• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.61-70
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• 2021

Purpose: The study aims at identifying patient-related and environmental factors associated with an increased risk of falling and, therefore, both caregivers and designers can be aware of fall risk factors and can contribute to prevent inpatient falls in their own areas of expertise. Methods: A case-control study has been conducted, utilizing patient data and physical environmental data in the unit of General Medicine in the United States. The case-control study investigated data about patients who had suffered falls as well as patients with similar characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and diagnosis) who did not suffer falls. Results: The study identified both patient-related and physical environmental factors associated with inpatient falls. Morse fall risk score, patient visibility, and patient accessibilityB were identified as significant predictors to inpatient falls, when controlling for other significant variables. Implications: The findings of the study can provide implications to both caregivers and healthcare and hospital environment designers. Caregivers should give special attention to patients with high Morse Fall Risk Scores to prevent inpatient falls. Designers also need to examine and to fine-tune the unit layout of inpatient care units to maximize each patient room's patient visibility from the rest of the unit and patient accessibilityB from working areas of nurses.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2023

Objectives: Discussions regarding "medical blind spots" in Korea's "aging society" are continuously rising. In addition, the demand for medical attention and care for the elderly and vulnerable populations continues to increase. Given this, the government is promoting the "home healthcare service" project. This study aims to lay the foundation for promoting this project by investigating the perception of clinical Korean Medicine (KM) doctors in the "community health care" project. Methods: With the cooperation of the Association of Korean Medicine, we sent a questionnaire to all KM doctors through e-mail. The survey included personal information, awareness, appropriate disease and intervention, proper visit location, and pros and cons. Results: A total of 602 responses were collected and analyzed. Approximately 20% of the doctors answered that they were well aware of the service, while 55% responded that they did not know about it. For a visit, a KM doctor selected the appropriate diseases in the order of stroke, dementia and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, and chronic diseases. Among treatments, acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal medicine exhibited similar results. The most common opinion was that KM doctors should schedule their visits once a week for 6-12 months, which was the most prolonged period among the given options. More than 80% (84.1%) of the doctors replied that care projects were highly essential, and about 63.8% expressed their willingness to participate in these projects. Conclusion: To provide appropriate home health care, we must raise awareness among Korean medicine doctors. In addition, the healthcare budget must be increased to provide the required support.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.65-91
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• 2014

Our study adopted ELM (Elaboration Likelihood Model) to measure the impact of central and peripheral cues on e-healthcare website behavior and its consequence on perceived loyalty of users. While most of ELM studies did not elaborate the antecedent of both central and peripheral cues, we measured the antecedents of those information processing routes to clarify how technical and quality factors (i.e. information organization, security concern, and website attractiveness) develop the nature of either central or peripheral route. We found that information organization was the main antecedent of information quality presented on the website. Second, the results revealed that website security has a positive effect on website credibility. Third, we also found that website attractiveness was positively associated with website credibility. Fourth, consistent with elaboration likelihood model, the empirical findings suggested that information quality (central cue) and website credibility (peripheral cue) were strong predictors of behavior intention to use health website. Our findings also suggested that behavior intention to use health website significantly influenced perceived loyalty.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.17-27
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• 2012

Purpose: This research was for understanding the attitudinal difference by gender towards emotional design through questionnaire survey with female and male inpatients on environmental characteristics of wards in general hospitals. Methods: The survey was conducted by questioning inpatients at two general hospitals on the importance rating on emotional design elements of patient rooms, lounges, and hallways. Eighty questionnaires were returned and used for data analyses through SPSS windows version 15.0 statistic package program. Results: 1) In general, female patients considered emotional design of wards as more important than male patients and the most outstanding difference was indicated for patient rooms among patient rooms, lounges, and hallways. For patient rooms the comfortability index was rated as the most important to both female and male inpatient groups, and for lounges and hallways the safety index was evaluated as the most important to both gender groups. 2)For lounges, while male patients rated 'prevention of infection' important among safety relating items, women considered 'accident prevention' more important. It is inferred that female patients have more safety needs and anxiety about physical injury or accidents than male ones do. Implications: It is considered that there need to be further succeeding in-depth studies, e.g. research interviews with inpatient;s family members or other caregivers as well as patients themselves.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.472-479
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• 2015

Few instruments are available to measure nurses' perceptions of cultural competence in South Korea. Furthermore, the equivalence of factors between original and translated instruments has not been evaluated. The specific aims of this study were to identify the validity and reliability of a Korean version of the Cultural Awareness Scale (K-CAS) and to evaluate the equivalence of factors between the original CAS and the K-CAS. A total of 515 nursing students completed the 26-item K-CAS, 28-item Caffrey Cultural Competence in Healthcare Scale (CCCHS), and eight-item Openness to Diversity and Challenge Scale (ODCS). The K-CAS exhibited good reliability (${\alpha}=.83$) and construct validity by correlating with the CCCHS (r=.344, p<.001) and ODCS (r=.394, p<.001). Confirmatory factor analysis results of the K-CAS confirmed the same factor structure as the original CAS. The K-CAS could be a useful tool to assess the concept of cultural competence among nursing students and nurses.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.669-676
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• 2019

