• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1078-1105
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• 2008

An empirical formula that has been empirically shown to be effective for a particular condition can be said to add medicinal materials to an existing formula or to make a new prescription by the Korean medical doctors' empirical clinic. This dissertation aims to study the prescriptions according to A Confidential Document of A Distinguished Medical Family written by the writer's ancestor and to contribute to the development of Korean medicine. A Confidential Document of A Distinguished Medical Family is a medicinal recipe that is an heirloom of the Gyeongju Kim family for the eighth generation. And the date and the writer of the book are unknown. The contents of the book consist of 18 parts and are made up of about 300 medical recipes. Of these, 158 formulas and indications of cold damage, wind, urination, stool, jaundice, and internal injury are found in the book. From among these, 61 formulas was directly quoted out of The Precious Mirror of Oriental Medicine, 97 formulas are adjusted in proportion or combined. By the parity of reasoning of the above, I think that this book was published after The Precious Mirror of Oriental Medicine. I will continue to study other formulas except the formulas above mentioned.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.165-174
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• 2021

Background In recent years, implant-based breast reconstruction has been performed because of its simplicity, short operation time, and rapid recovery of patients. Several studies have reported treatment methods for implant surgery-related infection, which is a serious complication. The aim of this study was to introduce our strategy for salvaging infected implants and to evaluate its effectiveness. Methods The authors performed a retrospective study of 145 cases from 132 patients who underwent implant-based breast reconstruction from January 2012 to December 2018. Empirical antibiotics were immediately administered to patients with suspected infections. The patients then underwent salvage treatment including appropriate antibiotics, ultrasonography-guided aspiration, debridement, antibiotic lavage, and implant exchange through a multidisciplinary approach. Patient demographics, operative data, duration until drain removal, adjuvant treatment, and complications were analyzed. Results The total infection rate was 5.5% (8/145). A longer indwelling catheter period and adjuvant treatment were significantly associated with infection. The salvage treatment showed a success rate of 87.5% (7/8). Seven patients who received early aggressive salvage treatment recovered from infection. One patient with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, who received salvage treatment 11 days after symptom onset, did not respond to drainage and antibiotic treatment. That patient subsequently underwent explantation. Conclusions In implant-based breast reconstruction, prevention of infection is of the utmost importance. However, if an infection is suspected, proactive empirical antibiotic therapy and collaboration with the necessary departments are required. Through a multidisciplinary approach and proactive early management, swift and appropriate salvage should be performed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 2005

Recently much attention has been paid to the effect of neighborhood characteristics on the health of individuals, independent of individual demographic and/or socioeconomic characteristics. Although many empirical studies of a kind, mostly based on Western society, have appeared on various international journals, few studies have shown empirical evidence of neighborhood characteristics as an independent and significant risk factor of ill health in Korea. This paper discusses possible reasons that neighborhood seems to be neither significant nor substantial regarding its impact on the health of Koreans. Addressing the uniqueness of Korean society regarding the concept of neighborhood, attributes of neighborhoods, and methodological challenges, authors suggest that more sophisticated conceptual and methodological approach, specific to Korean society, should enable to reveal the effect of neighborhood characteristics on individual health in Korea.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.147-158
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to review the empirical study results of conversion factors(unit prices) for relative values of health care services in the national health insurance system and establish optimal classification of health care institutions for feasible contract of conversion factors between National Health Insurance Corporation(NHIC) and provider groups, based on legal backgrounds and types of health care service delivery system. some empirical research evidences shows the validity of applying multiple conversion factors to annual contract for reimbursement in the national health insurance. Policy recommendations suggest that clinic, hospital, general hospital, tertiary hospital, dental clinic, oriental medical clinic, pharmacy, and public health centers would be a basic category of provider groups for a meaningful price contract between the NHIC and providers.

• Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.591-613
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• 2018

Chronic cough is common in the community and causes significant morbidity. Several factors may underlie this problem, but comorbid conditions located at sensory nerve endings that regulate the cough reflex, including rhinitis, rhinosinusitis, asthma, eosinophilic bronchitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease, are considered important. However, chronic cough is frequently non-specific and accompanied by not easily identifiable causes during the initial evaluation. Therefore, there are unmet needs for developing empirical treatment and practical diagnostic approaches that can be applied in primary clinics. Meanwhile, in referral clinics, a considerable proportion of adult patients with chronic cough are unexplained or refractory to conventional treatment. The present clinical practice guidelines aim to address major clinical questions regarding empirical treatment, practical diagnostic tools for non-specific chronic cough, and available therapeutic options for chronic wet cough in children and unexplained chronic cough in adults in Korea.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.80-89
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• 2021

Professional identity formation (PIF) is an essential concept in professional education. Many scholars have explored conceptual frameworks of PIF and conducted empirical studies to advance an understanding of the construct in medical education. Despite its importance, it is unclear what educational approaches and assessment practices are actually implemented in medical education settings. Therefore, we conducted a literature review of empirical studies reporting educational practices for medical learners' PIF. We searched the Web of Science database using keywords and chose 37 papers for analysis based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thematic analysis was conducted. Most empirical papers (92%) were from North America and Western Europe and used qualitative research methods, including mixed methods (99%). The papers reported the use of reflection activities and elective courses for specific purposes, such as art as an educational activity. Patient and healthcare experiences were also found to be a central theme in medical learners' PIF. Through an iterative analysis of the key themes that emerged from the PIF studies, we derived the following key concepts and implications: (1) the importance of creating informal and incidental learning environments, (2) ordinary yet authentic patient experiences, (3) a climate of psychosocial safety in a learning environment embracing individual learners' background and emotional development, and (4) the reconceptualization of PIF education and assessment. In conclusion, research on PIF should be diversified to include various cultural and social contexts. Theoretical frameworks should also be diversified and developed beyond Kegan's developmental framework to accommodate the nonlinear and dynamic nature of PIF.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.103-111
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• 2008

