• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.24-32
• /
• 2016

Objective: The visually impaired have limited access to health care services and related information, and thus, they can have serious hurdles against properly taking medications. Despite that it is important to improve self-care ability of the visually impaired for correct medication use, there have been few studies investigating their needs for health care services in Korea, particularly focusing on proper medication usage. This study is to explore safety-related issues regarding mediation usage among the visually impaired based on in-depth interview. We particularly focus on any obstacles for safe use of medicines including experience on medication-related adverse effects in order to provide preliminary evidence for policy measures to improve proper medication use among the visually impaired. Methods: Study sample was visually impaired individuals who resided in Seoul area and were registered in the National Association of Visually Impaired. The association helped the process of recruiting the study participants. In-depth interview for each study participants was conducted. Each interview was recorded and later converted into a written script to extract core contents for the analysis. Results: The study participants comprised of three women (42.9%) and four men (57.1%). One was in his 20's, and there were four participants in 30's and two in 40's. Fully impaired participants were majority (5 out of 7). Limitation to physical access to health care providers and health information were the key factors to hamper safe medication utilization among the study participants. Difficulty reading medication information and may take the wrong medication or incorrect doses of medication, resulting in serious consequences, including overdose or inadequate treatment of health problems. Visually impaired patients report increased anxiety related to medication management and must rely on others to obtain necessary drug information. Pharmacists have a unique opportunity to pursue accurate medication adherence in this special population. This article reviews literature illustrating how severe medication mismanagement can occur in the visually impaired elderly and presents resources and solutions for pharmacists to take a larger role in adherence management in this population. Conclusion: The visually impaired had difficulties reading medication information and identifying medicines, and took incorrect doses of medications. Public support for safe medication use and medication management among the visually impaired is necessary.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.63-83
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to serve as a basis for more efficient dental hygienist human resources utilization and for determining some of the right directions for supplementary education for dental hygienists, by examining how they actually worked and what they thought of job-related things. The subjects in this study were 537 dental hygienists who participated in a seminar by the Korea Dental Hygienist Association. After a survey was conducted, the following findings were given: 1. 50.2% of the dental hygienists investigated completed legally required eight-class education. Those who worked in clinics took less supplementary education classes than the others in the other types of dental institutions. The main reason they didn't receive supplementary education was financial burden and uncooperative employers. 73.2% took supplementary education at the association or its branches. The association was most favored by those in clinical sector as a place that provides supplementary education, followed by its branch and university in the order named. And the dental hygienists in public health sector preferred university most, and the next best favored one was the association and its branch in the order named. Those in clinical sector hoped to acquire clinical information on patient management, implant or aesthetics, and the dental hygienists in public health sector wanted to learn about health administration, public oral health operations and oral health education, which were different from what those in clinical sector wanted. 2. Regarding the period of service, 492% had worked for three years or more. This fact suggested that their service term and average age continued to grow. And they thought they would decide the retirement time on their own. 3. The most common yearly income ranged from 12 million won to 16 million won(40.7%). For-those in clinics, yearly income was 14.36 million won, and that of the dental hygienists who had worked for less than 3 years was 12.90 million won. 4. The Korea Dental Hygienist Association was most required to protect the rights and interests of the members and offer new knowledge and technology. 5. The largest group of them were engaged in patient management, and this type of job also was the most favored one for them to do. The greatest number of the dental hygienists in public health sector were in charge of dental treatment. 6. Concerning their turnover rate, 492% had never changed their occupation. Specifically, 70.0% of the respondents who had worked for less than 3 years had have no experience to do that. The time constraints for self-development and conflicts with other workers were the cause of their turnover. Those in dental hospital and general hospital changed their occupation chiefly due to the lack of time for self-development, and for the dental hygienists in clinics, the conflicts with other workers were the main reason. The above-mentioned findings suggested that the way the dental hygienists looked at things was undergoing change. The service area made a difference to their preference for the type of supplementary education and institution in charge of it, as those in public health and clinical sectors had a different opinion. And the dental hygienists in clinical sector had a different opinion as well, according to service area, about salaries, reason of not taking supplementary education, preferred type of supplementary education, cause of turnover, and type of occupation to which they hoped to change employment. To utilize and supply human resources in a more stabilized manner, job description should be more segmented, standardized and classified clearly, and dental hygienists should be motivated to perform their substantial jobs, including oral disease prevention, oral prophylaxis and oral health education. To make it happen, it seems that dentists are required to have a clear understanding of dental hygienist job and to change the way they look at it.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.555-578
• /
• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate which food items are perceived as HANSIK (Korean food) in Korea. 562 males and females aged 20-70 were surveyed on 512 most frequently consumed dish items from 4th Korean National Health and Nutrition Survey if they perceive it as HANSIK. Dish items in kimchi, namul sukchae (cooked and seasoned vegetable) and jeotgal (salt-fermented food) category showed high response rate to be perceived as HANSIK. The response rate of twigim (frying foods) as HANSIK was low showing less than 70%. The response rate as HANSIK for foreign origin foods such as ramen and jjajangmyeon (black bean paste noodle) were lower than 25%. In jang yangnyum (seasoning) category, doenjang (soybean paste) and gochujang (red pepper paste) showed high response rate as HANSIK more than 90%. Females showed a higher response rate as HANSIK than males for most food items except several items of myen mandu (noodle and dumpling). The younger age group had higher HANSIK perception on many items of recently consumed foods, especially budae-jjigae (spicy sausage stew) (p < 0.001) and jwipo-jorim (braised dried filefish) (p < 0.001), implying that they already accept the common foods as HANSIK regardless of the origin. These results provide an information on the foods perceived as HANSIK among currently consumed common foods in Korea and these results can be utilized for establishment of HANSIK concept reflecting transition of dietary life in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.27 no.12
• /
• pp.69-76
• /
• 2022

