• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1972-1980
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• 2015

This study's purpose was to analyze the effect of the SmartCare obesity management pilot project, which was conducted between 09 March 2011 and 03 April 2013 in Korea (South). Of 212 subjects who were enrolled in the study, the final analysis was conducted with 147 subjects who completed their weight self-measurements and SmartCare services until the end of a 6-month service period. The self-measurement group for evaluation was classified into 3 groups (Low, Middle, and High) by evenly dividing the monthly average frequency of measurement for 6 months and the evaluation indices were weight, and BMI (Body Mass Index) transmitted from the SmartCare System. The monthly average weight and BMI were decreased more in the High Group than the Middle Group and Low Group (M5: High>Middle>Low), and they are showing statistically significant differences between groups (p< 0.05). In conclusion, analysis of the weight and BMI improvement effect showed a greater improvement effect when the self-measurement frequency level was higher.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2016

Recently the number of the elderly who live alone are increasing more and more as the average life span is prolonged. The elderly are probably in danger at home without being helped due to external aggressions or sudden health problems. Accordingly, more and more interests are taken in medical welfare for the healthy life of the seniors. In this paper, we have developed a mobility and vitality signal monitoring system based on ZigBee-PSTN gateway for the elderly. This combination of ZigBee wireless sensor network and PSTN can be easily established even in the poor internet infrastructure as is usually common for the elderly, with the advantage of providing non-constrained monitoring feature. The research result can be extended to the future tele-medicine system.

• PNF and Movement
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2024

Purpose: The prevalent use of mobile devices may contribute to musculoskeletal disorders, such as forward head posture (FHP), among users. The measurement of the craniovertebral angle (CVA) using photographic images is frequently employed in assessing FHP. Although manual CVA measurement using photographic images is reliable in clinical settings, computer programs or mobile applications to support tele-physical therapy are not yet fully developed. Therefore, in the current study, we propose an automatic method for extracting CVA from photographic images of FHP subjects to facilitate tele-physical therapy. Methods: To develop the automatic CVA measuring computer program, photographic images were obtained from 10 FHP participants. The location information obtained from the markers attached to the tragus and the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebra were used as coordinates. Using these coordinates, straight line 1 was generated by connecting the seventh spinous process of the cervical vertebra and the tragus, while straight line 2 was drawn parallel to the coordinate obtained from the seventh spinous process of the cervical vertebra. The arc tangent function was used to calculate the angle between the two straight lines. The automatic CVA measurement computer program utilizing photographic images was developed using MATLAB (ver. 2016b). Results: The results showed that the automatic CVA measurement computer program demonstrated stable repeatability and high accuracy. Conclusion: The proposed approach was able to automatically estimate the CVA using photographic images. The developed computer program can potentially be used for easier and more reliable clinical assessment of FHP.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.71-83
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• 2019

This study aimed to develop and pilot-test educational program prototypes of training health coaches to help cancer patients overcome crises and create positive growth. For this purpose, the educational contents and methods of the blended learning program prototypes were derived through learner needs and literature analysis. The prototypes, which consist of introducing of health management and health information and understanding and practice of basic coaching and health coaching, were developed to integrate with four sessions of face-to-face, off-line classes, training practices through 12 tele-classes, and use of online learning system. The prototypes were conducted and pilot-tested by a total of 35 students selected through the document screening and the interview. After participating in the blended learning program, learners expressed greater overall satisfaction with each session program (average score = 4.36, with 5 being most satisfied), satisfaction with learning contents (average score=4.42) satisfaction with course preparation (average score = 4.26) and satisfaction with lecture materials (average score = 4.19). The results of this study show that a systematic and integrative approach for designing a blended learning program can be useful for various educational needs in health and medical fields. In the future, empirical studies are expected to see how these curricula are actually implemented and assess whether the intended learning outcomes are achieved.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.18-29
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• 2014

Purpose: This study sought to ascertain and describe u-Health nurses (ubiquitous healthcare nurse, tele-nurse)' experiences working with low-income elders in Korea. Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured interview, focus group interviews of 6 nurses and participant observations in community places in public rental housing in the city of Seoul. The ethnographical analysis method, proposed by Spradley, was used to analyze interview data. Results: We identified two major clusters of themes on common issues and concerns experienced by nurses: "work environment" and "daily work life." In addition, ten themes and fourteen sub-themes were extracted from the field work data. Conclusion: The study provided a deeper understanding of the experiences and services of u-Health nurses in Korea, of which much remains to be understood, as the healthcare services they currently provide are limited. Moreover, its findings could empower novice nurses and expand nurse's professional knowledge and competence.

