• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-58
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• 2024

It has become a general idea today that the characteristics of medicine should be considered as a basis when discussing a medical personnel's duty of care and whether or not it has been violated, and when discussing its duty of explanation and whether or not it has been fulfilled in medical practice. However, in the discussion of its characteristics, some shortcomings still exist, so the need for a re-discussion has been raised. Firstly, existing discussions on characteristics have failed to comprehensively grasp and explain the characteristics of medical practice. Secondly, in some researchers' arguments, there are discrepancies between the terms used to express characteristics and their conceptual definitions or content. Thirdly, the lack of exemplified cases that reflect the characteristics of medicine - especially Supreme Court precedents - has led some to think negatively about the recognition and reflection of certain characteristics. In my early writings, I have described five characteristics of medical practice: 'conflict in medical goals', 'initiating appropriate medical actions (progression of illness)', 'dynamics of medical intervention (diversity of symptoms)', 'diversity of medical effects', 'inherent risk of medical treatment (invasiveness)'. In this paper, keeping in mind the reasons for the need for reconsideration, I aim to analyze the characteristics of medicine in detail and cite key parts of representative Korean Supreme Court precedents that reflect each characteristic. The characteristics of medicine extracted from this paper are; There are ten factors, including the legitimacy of the essence of medical practice, timeliness of medical execution, dynamics of medical progress, diversity of medical effects, risk of medical invasion, non-uniformity of medical methods, limitations of medical capabilities, intervention of the medical subject, high degree of medical standards, and maldistribution of medical data.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.21-32
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to assess individual decisive factors for distribution of medical specialists in Korea. A data set was constructed using several published data sources. including the Korean Medical Association's physician master file as a principal source for physician information. Linear logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between the location of private specialist clinic for practice with six variables related with individual characteristics: age. sex. location of postgraduate training hospital. location of medical school graduated, size of hospital for training, and specialty. Analysis showed that location of practice. classified into urban and rural areas, was significantly associated with the variables of sex. location of postgraduate training hospital. location of medical school. In addition, significant association was found between the location of practice which was categorized into "near-Seoul area" and others, and sex, location of postgraduate training hospital. and location of medical school. We could conclude that to improve area maldistribution of physicians locations of hospitals for training and medical schools have to have the highest priority in the policymaking.icymaking.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.81-99
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• 1993

The purpose of this research is to assess the geographical distribution of physicians and dentists and the degree of maldistribution of the physician. Data were obtained form the Korean Medical Association's report on physicians registry and census for 1990. To assess the degree of disparity in the rural-urban distribution of physician manpower and to identify changes in the distribution pattern, the Gini index of concentration was used. Major findings are as follows; 1. Urban-rural disparity in the distribution of physician manpower exists in all categories of manpower, i.e. physician, dentist, oriental medical doctor, general practitioner, medical specialist, practitioner, public health physician and public health dentist. Urban area which had 74.4% of nation's population, accounted for over 90% of all physician manpower. 2. In terms of the ration of physician manpower per 10, 000 population, in urban area, they were 8.2 physicians, 2.7 general practitioners, 5.5 specialists, 3.0 practitioners, 1.8 dentists and 1.3 oriental medical doctors. In rural area, the ratios were 1.4 physicians, 0.6 general practitioners, 0.9 specialists, 1.0 practitioners, 0.4 dentists and 0.4 oriental medical doctors. 3. Gini indicies computed to measure inequality of physician manpower distribution were 0. 3675 for physicians, 0.3372 for general practitioners, 0.3338 for specialists, 0.2263 for practitioners, 0.3132 for dentists and 0.3293 for oriental medical doctors. 4. Inspite of increase in the number of physician manpower, urban concentration of physician manpower intensified from 1980 to 1990. However, the Gini index for all physician manpower fell by 18.3~36.7% from 1980 to 1990, indicating more even distribution. 5. In rural area, the public health physicians and dentists had increased the ratios of physicians, general practitioners, practitioners and dentists per 10, 000 population remarkebly, and had decreased the Gini indicies of physicians, general practitioners, practitioners and dentists. Thus, public health physicians and dentists contributed to improve the distribution of physician manpower in rural area. Based on the results of this study, long-term and rational manpower policies should be developed to solve the problem of geographical maldistribution of physician manpower as well as short-term policy for inducing physicians to the rural areas.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.27-64
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• 1988