This paper proposes a method of refining and processing time-series data using Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-IV) v2.0 data. In addition, the significance of the processing method was validated through a machine learning-based pressure ulcer early warning system using a dataset processed based on the proposed method. The implemented system alerts medical staff in advance 12 and 24 hours before a lesion occurs. In conjunction with the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, it informs the medical staff of the risk of a patient's pressure ulcer development in real-time to support a clinical decision, and further, it enables the efficient allocation of medical resources. Among several machine learning models, the GRU model showed the best performance with AUROC of 0.831 for 12 hours and 0.822 for 24 hours.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1383-1388
• /
• 2012

Objectives: Regardless of its negative impact on quality of life, little is known about the importance of alopecia from the patients' perspective. This study aimed to explore the whole experience of chemotherapy-induced alopecia among Korean breast cancer patients including perception, attitudes, preparedness, and changes after alopecia. Methods: Patients expected to experience or had experienced alopecia were recruited at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed in 21 patients. Recurrent issues were identified and placed into thematic categories. Results: All patients think that appearance is important and they pay attention to how they look like. They had negative perceptions about alopecia. Patients were not well prepared for alopecia, and experienced substantial physical, psychological and social distress. Lack of information and limited social support combined with negative images of cancer made it difficult for patients to overcome the trauma and deterred them from usual daily activities resulting in poor quality of life. Conclusions: Patients were not well prepared for alopecia and negative perceptions, lack of preparedness, and limited social support and resources increased alopecia-related distress. Educational programs for preparing patients to cope with alopecia distress and advocate activities to change people's negative perception about alopecia are needed to reduce the burden imposed by alopecia in cancer patients.

• 대한핵의학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2002

Recurrence of colorectal cancer after apparently curative resection remains common, with reported relapse rates of up to 40%. Because complete resection of solitary metastases or local recurrence may improve long-term survival, surgical management of such cases has become increasingly aggressive but has led to only modest survival benefit. The limitations of current approaches based on structural imaging are well documented, with over half of the patients who are thought suitable for curative surgery being found to have unresectable disease at operation. Therefore, better preoperative assessment is crucial. The increasing use of FDG-PET as an oncologic staging investigation has significantly improved the assessment of patients with suspected colorectal cancer recurrence. Several studios show that substantial and largely appropriate changes in patient management occur, often soaring patients the significant morbidity and mortality associated with aggressive but futile therapies while also saving scarce community resources. Nevertheless, the clinical relevance of these findings has still been questioned. The utility of PET in routine clinical practice will likely depend on its ability to provide incremental information compared with CT in selected patients rather than to serve as a replacement for CT. In conclusion, in patients with suspected recurrent or metastatic colorectal carcinoma, FDG-PET should be performed (1) when there is rising carcinoembryonic antigen levels in the absence of a known source, (2) to increase the specificity of structural imaging when there is an equivocal lesion, and (3) as a screening method for the entire body in the preoperative staging before curative resection of recurrent disease.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.288-302
• /
• 2022

Objective: Community pharmacists are frontline health care providers, but have been considered as underutilized professionals on a daily basis. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community pharmacy services and to evaluate new services that could be applicable. Methods: We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for studies published up to January 10, 2020. Search terms consisted of keywords relevant to this review, including "COVID-19", "community pharmacy", and "community pharmacist". This review targeted studies of pharmacist services provided by community pharmacies in OECD member countries during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Results: Twenty-seven studies were included in this review. Changes in community pharmacist services due to the COVID-19 pandemic were broadly classified into four categories. First, as the face-to-face services became challenging, various non-face-to-face services were being tried. Second, community pharmacists directly participated in the services to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Third, community pharmacists made efforts to support continuity of care for patients who experienced difficulties due to the reduced professional care as health and medical resources are concentrated in response to COVID-19. Fourth, community pharmacist services were emerging, targeting patients suffering from greater health inequality during the pandemic. Patients expressed high demand and satisfaction for the service of the community pharmacist, and pharmacists reported self-efficacy and professional pride. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, various community pharmacist services have been tried and received positive evaluations from patients in several OECD countries.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.220-227
• /
• 2012

