• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• 제54권12호
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• pp.481-488
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• 2011

In the current era of low-birth rate in Korea, it is important to improve our neonatal intensive care and to establish an integrative system including a regional care network adequate for both high-risk pregnancies and high-risk newborn infants. Therefore, official discussion for nation-wide augmentation, proper leveling, networking, and regionalization of neonatal and perinatal care is urgently needed. In this report, I describe the status of neonatal intensive care in Korea, as well as nationwide flow of transfer of high-risk newborn infants and pregnant women, and present a short review of the regionalization of neonatal and perinatal care in the Unites States and Japan. It is necessary not only to increase the number of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds, medical resources and manpower, but also to create a strong network system with appropriate leveling of NICUs and regionalization. A systematic approach toward perinatal care, that includes both high-risk pregnancies and newborns with continuous support from the government, is also needed, which can be spearheaded through the establishment of an integrative advisory board to propel systematic care forward.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.27-80
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• 1993

It is widely known that patients' utilization pattern for medical care facilities and the patientflow are influenced by multi-factors, such as demographic characteristics, structural characteristics of society, socio-psychological characteristics(value, attitude, norms, culture, health behavior, etc.), economic characteristics(income, medical price, relative price, physician induced demand, etc.), geographical accessibility, systematic characteristics(health care delivery system, payment methods for physician fees, form of health care security, etc.), and characteristics of medical facilities(reliability, quality of medical care, convenience, kindness, tec.). This study was conducted to research the mechanism of patient-flow according to changes of health care system(implementation of national health insurance, health care referral system and regionalization of health care utilization, etc.) and characteristics of medical facilities(ownership of hospital, characteristics of medical services, non-medical characteristics, etc.). In this study, the fact could be ascertained that the patient-flow had been influenced by changes of health care system and characteristics of medical facilities.

• 한국지역지리학회지
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• 제17권5호
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• pp.617-637
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• 2011

본 연구는 충청북도의 사례를 통해서 온라인 협진의 지리적 특성과 환자의 온라인 협진에 대한 결정 요인에 대해서 알아보는 것을 목적으로 하고 있다. 2009년 7월부터 9월까지 심층 인터뷰에 기반한 정성적 기법을 이용하였고, 충청북도에 거주하는 환자 20명을 대상으로 하였다. 이 연구에 의하면 대부분의 환자는 1차적으로 의료 문제가 해결되지 않을 경우, 온라인 협진의 본래 취지와 달리 충청북도 내에서 그것을 해결하는 것이 아니라, 경기 의료권에 위치한 의료 기관으로 방문하는 경향을 보였다. 이와 더불어, 환자의 의무 기록 또한 온라인 시스템을 통해 이들 병원에 전달되어, 온라인 협진의 공간상 네트워크는 경기 의료권으로 집중하게 된다. 이러한 주요 원인은 의료 서비스에 대한 질 혹은 수준에 대한 고려, 개인적인 이해 관계와 신뢰성, 좋은 접근성 등에 기인하는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 이에 반해, 온라인 협진 시스템의 편리성, 유효성 등과 같은 온라인 협진의 기술적 가치나 온라인 협진의 본래적인 목적인 지역의료 향상과 같은 요인은 크게 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 따라서 우리나라 원격진료의 결정 요인은 환자 개인에 의해서 결정이 되는 바가 크고, 아직 개개인의 인식이 지역 의료 시스템과 크게 밀착되지 않는 형태를 보이기 때문에 경기 의료권으로 원격진료의 선택이 집중된 공간 특성을 보이고 있다고 할 수 있다. 특히, 이는 기존의 의료 제도 및 환자의 행태가 온라인 상에서의 의료 활동에도 그대로 투영되기 때문인데, 가장 이상적인 원격진료의 지리적 담론인 지역화를 실현하기 위해서는 근본적인 지역의 의료 서비스 구조의 개선이 필요할 것으로 보인다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.285-295
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• 1990

