purchasing information generated in the internet commerce. Also, Fano(1998) has created a Shopper's Eye which is an information proving system. The information regarding the closest store from the customers' present location is shown when the customer has sent a to-buy list, Sadeh(2003) developed MyCampus that recommends appropriate information and a store in accordance with the schedule saved in a customers' mobile. Moreover, Keegan and O'Hare(2004) came up with EasiShop that provides the suitable tore information including price, after service, and accessibility after analyzing the to-buy list and the current location of customers. However, Krulwich(1997) does not indicate the characteristics of physical space based on the online commerce context and Keegan and O'Hare(2004) only provides information about store related to a product, while Fano(1998) does not fully consider the relationship between the preference toward the stores and the store itself. The most recent research by Sedah(2003), experimented on campus by suggesting recommender systems that reflect situation and preference information besides the characteristics of the physical space. Yet, there is a potential problem since the researches are based on location and preference information of customers which is connected to the invasion of privacy. The primary beginning point of controversy is an invasion of privacy and individual information in a ubiquitous environment according to researches conducted by Al-Muhtadi(2002), Beresford and Stajano(2003), and Ren(2006). Additionally, individuals want to be left anonymous to protect their own personal information, mentioned in Srivastava(2000). Therefore, in this paper, we suggest a methodology to recommend stores in U-market on the basis of ubiquitous environment not using personal information in order to protect individual information and privacy. The main idea behind our suggested methodology is based on Feature Matrices model (FM model, Shahabi and Banaei-Kashani, 2003) that uses clusters of customers' similar transaction data, which is similar to the Collaborative Filtering. However unlike Collaborative Filtering, this methodology overcomes the problems of personal information and privacy since it is not aware of the customer, exactly who they are, The methodology is compared with single trait model(vector model) such as visitor logs, while looking at the actual improvements of the recommendation when the context information is used. It is not easy to find real U-market data, so we experimented with factual data from a real department store with context information. The recommendation procedure of U-market proposed in this paper is divided into four major phases. First phase is collecting and preprocessing data for analysis of shopping patterns of customers. The traits of shopping patterns are expressed as feature matrices of N dimension. On second phase, the similar shopping patterns are grouped into clusters and the representative pattern of each cluster is derived. The distance between shopping patterns is calculated by Projected Pure Euclidean Distance (Shahabi and Banaei-Kashani, 2003). Third phase finds a representative pattern that is similar to a target customer, and at the same time, the shopping information of the customer is traced and saved dynamically. Fourth, the next store is recommended based on the physical distance between stores of representative patterns and the present location of target customer. In this research, we have evaluated the accuracy of recommendation method based on a factual data derived from a department store. There are technological difficulties of tracking on a real-time basis so we extracted purchasing related information and we added on context information on each transaction. As a result, recommendation based on FM model that applies purchasing and context information is more stable and accurate compared to that of vector model. Additionally, we could find more precise recommendation result as more shopping information is accumulated. Realistically, because of the limitation of ubiquitous environment realization, we were not able to reflect on all different kinds of context but more explicit analysis is expected to be attainable in the future after practical system is embodied.

Dosimetric Effect on Selectable Optimization Parameters of Volumatric Modulated Arc Therapy (선택적 최적화 변수(Selectable Optimization Parameters)에 따른 부피적조절회전방사선치료(VMAT)의 선량학적 영향)

