• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.67-70
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• 2012

The surveillance programme of work-related diseases (WRD) is based on a network of occupational physicians who notify all WRD diagnosed during a two-week observation period. The aims are mainly to estimate the prevalence of non-compensated WRD in the working population according to socio economic factors; to determine new indicators of occupational health; to update the lists of compensable occupational diseases; to understand and assess under-compensation and under-notification. The participation rate for occupational physicians is around 33% in 2008. The main WRD are the musculoskeletal disorders, followed by the mental disorders. This 2-week protocol, repeated regularly, provides useful data on frequency of pathologies linked to employment as well as an estimate of unreported WRD subject to compensation or non-compensated WRDs, and the trends of WRDs over the time.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.420-427
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• 2019

Introduction: To prevent and manage the societal and economic burden of occupational diseases (ODs), countries should develop strong prevention policies, health surveillance and registry systems. This study aims to contribute to the improvement of OD surveillance at national level as well as to identify priority actions in Turkey. Methods: The history and current status of occupational health studies were considered from the perspective of OD surveillance. Interpretative research was done through literature review on occupational health at national, regional and international level. Analyses were focused on countries' experiences in policy development and practice, roles and responsibilities of institutions, multidisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration. OD surveillance models of Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands were examined through exchange visits. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore the peculiarities of legislative and institutional structures, the best and worst practices, and approach principles. Results: Some countries are more focused on exploring OD trends through effective and cost-efficient researches, with particular attention to new and emerging ODs. Other countries try to reach every single case of OD for compensation and rehabilitation. Each practice has advantages and shortcomings, but they are not mutually exclusive, and thus an effective combination is possible. Conclusion: Effective surveillance and registry approaches play a key role in the prevention of ODs. A well-designed system enables monitoring and assessment of OD prevalence and trends, and adoption of preventive measures while improving the effectiveness of redressing and compensation. A robust surveillance does not only provide protection of workers' health but also advances prevention of economic losses.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2007

Effective communicable disease surveillance systems are the basis of the national disease prevention and control. Following the increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases since late 1990s, the Korean government has strived to enhance surveillance and response system. Since 2000, sentinel surveillance, such as influenza sentinel surveillance, pediatric sentinel surveillance, school-based sentinel surveillance and ophthalmological sentinel surveillance, was introduced to improve the surveillance activities. Electronic reporting system was developed in 2000, enabling the establishment of national database of reported cases. Disweb, a portal for sharing communicable disease information with the public and health care workers, was developed. In general, the survey results on usefulness and attributes of the system, such as simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, sensitivity, timeliness, and representa-tiveness, received relatively high recognition. Compared to the number of paid cases of national health insurance, reported cases by national notifiable disease surveillance system, and various sentinel surveillance system, the result of the correlation analysis was high. According to the research project conducted by KCDC, the reporting rate of physicians in 2004 has also greatly improved, compared with that in 1990s. However, continuous efforts are needed to further improve the communicable disease surveillance system. Awareness of physicians on communicable disease surveillance system must be improved by conducting education and information campaigns on a continuous basis. We should also devise means for efficient use of various administrative data including cause of death statistics and health insurance. In addition, efficiency of the system must be improved by linking data from various surveillance system.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.219-224
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• 2008

Due to heightened concerns regarding possible bioterrorist attacks, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention introduced syndromic surveillance systems, which have been run by emergency departments in hospitals throughout Korea since 2002. These systems are designed to identify illness clusters before diagnoses are confirmed and reported to public health agencies, to mobilize a rapid response, and thereby to reduce morbidity and mortality. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention performed drop-in syndromic surveillance successfully during the World Cup Football Games in 2002, the Universiad games in 2004, and the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in 2005. In addition, sustainable syndromic surveillance system involving the collaborative efforts of 125 sentinel hospitals has been in operation nationwide since 2002. Because active data collection can bias decisions a physician makes, there is a need to generate an automatic and passive data collection system. Therefore, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to establish computerized automatic data collection systems in the near future. These systems will be used not only fur the early detection of bioterrorism but also for more effective public health responses to disease.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.273-277
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• 2007

The purpose of establishing the circulatory disease surveillance system in Korea is to ensure that the problems of circulatory disease importance are being monitored efficiently and effectively. The goals of circulatory disease surveillance system are to monitor the epidemiological trends of circulatory disease and to evaluate the outcome of health activity for controlling circulatory diseases. Surveillance system are being updated to achieve the needs for the integration of the surveillance and information system, the establishment of data standards, the electronic exchange of data, and changes in the goals of circulatory disease surveillance system to facilitate the response of this system to manage the national health problem effectively. This article provides the target diseases and determinant indicators to be monitored, structure of circulatory disease surveillance system, and many tasks and related activities that should be applied to this system.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.587-593
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• 2018

The syndromic surveillance system is designed to identify illness clusters before diagnoses are confirmed and reported to public health agencies, to provide rapid public health response, and thereby to reduce morbidity and mortality. Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has implemented the emergency department-based syndromic surveillance system. To design upgraded and enhanced functions of the current syndromic surveillance system in KCDC for the early warning of adverse disease events, we surveyed many papers. This paper describes the operation status of syndromic surveillance system in other countries and the improvement of the syndromic surveillance system in KCDC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.150-151
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• 2003

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.277-279
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• 2015

Contact monitoring is an essential component of the public health response to a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, and is required for an effective quarantine to contain the epidemic. The timeliness of a quarantine is associated with its effectiveness. This paper provides a conceptual framework to describe the process of contact monitoring, and proposes a new measure called the "timely quarantined proportion" as a tool to assess the adequacy of a public health response.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.278-284
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• 2007

Despite extensive researches and pre-market clinical trials, only limited information on the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of a drug can be collected at the time of market approval from regulatory agency. ADRs constitute a major public health problem. Post-marketing surveillance of drugs is important to detect signals for ADR. In Korea, one of the main methods for monitoring the safety of marketed drugs is spontaneous reporting system of suspected ADRs. Re-examination and re-evaluation system are in force for monitoring safety of new market approval drugs and currently under marketing drugs, respectively. Recently, regional pharmacovigilance centers were designated from Korean Food and Drug Administration for facilitating ADR surveillance. Over recent years, with the development of information technology, there has been an increased interest in establishing data mining system for detecting signals from Health Insurance Review Agency database. The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of Korean ADR surveillance system and suggest the possible solutions for developing active pharmacovigilance system in Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2014

Objectives: This study was performed to develop the indicators for national surveillance of chronic disease, which is a governmental concern to manage the chronic disease for older persons. It is necessary that chronic disease surveillance system needs to be made in Korea for effective management of chronic diseases. With the system, we know the prevalence and incidence of chronic diseases, observe the trend of utilization for caring the chronic diseases, and analyze the behavior change for prevention of chronic diseases. Methods: This study was carried out by analyzing the data by which the indicators was produced, by reviewing how the United States made the indicators. By benchmarking the United States, the sources of data of the national surveillance indicators for chronic diseases in Korea were compared. Results: In this study, the most significant indicators were identified and proposed to improve the surveillance indicators by changing the sources of data. These findings warrant further development of the health policy for the chronic disease prevention and establishment of the chronic disease surveillance system. Conclusions: The results of this study can be used to develop national surveillance indicators to manage the chronic diseases and can be used as basic data to develop community health programs.