The utilization of medical care services has been partly regionalized with the implementation of referral requirement by the government since July 1, 1989 when the health insurance coverage was extended to all the people. For the purpose of regionalization, the whole country has been primarily divided into tertiary care regions, and each of them again into secondary care regions. This study investigates the self-sufficiency for in-patient care services of secondary care regions focusing on why it varies among the regions. In doing so, analysis is performed to examine a model which embodies three sets of hypotheses as follows : 1) The regional self-sufficiency for medical care services would be subject to direct influences of regional characteristics, amount of available services and structural properties of regional medical care system ; 2) The regional characteristics would have indirect effects on the self-sufficiency which are mediated by medical care services ; and 3) The amount of available services would indirectly affect the self-sufficiency by influencing the structure of regional medical care system. The results of analysis were generally consistent with the model. The findings have some practical implications. The regional self-sufficiency for medical care services partly depends upon basic properties of each region which cannot be changed in a short period of time. Thus the self-sufficiency for medical care services can be improved mainly by health policy measures. In some of the regions the self-sufficiency for in-patient care services was much higher or lower than can be predicted from the bed-population ratio. Indication is that the allocation of health resources should be made considering a variety of factors bearing upon the supply of and demand for health care ; not on the basis of just a single criterion like the availability. The self-sufficiency of a certain region is related to not only its own characterstics but also the characteristics of neighboring regions. Therefore, attention should be also directed to the inter-regional relationships in health care when the needs for investment of health resources in a region are assessed. However, it should be noted that this study used the data collected before the referral requirement was imposed. A replication of this analysis using recent data would provide an evaluation of the impact on the self-sufficiency of the referral requirement as well as a confirmation of the findings of this study.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.66-84
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• 2008

Objectives: This study aimed to. offer some fundamental evidences for the stroke management policy by investigating the trends of medical care utilization and regionalization in stroke inpatients. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance claims and registry data for stroke inpatients from 1998 to 2005. Among all stroke inpatient claims data, self-employed insured and their dependents were only included in this study. The classification of stroke was based on ICD-10(I60-I69) and its subtype was divided by hemorrhage(I60-I62) and infarction(I63-I64) type. To evaluate regionalization of medical care utilization, relevance index was calculated by regions. The regions were classified 8 large catchment areas and 163 self authorized areas. Results: The overall medical care utilization rate of stroke inpatient has been increased, especially infarction subtype. Among medical care institutions, the utilization of hospital has been the most rapidly increased. Although considered annual rate of interest, total medical cost of stroke inpatients has been increased, Totally, more than 84% of stroke inpatient were admitted to medical care institutions in their own large catchment area during 1998-2005. The relevance indices in their own large catchment area (self sufficiency rates) were more than 70% in most areas regardless of stroke subtype except Chungbuk catchment area. Self sufficiency rates of stroke inpatients among 163 self authorized areas in 1998 and 2005 were 84.2% and 83.1% in metropolitan, 46.7% and 45.5% in urban, and 19.5% and 22.6% in rural areas, respectively. Conclusion: Stroke management policy for improvement of distribution at the district level, especially in rural areas, may be helpful for reducing regional inequality in stroke.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.1-32
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• 1992

The Canadian experience-universal government health insurance administeredby the ten provinces and two territories with some fiscal and policy variations-suggests the possibility of more effectve and efficient health care delivery system. The central purpose of the Canadian health in surance was to reduce and hopefully eliminate financial barriers to medical care. In this it succeeded. But it also produced varous kinds of unexpected side-effects on cost and quality. The Federal and Provincial Governments of Canada continue to exert theri efforts to ameliorate these problems. The lesson from Canada is that the health care revenue should be raised at the national level and managed at the regional level, and the regional healthcare financing organization has to take over the functions of the public health center. These alternatives is expected to make the Korean health care delivery system more efective and efficient, and to achieve health for all. This paper also discussed the policy agenda for implementing such alternatives in Korea.

• 대한지리학회지
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.501-517
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• 2011