  • Jung, Jae-Yong;Shin, Yong-Joo;Sohn, Seung-Chang;Kim, Yeon-Rae;Min, Jung-Wan;Suh, Tae-Suk
    • Progress in Medical Physics
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    • v.23 no.1
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    • pp.15-25
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    • 2012
  • The aim of this study is to evaluate plan quality and dose accuracy for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) on the TG-119 and is to investigate the effects on variation of the selectable optimization parameters of VMAT. VMAT treatment planning was implemented on a Varian iX linear accelerator with ARIA record and verify system (Varian Mecical System Palo Alto, CA) and Oncentra MasterPlan treatment planning system (Nucletron BV, Veenendaal, Netherlands). Plan quality and dosimetric accuracy were evaluated by effect of varying a number of arc, gantry spacing and delivery time for the test geometries provided in TG-119. Plan quality for the target and OAR was evaluated by the mean value and the standard deviation of the Dose Volume Histograms (DVHs). The ionization chamber and $Delta^{4PT}$ bi-planar diode array were used for the dose evaluation. For treatment planning evaluation, all structure sets closed to the goals in the case of single arc, except for the C-shape (hard), and all structure sets achieved the goals in the case of dual arc, except for C-shape (hard). For the variation of a number of arc, the simple structure such as a prostate did not have the difference between single arc and dual arc, whereas the complex structure such as a head and neck showed a superior result in the case of dual arc. The dose distribution with gantry spacing of $4^{\circ}$ was shown better plan quality than the gantry spacing of $6^{\circ}$, but was similar results compared with gantry spacing of $2^{\circ}$. For the verification of dose accuracy with single arc and dual arc, the mean value of a relative error between measured and calculated value were within 3% and 4% for point dose and confidence limit values, respectively. For the verification on dose accuracy with the gantry intervals of $2^{\circ}$, $4^{\circ}$ and $6^{\circ}$, the mean values of relative error were within 3% and 5% for point dose and confidence limit values, respectively. In the verification of dose distribution with $Delta^{4PT}$ bi-planar diode array, gamma passing rate was $98.72{\pm}1.52%$ and $98.3{\pm}1.5%$ for single arc and dual arc, respectively. The confidence limit values were within 4%. The smaller the gantry spacing, the more accuracy results were shown. In this study, we performed the VMAT QA based on TG-119 procedure, and demonstrated that all structure sets were satisfied with acceptance criteria. And also, the results for the selective optimization variables informed the importance of selection for the suitable variables according to the clinical cases.

Attitudes on Medical Market Opening and Factors for Selecting a Foreign Hospital of Korean University Hospital Outpatients (환자들의 의료시장개방에 대한 인식도와 외국병원 선택요인 - S대학교병원 외래환자들을 대상으로 -)

  • Yoon, Yur-Yong;Yu, Seung-Hum;Kim, You-Young;Oh, Hyohn-Joo
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.32-48
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    • 2003
  • Korea is to open its medical markets to foreign hospitals starting in the year 2006 regardless of our will(DDA, Doha Development Agenda). To accurately understand the characteristics of Korean medical users, their detailed and various needs, their attitudes toward the opening of Korean medical markets, and factors affecting these users in choosing foreign medical service providers would be first step needs to be taken by the Korean medical facilities that need to survive and develope through the fiercely competitive era coming with the opening of Korean medical markets to foreign medical service providers and would be very important in hospital management. The subjects of this study were 500 patients randomly selected from the outpatients who visited one of university hospitals in Seoul on the 14th-16th days of April 2003, and conducted a self-completion questionnaire. The answers of 463 respondents among the selected patients(93% of a responding rate)were analyzed through the Excel and statistics programs. The attitudes on the opening of the medical markets were shown in agreement 56.5%(247 persons), disagreement 6.9%(30 persons), and no idea 36.6%(160 persons). In consideration of only the answers as agreement and disagreement exclusive of the answer as no idea, 89.2% of the respondents agreed to the opening of the medical markets while 10.8% objected to the opening. The approval rate was higher with the higher education and income levels. Moreover, The approval rate for the opening of the medical markets was relatively high regardless of the satisfaction in the medical service, and the most important reason of the agreement was the guarantee of the patients(national)option. The main reason of the disagreement was high medical fee(50.5%), and the other reasons showing low rates were outflow of the domestic fund to the foreign countries(13.6%), damage of medical influences on the public(11.4%), lack of competition of the domestic medical industry(9.1%)and so on. As for the factors of selecting the foreign hospitals in the opening of the medical markets, the patients considered the authority(competency)of doctors firstly, and the other principal factors were worldwide fame and reliance, specific explanation of doctors, modernized medical instruments, convenient consultation procedure, etc. The patients agreed to the opening of the medical markets at a high rate regardless of the satisfaction in the medical service, and the most principal reason of the agreement was the guarantee of the patients(national)option for the medical care. Connected with the factors to select the hospitals, the approval reasons for the opening of the medical markets were the authority(competency)of the doctors as the first one, and then fame and tradition, reliance, overall diagnosis and modernized medical instruments, doctors specific explanation, and so on. However, these factors are actually associated with the Quality of the medical care, and consequently the approval reasons for the opening of the medical markets are connected with the security of the medical care. Accordingly, the guarantee of the patients(national)option answered as the main reason of the agreement can be also understood as the awareness of the right to have a variety of options for the security of the medical quality.

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