• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.60-68
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• 1997

Background : Medical records are used to assess clinical performance of physicians and quality of care. The contents which are written in medical records are considered as the objective evidences to know what the doctors think about the patient's problems. But the problem to use medical records as the assessment tools is the incompleteness of medical recording. The purpose of this study is to know if the completeness of medical recording is correlated to quality of care for inpattients and it can predict physicians's quality of care. Method : 32 clinical physicians reviewed 200 patients' medical records who were selected randomly from the inpatients who were admitted to the university hospital during July, 1995 and June, 1996. The reviewers used the structured evaluation questionnaires which were composed of two part. One part evaluated the completeness of the medical recording and the other evaluating appropriateness of diagnosis and treatment processes. We summated the scores of each items and calculated percentile scores. Results : The mean percentile score of completeness of the medical recording was 67.9% in 1995 and 79.8% in 1996. The mean percentile score of appropriateness was 52.2% in 1995 and 69.5% in 1996. This change between 1995 and 1996 was statistically significant. In non-surgical patients, the percentile scores of the completeness and those of the appropriateness were correlated positively and this correlation was statistically significant(p<0.05). In surgical patients, the positve correlation between the completeness and the appropriateness was also statistically significant(p<0.05). Discussion : In conclusion, the completeness of medical recording is considered as the good predictor of the quality of care for inpatients.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.120-127
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the dosimetric performance of Mobius3D by comparison with an aSi-based electronic portal imaging device (EPID) and Octavius 4D, which are conventionally used for patient-specific prescription dose verification. Methods: The study was conducted using nine patients who were treated by volumetric modulated arc therapy. To evaluate the feasibility of Mobius3D for prescription dose verification, we compared the QA results of Mobius3D to an aSi-based EPID and the Octavius 4D dose verification methods. The first was the comparison of the Mobius3D verification phantom dose, and the second was to gamma index analysis. Results: The percentage differences between the calculated point dose and measurements from a PTW31010 ion chamber were 1.6%±1.3%, 2.0%±0.8%, and 1.2%±1.2%, using collapsed cone convolution, an analytical anisotropic algorithm, and the AcurosXB algorithm respectively. The average difference was found to be 1.6%±0.3%. Additionally, in the case of using the PTW31014 ion chamber, the corresponding results were 2.0%±1.4%, 2.4%±2.1%, and 1.6%±2.5%, showing an average agreement within 2.0%±0.3%. Considering all the criteria, the Mobius3D result showed that the percentage dose difference from the EPID was within 0.46%±0.34% on average, and the percentage dose difference from Octavius 4D was within 3.14%±2.85% on average. Conclusions: We conclude that Mobius3D can be used interchangeably with phantom-based dosimetry systems, which are commonly used as patient-specific prescription dose verification tools, especially under the conditions of 3%/3 mm and 95% pass rate.

• Korean Journal of Digital Imaging in Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2008

Diagnostic display monitor QA according to AAPM TG18 is usually performed by PACS administrator, product manager and reading doctor, and for acceptance testing and periodic quality control evaluation, a combination of visual and quantitative tests can be used, as outlined in sections 5 and 6 of 'assessment of display performance for medical imaging systems'. Although many display tests can be performed visually, a more objective and quantitative evaluation of display performance requires special test tools. The required instruments vary in their complexity and cost, depending on the context of the evaluation(research, acceptance testing, or quality control) and how thorough the evaluation needs to be. Objective and reliable assessment of many display characteristics can be performed with relatively inexpensive equipment, So, we made 'AAPM TG18 guiding instrument' to ues variable purpose of the evaluation of 'geometrical distortions(quantitative"', 'veiling glare(visual)' and 'sensor calibration'. The spatial measurements for the quantitative evaluation of geometric distortions, and the measurement of the veling-glare ring response function which provides information regarding the spatial extent of the luminance spread, can be performed using the TG18 guiding instrument can be used to sensor calibration to standardize the basic rate of 0% luminance when periodic calibration.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.32
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• pp.93-109
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• 2020