• Journal of Computing Science and Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.269-281
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• 2011

STEPSTONE is a joint industry-university project to create open source technology that would enable the scalable, "friction-free" integration of device-based healthcare solutions into enterprise systems using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Specifically, STEPSTONE defines a first proposal to a Service Oriented Device Architecture (SODA) framework, and provides for initial reference implementations. STEPSTONE also intends to encourage a broad community effort to further develop the framework and its implementations. In this paper, we present SODA, along with two implementation proposals of SODA's device integration. We demonstrate the ease by which SODA was used to develop an end-to-end personal healthcare monitoring system. We also demonstrate the ease by which the STEPSTONE system was extended by other participants - Washington State University - to include additional devices and end user interfaces. We show clearly how SODA and therefore SODA devices make integration almost automatic, replicable, and scalable. This allows telehealth system developers to focus their energy and attention on the system functionality and other important issues, such as usability, privacy, persuasion and outcome assessment studies.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2012

We can adapt telemedicine systems in advancement of information technology capabilities and increase of network bandwidth. The telemedicine service can be applied to a public health center, a school, a prison and islands in lacks of medical equipments and medical staffs. The telemedicine services which can be provided high quality medical services. We designed the multiple control server system consisting 3 sub-function, patients and doctors name list, network types, connection states and computer equipments. The telemedicine link configuration was decided as 'Flowing', or 'By-passing' in accordance the network type and bandwidth of patient systems or doctor systems. The multiple control server system was performed the best communication configuration over heterogeneous networks. This system was achieved high quality telemedicine services through dynamic wired and wireless networks at any time. This study represented a hybrid multimedia telemedicine system over heterogeneous networks. We expected that the designed system could provide not only the high quality services, tele-diagnosis and tele-consultation, but also the effective emergency telemedicine services to multi-patients in the heterogeneous network environments.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.39-45
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• 2015

This research was conducted to investigate the voice related needs of occupational voice users. The data collected from teachers(379), tele-marketers(156), therapists(50) was classified according to its content, by colaizzi's inductive categorical analysis. The voice related needs are classified into 3 big categories, 1) how to use, 2) how to care, 3) how to be healthy. Again the category 'how to use' my voice was into 6 sub-categories: (1) efficiently, (2) as I desired, (3) without pain(discomfort), (4) expressively, (5) phonation (methods) and (6) clear articulation. The result showed that the needs from 3 groups of occupational voice users reflect their own environment which they have to use their voice as well as the voice characteristics wanted from their specific listeners.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.366-372
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• 2002

Tele-medicine and emergency medical system are necessary for moving from an accidental point or far distance to a hospital and emergency treatment or home treatment before a hospital. Emergency treatment is extremely important in the case of death before arriving a hospital and deformed or disabled by medical treatment delay. A necessary element for this medical system is the emergency communication system. This system is on preparing for an ability of furnishing patient status to a corresponding health service by monitoring the patient at an ambulance of the accident place. This is the transportation of basic biological information of a patient to a medical center by wireless communication system and the corresponding hospital or medical center examine the patient by monitoring, then they can send emergency medical order to the patient for emergency treatment. The TRS is most efficient way of emergency medical communication system, which is currently used with popularity. In this paper studied simultaneously a way of detecting and transporting bio-logical signals, and monitoring of transporting data with communication of voice in the accident place or ambulance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.29-36
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to have detailed data of the distribution, locations, and the amount of people in the waiting line of the nursing home. Also, we studied the accessibility to the facilities by using Web GIS to analyze the transit time it takes from the nursing home to health center and hospitals. We can provide the basic data that could contribute when future plans for the nursing homes' locations, health and medical policy are made. The results are as follows. 1. The nursing homes are stiffly concentrated in regions of Seoul and Gyeongi-do where large number of the elderly covered by long-term care insurance and the waiting line was very long for the elderlies to enter the nursing homes. In these cities of Ulsan and Jeju where number of the elderly covered by long-term care insurance is relatively small, there were less facilities. 2. The nursing homes located in urban areas had higher occupancy rate and higher number of people in the waiting line. 3. The average time taken by driving from the nursing homes and health center was 10 minutes and there was not a noticeable difference between the cities. Driving from the nursing homes to hospitals in rural areas took 22 minutes which is 2.5 times of the time taken for urban areas. Daegu-si and Incheon-si had relatively short distance from the nursing homes and the hospitals while Jeju-do had the furthest. For rural areas, it is needed for health center to be equipped with a wider medical coverage, have closely connected with hospitals to minimize the differences they have from ones in rural areas. It is also needed to have ambulances equipped for tele-medical examination and treatment system.