본 연구에서는 원격진료 기술로 병원간 통합을 꾀하고 있는 일본의 사례를 중심으로, 원격진료의 지역화 형성 및 특성에 대해 알아보았다. 연구를 통한 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 일본에서는 원격진료의 효과적인 운용을 위해, 현청, 지역 내 대학, 의사회, 지역 산업을 기반으로 하는 기업 등을 주축으로 하는 "원격진료 의원회"를 구성하여, 이를 활발한 의사 교환의 장(場)으로 이용하고 있다. 따라서 지역의 다양한 의료 종사자와 환자의 직접적인 수요를 최대한 반영하고, 조속히 맞춤형 원격진료 서비스를 제공할 수 있는 환경을 형성하였다. 둘째, 이미 형성된 긴밀한 인간관계가 원격의료의 지역화에 크게 관여하고 있다. 지역의료의 발전을 위한 정책 결정자-의사 집단 간의 관계, 의사회의 정기적인 모임과 연장자 의사 집단의 지역의료에 대한 깊은 이해 및 지원 등을 기반으로 하는 의사-의사 간의 관계, 긴 시간 신뢰를 쌓은 의사-환자 간의 관계 등은 원격진료의 발안 단계에서부터 실제적인 이용과 응용의 단계까지 두루 걸쳐 일본에서만 보여지는 지역화의 특성을 결정짓는다. 결론적으로 오프라인에서 형성된 개인적 차원의 관계(게마인샤프트)가 온라인상의 공적 차원(게젤샤프트)의 서비스로 전환되는 현상이 일본 원격진료의 지역화에서 보여지는 고유한 양식이라고 할 수 있다. 이는 하나의 현을 중심으로 하는 사회, 경제, 문화적인 특성들이 원격진료에서도 고스란히 투영되어 나타나기 때문인 것으로 파악된다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.49-59
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• 2022

Objectives: Access to maternal and neonatal care services (MNCS) is an important goal of health policy in developing countries. In this study, we proposed a 3-level hierarchical location-allocation model to maximize the coverage of MNCS providers in Iran. Methods: First, the necessary criteria for designing an MNCS network were explored. Birth data, including gestational age and birth weight, were collected from the data bank of the Iranian Maternal and Neonatal Network national registry based on 3 service levels (I, II, and III). Vehicular travel times between the points of demand and MNCS providers were considered. Alternative MNCS were mapped in some cities to reduce access difficulties. Results: It was found that 130, 121, and 86 MNCS providers were needed to respond to level I, II, and III demands, respectively, in 373 cities. Service level III was not available in 39 cities within the determined travel time, which led to an increased average travel time of 173 minutes to the nearest MNCS provider. Conclusions: This study revealed inequalities in the distribution of MNCS providers. Management of the distribution of MNCS providers can be used to enhance spatial access to health services and reduce the risk of neonatal mortality and morbidity. This method may provide a sustainable healthcare solution at the policy and decision-making level for regional, or even universal, healthcare networks.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제30권7호
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• pp.962-966
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• 2020

Monitoring the mutation dynamics of human severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical in understanding its infectivity, virulence and pathogenicity for development of a vaccine. In an "age of mobility," the pandemic highlights the importance and vulnerability of regionalization and labor market interdependence in Southeast Asia. We intend to characterize the genetic variability of viral populations within the region to provide preliminary information for regional surveillance in the future. By analyzing 142 complete genomes from South East Asian (SEA) countries, we identified three central variants distinguished by nucleotide and amino acid changes.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.390-403
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• 1988

The objectives of the study were to provide the basic informations needed in the development of balanced medical services throughout the nation. As the national health care system was expanding rapidly along with the economic growth, quantitative re-evaluation of the system is of great need. For that reason, characteristics of the admitted patients were analyzed for the case-mix and patients' flow within and through regions. Materials were 421,530 cases of inpatients, who were reported through Korea Medical Insurance Corporation(KMIC) for insurance claim, during the period of March 1, 1985 through February 28, 1987. Korean Diagnosis Related Groups(K-DRGs) classification system was adopted for the study of case-mix and 189 cities and counties were classified into 5 district groups by factor analysis results of K-DRGS. The major findings of this study were as follows ; 1) Factor analysis of case-mix, employing K-DRG system, revealed 5 distinct funtional district groups. Group A(18 districts) was prominent for tertiary medical care. In group B(36 districts), rather simple procedures were prevalent. Group C(26 districts) was distinctive for the medical care of well organized internal medicine practices with qualified clinical laboratories. Group D(17 districts) was characterized by relatively high balanced medical care. Group E (92 districts) was with very low level of medical care. 2) Analysis of the case-flow through the districts showed 3 types of flow patterns : inflow, outflow, and balanced types. Inflow type of case-flow was found in Group A, C and D while Group B and E showed outflow type. Inflow was most prominent in Group A and Group E was of typical outflow type. Group B was consistently the outflow type except for Major Diagnostic Category XX regardless of the disease treaters, but Group C and D were inflow or outflow types according to the disease tracers.