Kidney and liver are the major organs of metabolism and excretion of drugs. Renal and Hepatic impairment may affect the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and the safety of drugs. Adjusting the dosage based on organ function is the essential role of pharmacists. However, differences have been noted on the recommended dosage among the literatures. We compared and analyzed the recommendations of 4 literature sources which are commonly used for dosage adjustment. From April, 2011 to August, 2011, we selected data on recommendations for dosage adjustment for impaired renal and hepatic function of 100 drugs through a protocol. We analyzed the definition terms of renal and hepatic impairment, recommendations for dosage adjustment, evidenced references in four literature sources: Korean National Formulary (KNF), American Hospital Formulary System Drug Information (AHFS), Micromedex (MM) and Drug Prescribing of Renal Failure (DPRF). We further examined the data homogeneity by comparing how drugs that required no adjustment according to one source were categorized by the other. Sources use different definition terms among themselves except DRPF. Presence or absence of evidenced references about renal/hepatic functional states are KNF (0%/0%), AHFS (78%/62.6%), MM (87.5%/65.6%) and DPRF (93.2%/no recommendation) respectively. Recommendations of specific dosage and dosing interval are KNF (24%/13%), AHFS (39.6%/12.1%), MM (50%/17.7%), and DPRF (55.4%/no recommendation) respectively. Regarding the data homogeneity, the differences were remarkable. Drugs with no adjustment according to AHFS were categorized to be adjusted/ contraindicated by KNF, MM, DPRF and the values were (44%/5.6%), (22%/0%), and (36%/0%) in renal function, (39%/6.5%), (19%/3.2%), and (no recommendation/no recommendation) in hepatic function respectively. Our study shows remarkable definite variation in definitions and recommendations about definition terms, information of dosage and interval, presence or absence of evidenced references. Especially for KNF, quantitative recommendations on dosages and dosing intervals should be made in the near future. To maximize the drug effect and safety and to minimize the heterogeneity of the literature sources, reviewing at least two sources are suggested when recommending the proper dosage adjustment based on organ function.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.350-361
• /
• 2018

Hypercholesterolemia is one of the primary risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. The use of lactobacilli probiotics to reduce blood cholesterol levels have been extensively reported. However, more information is needed to evaluate the possible mechanisms involved and to identify possible targets for further therapeutic development. In this study, strains of lactobacilli were screened based on the ability to assimilate cholesterol, and prevention of cholesterol accumulation in hepatic (HepG2) and intestinal (HT-29) cells. Cell free supernatant (CFS) from Lactobacillus plantarum DR7 showed a higher ability to assimilate cholesterol, reduction in cholesterol accumulation in both HepG2 and HT-29 cells, accompanied by reduced mRNA expression of HMG-CoA reductase (HMGCR) in HepG2 (p<0.05), compared to other lactobacilli. The reduction of HMGCR expression was also diminished in the presence of an AMPK inhibitor (Compound C), suggesting that L. plantarum DR7 exerted its effect via the AMPK pathway, typically via the phosphorylation of AMPK instead of the AMPK mRNA expression in HepG2 (p<0.05). Altogether, our present study illustrated that lactobacilli could exert cholesterol lowering properties along the AMPK pathway, specifically via phosphorylation of AMPK that led to reduced expression of HMGCR.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.3
• /
• pp.75-85
• /
• 1996

Nursing Intervention Classification(NIC) includes the 433 intervention lists to standardize the nursing language. Efforts to standardize and classify nursing care are important because they make explicit what has previously been implicit, assumed and unknown. NIC is a standardized language of both nurse-initiated and physician-initiated nursing treatments. Each of the 433 interventions has a label, definition and set of activities that a nurse does to carry it out. It defines the interventions performed by all nurses no matter what their setting or specialty. Principles of label, definition and activity construction were established so there is consistency across the classification. NIC was developed for following reasons; 1. Standandization of the nomen clature of nursing treatments. 2. Expansion of nursing knowledge about the links between diagnoses, treatments and outcomes. 3. Devlopment of nursing and health care information systems. 4. Teaching decision making to nursing students. 5. Determination of the costs of service provided by nurses. 6. Planning for resources needed in nursing practice settings. 7. Language to communicate the unigue function of nursing. 8. Articulation with the classification systems of other health care providers. The process of NIC development ; 1. Develop implement and evaluate an expert review process to evaluate feedback on specific interventions in NIC and to refine the interventions and classification as feedback indicates. 2. Define and validate indirect care interventions. 3. Refine, validate and publish the taxonomic grouping for the interventions. 4. Translate the classification into a coding system that can be used for computerization for articulation with other classifications and for reimbursement. 5. Construct an electronic version of NIC to help agencies in corporate the classifiaction into nursing information systems. 6. Implement and evaluate the use of the classification in a nursing information system in five different agencies. 7. Establish mechanisms to build nursing knowledge through the analysis of electronically retrievable clinical data. 8. Publish a second edition of the nursing interventions classification with taxonomic groupings and results of field testing. It is suggested that the following researches are needed to develp NIC in Korea. 1. To idenilfy the intervention lists in Korea. 2. Nursing resources to perform the nursing interventions. 3. Comparative study between Korea and U.S.A. on NIC. 4. Linkage among nursing diagnosis, nursing interventions and nursing outcomes. 5. Linkage between NIC and other health care information systems. 6. determine nursing costs on NIC.