• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-90
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• 2021

Telehealth has been a hotly debated health policy issue in South Korea, mostly because the medical community - especially primary care practitioners - have strongly opposed it. As a result, telehealth has remained forbidden under law. However, the temporary permission of telehealth in Korea, as well as its exploding use in other countries, all in response to COVID-19, is re-igniting the discussion on telehealth in Korea. This article explores general legal issues that may arise if and when telehealth is fully implemented in Korea. The article's analysis shows that legislative changes are necessary to allow reimbursement of telehealth as well as remote purchase of medicine. The article also advocates introducing new evidentiary rules to curtail covert recording of telehealth sessions. On the other hand, additional legislation is probably not necessary to address the medical liability of physicians practicing telehealth or to adress much-discussed privacy issues. The existing laws in those domains are already robust enough to operate without much difficulty in the context of telehealth too.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.156-165
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• 2021

Background: This study aimed to determine: the perspectives of the patient cohort that underwent telehealth consultation and shoulder rehabilitation during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the differences in the patients' perspectives with the two different telehealth video applications (apps) used in the study. Methods: This is a prospective study carried out during the COVID lockdown period of April to July 2020. Thirty consecutive patients from the orthopedics department of a tertiary institute in India underwent their first-ever session of a video app-based (Zoom or WhatsApp) telehealth consultation with shoulder rehabilitation exercises on a handheld mobile, tablet, or laptop device. After the virtual consultation, the patients were sent a validated telehealth usability questionnaire (TUQ) to evaluate their perspectives. Scores obtained from the TUQ were the primary outcome measure. Results: The study was completed by 30 patients (16 men and 14 women) with an average age of 56 years (range, 20-77 years). The patients who contacted us during the lockdown period with either a stiff shoulder or a conservatively treated shoulder fracture were included in the study. The average TUQ score was 13.6 (median, 14.5; range, 6-21) out of a maximum of 21 points. Eighty percent of the patients were satisfied and found the telehealth service useful. Use of the Zoom app scored significantly higher (median, 17; average, 15.6) than the WhatsApp app (median, 8.5; average, 9.6) (p=0.004). Conclusions: Patients who received telehealth consultation and shoulder rehabilitation were overall satisfied. Telehealth apps with advanced video calling features such as Zoom should be preferred for higher patient satisfaction.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.7-20
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• 2022

Objective : This study aims to identify international academic trends regarding the effectiveness of telehealth for the elderly through bibliographic analysis and to secure the foundation for providing basic data and subsequent research to promote domestic research. Methods : This study collected bibliographic information on the effectiveness of telehealth for the elderly published in international academia from January 2010 to December 2020 and analyzed and visualized the relationships between information using VOS viewer software (version 1.6.16, CWTS, Netherlands, 2020). Results : First, the research trend analysis shows a 678% increase in the number of papers published over the past 10 years. Most of the research was conducted in 145 (45.89%) Health care science services, and the most papers were published in 39 Telemedicine and e-Health journals (9.11%). Second, the network analysis showed that Oxford University had a total of 168 connections in other countries and institutions in the U.K, indicating the strongest influence in international academic societies. Third, as a result of the keyword analysis, 'older adults (64 times)', 'care (62 times)', 'health (50 times)', 'technology (40 times)', and 'outcomes (41 times)' were used in the study. Conclusion : In this study, the trends and topics of international academia on the effectiveness of telehealth for the elderly were analyzed to form the basis for research activities and the institutional implementation of telehealth for the elderly in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2012