Zanthoxylum piperitum D.C. (ZP) peels has been used as a natural spice and herb medicine for hypertension reduction, for strokes, and for its anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant activity. However, the anti-inflammatory mechanisms employed by ZP have yet to be completely understood. In this study, we elucidate the anti-inflammatory mechanism of ZP in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cells. We evaluated the effects of ZP in LPS-induced levels of inflammatory cytokines, prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂), and caspase-1 using ELISA. The expression levels of inflammatory-related genes, including cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), were assayed by Western blot analysis. We elucidated the effect of ZP on nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation by means of a luciferase activity assay. The findings of this study demonstrated that ZP inhibited the production of inflammatory cytokine and PGE₂ and inhibited the increased levels of COX-2 and iNOS caused by LPS. Additionally, we showed that the anti-inflammatory effect of ZP arises by suppressing the activation of NF-κB and caspase-1 in LPS- induced RAW264.7 cells. These results provide novel insights into the pharmacological actions of ZP as a potential candidate for development of new drugs to treat inflammatory diseases.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.171-188
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• 2003

This study, based on stages of behavioral change, was aimed at suggesting strategies for the adoption of moderate drinking habits for community-based health education designed to help rural people. An interview survey was conducted during the period from March 4 to April 5, 2002 by sampling 467 rural people living in 6 villages covered by a public healthcare clinic. The results of this study can be summarized as follows； 1. The perceived non-moderate drinkers were less prepared for behavioral change. 2. The heavier drinking habits were ‘drinking alone’, ‘meals accompanied by drinking’ and ‘drinking twice or more at a time’. The agricultural off-season and the custom of brewing liquor at home were negative environmental factors for moderate drinking. 3. The predisposing factors affecting moderate drinking were recognition of health, expectation of the drinking effect, etiquette encouraging overdrinking and control of drinking. The reinforcing factors were stress from ordinary life and perception of being loved. The enabling factor was accessibility to the public healthcare clinic. 4. Rural residents are less motivated to participate in health education for moderate drinking. Based on the above findings, health education strategies for each stage can be suggested as follows： 1) Pre-contemplation stage： improvement of perception, motivation, sharing of experiences, and reawakening. 2) Contemplation/preparation stag e： measurement of value, departure from the inertia against a change, formation of a habit, and reinforcement of the behavior. 3) Action/maintenance stage： creation of a social atmosphere, encouragement of participation, change of life style, and improvement of environment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2008

This study investigates economies of scale, cost complementarity and economies of scope for healthcare organizations using econometric approaches. The economies of scale appear to exist in each service provided by a hospital such as inpatient treatment services, outpatient treatment services, and other patient treatment services, respectively. When we test all services in aggregate level, it also indicates that the healthcare industry on average exhibits the economies of scale of 6 percent, which implies that scaling up hospital sizes will bring substantial cost savings to them Evidence shows that cost complementarity exists between outpatient services and other services for patients and, i.e., these other services for patients experience the reduction in marginal costs as the outputs of the outpatient services increase. For the economies of scope, they are present in most service areas; aggregate level services, outpatient services, and other services for patients, respectively. Inpatient treatment services, however, do not show any evidence of the economies of scope. Results show that the economies of scope are achieved by the general hospital type that provides all service areas such as inpatient treatments, outpatient treatments, and other services for patients. The existence of the economies of scope provides the rationale for extending the existing line of business in a hospital into more diverse areas of services where its benefit comes in the form of cost savings. In sum, it overall provides evidence that the M&As in this industry are encouraged to achieve cost reductions from the economies of scale and scope by changing the size and the output mix.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.372-380
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to develop the methods for evaluating the business value of a company's technical portfolios. In this study, technical portfolios of 10 major manufacturers and e-Biz industries are examined first from a business model perspective. Subsequently, we suggest future direction of R&D for the pharmaceutical industry by deducing the leading industries sharing similar traits with the pharmaceutical industry. Methods: In order to evaluate and analyze the patents of the major leading industries based on the constituents of a business model, the target patents were selected through the following procedure. Results: First, In this study, using the data obtained from the patent analysis, the differences in the technology portfolios of specific business entities based on the constituents of their business models. Second, deduced business rules of particular business entities through classification analysis and role-model of pharmaceutical industry Conclusion: If enterprise discovers technological change and characters of other enterprise or technology, enterprise could judge a direction of technology which will be developed in the near term and a plan which utilized existing technology to increase enterprise's profits.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.601-610
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• 2017

Purpose: Authors observe the digital twin enabled smart factory and/or digital manufacturing processes where Industry 4.0 technologies and quality management principles intersect. In this regard, this study reviews existing research regarding digital twins from the perspective of quality management. Methods: Initially, attention was given to how digital twins are manifested in the Industry 4.0 environment. Then, authors identify quality management elements amongst digital twin models, to align the concept of quality with the functional purpose of digital twins. After introducing specific examples of quality management tools applied to digital twins, the authors extend the domain of quality management into the analysis of multimedia format quality data obtained through machine vision. Results: Inspired by cases on the quality management application to digital twins, the authors suggest a framework for Industry 4.0 quality management. The envisioned suggested framework encompasses 4 dimensions, namely, 4M&1E, an application time window, new methodologies, and enabling technologies. Conclusion: Finally, the authors unfold the emerging trend of digital twin enabled smart factories, while emphasizing the necessity of quality management in conjunction with the introduction of digital twins.