Purpose: The radiochromic film (Gafchromic EBT3, Ashland Advanced Materials, USA) and 3-dimensional analysis system dosimetry checkTM (DC, MathResolutions, USA) were evaluated for patient-specific quality assurance (QA) of helical tomotherapy. Materials and Methods: Depending on the tumors' positions, three types of targets, which are the abdominal tumor (130.6㎤), retroperitoneal tumor (849.0㎤), and the whole abdominal metastasis tumor (3131.0㎤) applied to the humanoid phantom (Anderson Rando Phantom, USA). We established a total of 12 comparative treatment plans by the four geometric conditions of the beam irradiation, which are the different field widths (FW) of 2.5-cm, 5.0-cm, and pitches of 0.287, 0.43. Ionization measurements (1D) with EBT3 by inserting the cheese phantom (2D) were compared to DC measurements of the 3D dose reconstruction on CT images from beam fluence log information. For the clinical feasibility evaluation of the DC, dose reconstruction has been performed using the same cheese phantom with the EBT3 method. Recalculated dose distributions revealed the dose error information during the actual irradiation on the same CT images quantitatively compared to the treatment plan. The Thread effect, which might appear in the Helical Tomotherapy, was analyzed by ripple amplitude (%). We also performed gamma index analysis (DD: 3mm/ DTA: 3%, pass threshold limit: 95%) for pattern check of the dose distribution. Results: Ripple amplitude measurement resulted in the highest average of 23.1% in the peritoneum tumor. In the radiochromic film analysis, the absolute dose was on average 0.9±0.4%, and gamma index analysis was on average 96.4±2.2% (Passing rate: >95%), which could be limited to the large target sizes such as the whole abdominal metastasis tumor. In the DC analysis with the humanoid phantom for FW of 5.0-cm, the three regions' average was 91.8±6.4% in the 2D and 3D plan. The three planes (axial, coronal, and sagittal) and dose profile could be analyzed with the entire peritoneum tumor and the whole abdominal metastasis target, with planned dose distributions. The dose errors based on the dose-volume histogram in the DC evaluations increased depending on FW and pitch. Conclusion: The DC method could implement a dose error analysis on the 3D patient image data by the measured beam fluence log information only without any dosimetry tools for patient-specific quality assurance. Also, there may be no limit to apply for the tumor location and size; therefore, the DC could be useful in patient-specific QAl during the treatment of Helical Tomotherapy of large and irregular tumors.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2003

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for treating a cervix carcinoma has become popular, because it eliminates many of the problems associated with conventional brachytherapy. In order to improve the clinical effectiveness with HDR brachytherapy, a dose calculation algorithm, optimization procedures, and image registrations need to be verified by comparing the dose distributions from a planning computer and those from a phantom. In this study, the phantom was fabricated in order to verify the absolute doses and the relative dose distributions. The measured doses from the phantom were then compared with the treatment planning system for the dose verification. The phantom needs to be designed such that the dose distributions can be quantitatively evaluated by utilizing the dosimeters with a high spatial resolution. Therefore, the small size of the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips with a dimension of <1/8"and film dosimetry with a spatial resolution of <1mm used to measure the radiation dosages in the phantom. The phantom called a pelvic phantom was made from water and the tissue-equivalent acrylic plates. In order to firmly hold the HDR applicators in the water phantom, the applicators were inserted into the grooves of the applicator holder. The dose distributions around the applicators, such as Point A and B, were measured by placing a series of TLD chips (TLD-to-TLD distance: 5mm) in the three TLD holders, and placing three verification films in the orthogonal planes. This study used a Nucletron Plato treatment planning system and a Microselectron Ir-192 source unit. The results showed good agreement between the treatment plan and measurement. The comparisons of the absolute dose showed agreement within $\pm$4.0 % of the dose at point A and B, and the bladder and rectum point. In addition, the relative dose distributions by film dosimetry and those calculated by the planning computer show good agreement. This pelvic phantom could be a useful to verify the dose calculation algorithm and the accuracy of the image localization algorithm in the high dose rate (HDR) planning computer. The dose verification with film dosimetry and TLD as quality assurance (QA) tools are currently being undertaken in the Catholic University, Seoul, Korea.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.88-96
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• 2009

Radiation treatment for skin cancer has recently increased in tomotherapy. It was reported that required dose could be delivered with homogeneous dose distribution to the target without field matching using electron and photon beam. Therapeutic beam of tomotherapy, however, has several different physical characteristic and irradiation of helical beam is involved in the mechanically dynamic factors. Thus verification of skin dose is requisite using independent tools with additional verification method. Modified phantom for dose measurement was developed and skin dose verification was performed using inserted thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) and GafChromic EBT films. As the homogeneous dose was delivered to the region including surface and 6 mm depth, measured dose using films showed about average 2% lower dose than calculated one in treatment planning system. Region indicating about 14% higher and lower absorbed dose was verified on measured dose distribution. Uniformity of dose distribution on films decreased as compared with that of calculated results. Dose variation affected by inhomogeneous material, Teflon, little showed. In regard to the measured dose and its distribution in tomotherapy, verification of skin dose through measurement is required before the radiation treatment for the target located at the curved surface or superficial depth.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.291-298
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• 2003