Most hospital administrators in our country have doubted whether or not the size of their hospital personnel staffs, and the personnel management styles implemented are efficient or not. Actually, increased personnel expenditures due to sophisticated specialization of medical practices has become the biggest hospital expense. Therefore, it is said that hospitals can be run move efficiently by implementing reasonable management strategies for hospital personnel management. In this paper, the departments of diagnostic radiography in 16 general hospitals in Seoul, which were classified into 4 groups by the scale of hospital beds, were used as sample cases. Then, the data for the number of X-ray examination by diagnostic item was collected from sample hospitals. The unit hour spent on X-ray examinations in each diagnostic service was quoted from "A Study on setting-up of the relative value units of medical services and on the structure of current fee schedules" written by Mr. Ik Je Seong. The data analysis results are as follows; First, the number of hours per day spent on X-ray examinations in 13 hospitals out of 16 hospitals, was shorter than the general daily working hours (8 hours). Second, in the morning there was not enough time to work for X-ray examinations required, with the available manpower. In the afternoon, however, the situation was diametrically opposed to that in the morning. Third, in light of above results, though most hospitals employ sufficient personnel for the quantity of the actural work, they were always short-handed where their works were performed Fourth, this study tells us that there is a maldistribution of the work in the schedule : too much work for the available personnel in the morning. The following recommendations are resulted from the data analysis described above. First, it is recommended that all out-patients coming again, except specific patients(G. B. or I.V.P. etc) who have to have their X-ray examinations on an empty stomach in the morning among out-patients, be required to visit the hospital in the afternoon. Second, it is recommended that all new out-patients be required to make a reservation in order to equalize the number of patients throughout the day. Third, it is recommended that all in-patients, except specified patients, be arranged to have their X-ray examinations in the afternoon. Fourth, it is recommended that part time workers be employed during peak hours. This recommendation, if applied in a wider scale, would allow hospitals to overcome the problem of the maldistribution of work and personnel, and then more efficient hospital management through the appropirate personnel management procedures could be expected.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.219-227
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• 2001

Objectives : To understand the current status of the opening, closing and relocation of primary medical institutes in Korea and identify the underlying decision factors. Methods : Sources of analyzed data included the medical institutional master file at the National Health Insurance Corporation(1998, 2000) and Regional Statistic Annual Bulletins. To investigate changes including the opening, closing and relocation, a total of primary medicalinstitutions(16,757 in 1998, 19,267 in 2000) were analysed. Results : Between 1998 and 2000, there was a 15.0%(2,510) increase in the number of primary medical institutions and the rate of increase in the rural area was higher than the urban area, and higher for specialty clinics than primary practice. However, these findings did not suggestany improvement in the maldistribution of primary medical institutions. During the time period studied, newly opened and closed primary medical institutions numbered 4,085 and 1,573, respectively. Additionally, institutions thatrelocated numbered 2,729, or 16.3% of all primary medical institutions in operation in 1998. These openings and closings were more frequent among young doctors. As a result of our analysis on the underlying regional factors forrelocation, the factors that were statistically significant were local per capita tax burden and the number of schools per ten thousand persons. !n, the case of institutional factors, movements were significantly associated with gender and the location of primary medical institutions. Conclusions : In order to establish effective long-term intervention for primary medical institutions, further study and monitoring of primary medical institutions and the identification of factors influencing opening location and relocation is necessary.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.17-41
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• 1992