Recently, skin diagnosis has been suggested as a promising tool for discrimination of Sasang Constitution, reported by examining the skin characteristics such as thickness, stiffness, slip, and skin textures like wrinkles and furrows. However, the works had a limitation in that clinical decision on the skin characteristics was made by relying upon oriental medicine doctors' subjective sense of touch. In order to objectify the skin diagnosis and claim its efficacy on the discrimination of the Sasang Constitutions, it is necessary to demonstrate its discrimination capability by providing numerical values in terms of physical quantities obtained from measurements using today's sensors and equipment technologies, which motivated this work as a priliminary step towards objectification of skin diagnosis. The skin characteristics focused in this work is the slip property of the back-hand skin that has been exploited using the dynamic friction measurement system. First, curved geometric effects of the back-hand skin on the measured lateral/vertical force signals were estimated using the artificially designed silicon coated structures, which led to a suggestion on a quality controlled experimental design based upon a empirical analysis model. Second, the experimental design thus suggested has been applied to the measurement of dynamic friction coefficients for two healthy male subjects of Taeumin (TE) and Soyangin (SY), respectively. The result shows that the dynamic friction coefficient is less for the SY subject than for the TE subject around the area of the skin used for diagnosis by the oriental medicine doctor, implying the TE subject's skin is more slippery than the SE subject's that is consistent with the oriental medicine doctor's diagnosis. Hopefully, this work can provide guidelines for obtaining quality data in friction measurement to be collected for discussion on the efficacy of the skin diagnosis and its objectification through statistical analysis.

• The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2019

Objectives The authors feel the Qi(氣) through the training, and diagnose and treat our patients through the feeling. In order to utilize the Qi-daignosis, we try to summarize the authors's training process by examining what and how to use the Qi-daignosis. Methods The authors have gathered empirical parts of the psychological part and the various methods of training, through what they need most and how to train them. And we want to describe them in order of importance. Result First of all, with psychological sense of securit you should practice trainingy. It should be able to maintain the unity of the body through relaxation on the basis of 'no thinking only watching'. You must concentrate your energy through concentration and strengthen your inner work. Then you can feel the flow of energy inside your body and you can feel the interaction between the outside and your body. Conclusion By doing this, you naturally begin to apply the Qi-daignosis to your patients. It is not only possible for some doctors with specific abilities. Anyone can feel the Qi(氣) through clinical training and use the Qi-daignosis.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.179-194
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• 2011

Although there have been studies regarding the separating policy of dispensary and medical practice, little study have provided a concrete empirical evidence to what extent the policy objectives are achieved. In this paper, we try to provide empirical evidence whether the policy separating dispensary from medical practice achieved the policy objectives, which representatively are reducing the mis-use or over-use of anti-biotic prescriptions and medicines, and decreasing the government spending for the cost of pharmaceutical support. By comparing the average of the rate of change of the number of medicines prescribed, the rate of anti-biotics prescribed, and the government spending for the cost of pharmaceutical support between the areas where the separation policy was implemented and the exceptional areas, we concluded that it is difficult to conclude that the policy separating dispensary and medical practice achieved its policy objects, as it first announced to achieve in the introduction of the policy in 2000. However, the limitation of this study is that the data, that can thoroughly analyze the effect of separating policy of dispensary from medical practice, cannot be collected as expected. Hence, we could not use a parsimonious empirical model to evaluate the effect of the policy introduced in 2000. Rather we used a simple statistical method to extract enough empirical evidence fro m the data available. In the near future, we would expect to see more research that analyze the exact effect of policy separating dispensary and medical practice with concrete empirical model using more sophisticated dataset.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 2004

Purpose: To determine the efficacy of $Carnitil^{(R)}$ (acetylcarnitine, Hanmi, Korea) therapy in idiopathic oligoasthenospermic men. Materials and Methods: Forty-four subfertile men with abnormal semen parameters were treated between March, 2003 and March, 2004 with 3 g of $Carnitil^{(R)}$ daily for 3 months. Changes in semen parameters were evaluated 3 months after this therapy. Results: The mean age was 34.2 years and the mean follow-up duration was 3.7 months. In asthenospemic patients (n=28), semen analysis before and after $Carnitil^{(R)}$ treatment showed an increase in volume ($2.64{\pm}1.65\;ml$ vs. $3.10{\pm}1.60\;ml$), motility ($35.1{\pm}17.7%$ vs. $45.9{\pm}20.4%$) and viability ($51.4{\pm}20.3%$ vs. $59.3{\pm}13.6%$) respectively. In oligoasthenospermic patients (n=16), semen analysis before and after $Carnitil^{(R)}$ treatment showed an increase in sperm count ($10.7{\pm}54.4\;million/ml$ vs. $38.4{\pm}32.5\;million/ml$) respectively. Conclusions: These results suggested that in idiopathic oligoasthenospermic men the empirical medical therapy with acetylcarnitine may be considered as primary treatment.