Purpose: We report upon a web-based system for Patterns of Care Study (PCS) devised for Korean radiation oncology. This PCS was designed to establish standard tools for clinical quality assurance, to determine basic parameters for radiation oncology processes, to offer a solid system for cooperative clinical studies and a useful standard database for comparisons with other national databases. Materials and Methods: The system consisted of a main server with two back-ups in other locations. The program uses a Linux operating system and a MySQL database. Cancers with high frequencies in radiotherapy departments in Korea from 1998 to 1999 were chosen to have a developmental priority. Results: The web-based clinical PCS .system for radiotherapy in www.pcs.re.kr was developed in early 2003 for cancers of the breast, rectum, esophagus, larynx and lung, and for brain metastasis. The total number of PCS study items exceeded one thousand. Our PCS system features user-friendliness, double entry checking, data security, encryption, hard disc mirroring, double back-up, and statistical analysis. Alphanumeric data can be input as well as image data. In addition, programs were constructed for IRB submission, random sampling of data, and departmental structure. Conclusion: For the first time in the field of PCS, we have developed a web-based system and associated working programs. With this system, we can gather sample data in a short period and thus save, cost, effort and time. Data audits should be peformed to validate input data. We propose that this system should be considered as a standard method for PCS or similar types of data collection systems.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.63-76
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• 1999

The main objective of this study was to develop a concept of service marketing promotion in nursing that is derived from the concepts of service marketing theory. This research was a descriptive study, at the factor isolation level. The principle of concept derivation suggested by Walker and Avant (1988) and the Hybrid model suggested by Schwarz-Barcott and Kim (1993) were employed as the research method. The data were collected from December, 1997 to April. 1998 at a large general hospital located in Seoul. The procedures of this study were as follows: First. at the theoretical phase: the meaning, attributes, and definition of service marketing promotion were identified through an extensive review of the literature. Second, at the empirical phase: fieldwork was done to identify the promotional activities and events in nursing. Top nurse managers from 4 units (Director of Nursing, Head nurses of inpatient nursing unit, outpatient nursing unit. and home care nursing unit) were interviewed and the content of the interview was analyzed to identify the meaning and attributes of promotion in nursing. Other methods such as brochures and other audio-visual materials which were relevant to nursing promotion were used to supplement the interviews. Finally, the results of the theoretical and empirical analyses were intergrated to develop a concept of service marketing in nursing practice. A final definition of service marketing promotion in nursing was identified as follows. 1. Promotion as a marketing function in nursing service is concerned with communication to target markets on all information related to nursing service in order to satisfy the objectives of both a nursing service organization and the target markets. 2. The goals of nursing service promotion include: 1) increasing visibility of nursing services and delivering the information on nursing services, 2) affirming the value of nursing services, so it can contribute to formulation of reimbursement policy for nursing services. 3) advancing the general image of the nursing profession and nursing services. 4) achieving and attaining a desirable positioning for nurses among health care professionals. and 5) creating and stimulating the demand for nursing services. 3. In order to obtain these goals it is necessary to provide information on nursing services, to persuade target markets. to remind them about nursing services. and to establish a collaborative relationship with related departments. 4. The tools used to carry out the above functions of promotion in nursing are the providing nursing services, public relations and publicity. QA of nursing, advertising, and sales promotion. 5. The target markets of nursing service include the nursing customer markets. the internal markets, the influence markets. the recruitment markets. the supplier markets. and the nursing referral markets. In conclusion, the concept of promotion in other service marketing areas can be applied to the promotion of nursing service marketing. The promotion of nursing service is more than just effective communication in nursing service. it is the effective use of the concepts of service marketing promotion. Promotion of nursing service will contribute to create and expand nursing services.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2014

This study has investigated the effects of the defects in the probe elements influence Doppler images in the medical ultrasonic scanners. This work was implemented that the quality of Doppler images depended on the extent and location of the probe element defected. The probe performance was rated in terms of the number of piezoelectric elements lost and this was studied in the experiment by electrical disconnection to the elements. The results showed that Doppler velocity became rapidly reduced as the defected elements encountered with the element group activated at the Doppler mode, not as the flow velocity. The effect of the probe defect is decreased when the defects occurred at the element group activated for Doppler mode, as was increased the number of the elements. It was observed that the higher the flow velocity of Doppler flow phantom is, the wider the spectrum of Doppler is. And the Doppler velocity soared up and the dispersion of image brightness is increased when the defected elements got out of the elements activated at Doppler mode. The result showed that TADVP(time-average-Doppler-velocity-profile) is decreased with the increase of the probe element defect, especilly in the region of high frequency. It is expected that the research of various defects of probe elements are needed, and this study can be practical tools for probe based ultrasonic QA in the future.