During the month of October, 1990, 676 practicing physicians in Taegu City were surveyed by mail questionnaires about their general characteristics and the reasons why they chose Taegu as a practice location and 331 out of them responded completely. Collected data were analyzed to provide basic reference data for future health manpower policy which intends to solve the problem of geographical maldistribution of physicians, The major findings are as follows: For the question asking why Taegu area is favored, following lists are as the order of their magnitude of the reasons replied by more than 20% of the respondents: 1) Taegu is a foundation of life until now(81.3%) 2) Better educational environments are available for their offsprings(73.7%) 3) They can have intimate relationship with acquaintances or friends sharing same or similar interests(61.0%) 4) Due to characteristics of their specialty, metropolitan seems to fit better(52.0%), 5) They graduated from the medical school in Taegu(49.8%) 6) Never thought of selecting practice location in other area than Taegu without any specific reasons(45.9%) 7) Intelligent communications are available with other physicians(39.9%) 8) More opportunities to participate in social life, such as medical, or alumni association etc., can be given(33.2%) 9) No specific knowledge or relationships with other area are available(32.6%) 10) They finished internship or residency training in Taegu area(31.4%) 11) Facilitation of transferring patients including emergent patients can be obtained (30.8%) 12) Continuing medical educational programs are available(29.9%) 13) Sufficient medical demands are provided because of the large population(28.1%) 14) More chances to be grown up as a medical professionals can be achieved(25.7%) 15) More leizure time can be utilized for cultural activities(23.9%) 16) They had experiences to work in hospitals or facilities in Taegu area(23.3%) 17) Medical facilities of fellow physicians or alumni can be used(20.5%) In addition, 37% of female physicians answered that their spouse strongly influenced them to choose Taegu, and 33.3% of physicians with age of thirty replied that parents did so. Physicians of specialty in radiology, clinical pathology, anatomical pathology, and anesthesiology considered that patients from other hospitals and medical facilities would be referred often to them and that less competition seemed to be expected in their specialty (30.8%). In contrast, general practitioners anticipated that larger population would increase the medical demand(62.5%). 28.6% of medical practitioners who graduated medical schools in other are than Taegu and 22.0% of medical practitioners who were trained in hospitals of other area than Taegu were influenced to choose Taegu by their spouses. In consideration of above findings, we may conclude that long term and rational manpower policies should be implemented to solve the problem of geographical maldistribution of physicians as well as short term physician-inducing policies, and they have to be incorporated with equitable community development.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2005

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between genetic studies on atopic dermatitis. sasang constitution, and sasang constitional study on atopic dermatitis. Methods: We retrieved data on PubMed for the papers of genetic study on atopic dermatitis. And for the papers on genetic study of sasang constitution and sasang constitional study of atopic dermatitis, we referred to papers have reported on domestic medical journal and domestic korean medicine journal. And we investigated correlations among the studies. Results: 1. There are two studies on genetic study on atopic dermatitis. One has been performed to find out genes related to atopic dermatitis by case-control study. The other has been to investigate the correlation between atopic dermatitis and the genes their functions were well-known. 2. Gene study on sasang constitution was performed to observe the distribution of the genes which is related with characteristics of sasang constitution, but there was no significant maldistribution of the genes. 3. There was no correlation between genetic study on atopic dermatitis and genetic study on sasang constitution. Conclusion & Discussion: In the Sasang constitutional study of atopic dermatitis, it seems that further studies on genes related to characteristics of skin, character affecting on behavior, and neurobiological difference among Sasang constitution are required as well as studies on distribution of genes related atopic dermatitis.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.20 no.2 s.22
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• pp.301-311
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• 1987

The purpose of this study is to analyze degree of geographic maldistribution of physicians and changes in the distributional pattern in Korea over the years 1980-1985. In assessing the degree of disparity in physician distribution and in identifying changes in the distributional pattern, the Gini index of concentration was used. The geographical units selected for computation of the Gini index in this analysis are districts (Gu), cities (Si), and counties (Gun). Locational data for 1980 and 1985 were obtained from the population census data in the Economic Planning Board and regular reports of physicians in the Korean Medical Association. The rates of physicians located counties to whole physicaians were 10.4% in 1980 and 9.6% in 1985. In term of the ratio of physicians per 100,000 population, rural area had 9.18 physicians in 1980 and 12.95 in 1985, 7.13 general practitioner in 1980 and 7.29 in 1955, and 2.05 specialists in 1980 and 5.66 in 1985. Only specialists of genral surgery and preventive medicine were distributed over 10% in county and distribution of every specialists except chest surgery in county increased in 1955, comparing with that rates of 1980. The Gini index computed to measure inequality of physician distribution in 1985 indicate as follows; physicians 0.3466, general practitioners 0.5479, and specialists 0.5092. But the Gini index for physicians and specialists fell -15.40% and -10.42% from 1980 to 1985, indication more even distribution. The changes in the Gini index over the period for specialists from 0.3639 to 0.4542 for districts, from 0.2510 to 0.1949 for cities, and 0.5303 to 0.5868 for counties indicate distributional change of 24.81%, -22.35%, and 10.65% respectively. The Gini indices for specialists of neuro-surgery, chest surgery, plastic surgery, ophthalmology, tuberculosis, preventive medicine, and anatomical pathology in 1985 were higher than Gini indices in 1980.