We investigated the latest trend of u-Health and relations with clinical technologist. Since 2000, Korea has become an aging society. Korea will become an aged society by 2018, and it is expected to enter the ultra-high aged society by 2026. Increase in over 65 years population means that the desire of medical service and care demand for the elderly is greatly required. In addition, many predicted Korean national health insurance would falter financially. Medical suppression policies and regulations are also amended continuously. U-Health based on the IT industry and development of related technologies and industries contains the variety concepts of telemedicine, telehealth, e-health, u-healthcare and POCT. Especially, the use of POCT supplied quick clinical examination is extending steadily in medical center and hospital, which will generate the field friction between nurses and medical technologists. In the transition situation from provider-centric service to consumer-driven health care system, this study recommended the principal role and correspondence of clinical laboratory workers and offered information about changes in healthcare market and the basic concept of expert system, measurement and the diagnosis principle to clinical technicians throughout the investigation of the recent research and government policy trends.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.123-131
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• 2015

With a prospective of rapid deployment of IOT, a systematic approach to derive a business strategy for various possible scenarios of IOT applications is in great demand. In this paper, a conceptual framework that can be utilized for the purpose of assessing the market potential and of setting up an initial business strategy for IOT deployment is suggested. The framework consists of utilization of well-known value curve analysis, ecosystem analysis and house of quality tools. The value curve analysis is utilized to identify value-enhancing components of consumers as well as relative strengths of suppliers. The ecosystem analysis is used to identify relevant players of the supply chain and their mutual relationships. The house of quality is suitable for developing the initial business strategy of the supplier by converting consumer requirements identified by value curve analysis into technical requirements for the supplier. In this paper, we applied our proposed framework to two services that have high potentiality of being benefited by IOT: car-sharing service and telehealth service.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.69-90
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the service attributes and consumer reactions of telemedicine apps in South Korea and visualize their differentiation by constructing positioning maps. We crawled 23,219 user reviews of 6 major telemedicine apps in Korea from the Google Play store. Topics were derived by BERTopic modeling, and sentiment scores for each topic were calculated through KoBERT sentiment analysis. As a result, five service characteristics in the application attribute category and three in the medical service category were derived. Based on this, a two-dimensional positioning map was constructed through principal component analysis. This study proposes an objective service evaluation method based on text mining, which has implications. In sum, this study combines empirical statistical methods and text mining techniques based on user review texts of telemedicine apps. It presents a system of service attribute elicitation, sentiment analysis, and product positioning. This can serve as an effective way to objectively diagnose the service quality and consumer responses of telemedicine applications.

• 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 Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2024

PURPOSE: This study examined the status and prospects of telerehabilitation to identify the challenges and propose strategies for its promotion both domestically and internationally. The study also focused on the preconditions and improvements required for adopting telerehabilitation, considering technological, institutional, and socio-cultural factors. METHODS: A thorough database search was conducted. The relevant research, papers, and reports were collected, and the literature was evaluated to summarize the findings. RESULTS: Tele-rehabilitation showed promise in enhancing the healthcare service quality and accessibility. However, addressing challenges requires a comprehensive analysis of its status, global research trends, and the formulation of adoption strategies. Research in this direction is expected to improve healthcare services. CONCLUSION: Tele-rehabilitation can enhance healthcare services by overcoming geographical limitations. On the other hand, addressing challenges through analysis and strategic planning is essential for its effective adoption and advancing healthcare quality and accessibility.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.154-159
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• 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has profoundly impacted all aspects of undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education. Only the focus of medical education-care for patients and communities-has remained an integral part of all of the above sectors. Several challenges have been experienced by learners and educators as the education and training of future doctors has continued in the midst of this crisis, including the cancellation of face-to-face classes and training, reduced patient encounter opportunities, fairness issues in online assessments, disruption of patient interview-based exams, reflections on the role of doctors in society, and mental health-related problems linked to isolation and concerns about infection. In response to these disruptions, educators and institutions have rapidly deployed educational innovations. Schools have adopted educational strategies to overcome these challenges by implementing novel education delivery methods in an online format, providing clinical experiences through simulation or telehealth methods, introducing online assessment tools with formative purposes, encouraging learners' involvement in nonclinical activities such as community service, and making available resources and programs to sustain learners' mental health and wellness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and institutions have faced drastic changes in medical education worldwide. At the same time, the quantitative expansion of online education has caused other problems, such as the lack of human collaboration. The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical education need to be studied further.