• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.44-64
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• 2004

As of 1 July 2000 a big reform was introduced into the Korean health care system: the separation between prescribing and dispensing of drugs (SPD reform). There was, however, a big financial stake associated with pharmaceuticals, particularly before the reform, because physicians as well as pharmacists were allowed to purchase drugs at much lower costs than the insurance reimbursement. In this respect, this study focuses on the change in income and profit of both doctor's clinics and pharmacies after the reform. Data from National Health and Nutritional Survey by the ministry of health and welfare were used to estimate the income or expenditure that are financed by out-of-pocket payment of the patients, while national health insurance data etc. were used for the estimation of the income or expenditure that is financed by insurers. Average annual income per doctor's clinic increased from 299 million won to 338 million won for the three years between 1998 and 2001, whereas average annual income per pharmacy increased enormously from 60 million won to 305 million won for the same period. Average annual 'profit' increase per each doctor's clinic caused by the reform itself was estimated to range from 50 to 83 million won, while that per each pharmacy, from 23 to 87 million won. In sum, while both doctor's clinics and pharmacies are beneficiaries of the SPD reform, its positive impact is particularly prominent on the latter.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.711-718
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• 2001

The community based rehabilitation(CBR ) of public health center(PHC) has been considered as the one of the alternative medical services which is adequate to our realities. The purpose of this study is to serve basic data in order to strengthen the CBR of PHC. This study was investigated on 191 samples of 95 physical therapists, 35 physicians. and 61 nurses who work at PHC. Data were collected for 40 days from January 10 to February 20,2001. The results are as follows: First, the recognition level of CBR of sample specialists was very high as about 85% of the total number studied. Also the number of physical therapists at PHC, who had intention of participation to CBR, was very high as almost 92%. Second, specialists more than a half of sample group thought that two therapists and one assistance per one PHC were needed for serving with sufficient CBR services. finally, various additional strategies were proposed by sample specialists. in order to activate the CBR of PHC. it is necessary to enact the related laws. to stimulate teamworks between rehabilitation specialists, and to establish so called 'public health therapists'. Also we must reinforce the CBR instruction for PHC therapists and the education for health center officer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.699-700
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• 2014

The use of Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) in medical context enables not only drug identification, but also a rapid and precise identification of patients, physicians, nurses or any other healthcare giver. The combination of RFID tag identification with structured and secured Internet of Things (IoT) solutions enables ubiquitous and easy access to medical related records, while providing control and security to all interactions. This paper defines a basic security architecture, easily deployable on mobile platforms, which would allow to establish and manage a medication prescription service in mobility context making use of electronic Personal Health Records. This security architecture is aimed to be used with a mobile e-health application (m-health) through a simple and intuitive interface, supported by RFID technology. This architecture, able to support secured and authenticated interactions, will enable an easy deployment of m-health applications. The special case of drug administration and ubiquitous medication control system, along with the corresponding Internet of Things context, is presented.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.12-22
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• 2021

Backgrounds: Proper distribution and supply of physicians are factors that affect national health care systems. This study investigated the payment distribution levels and the determinants that influence the salary levels of hospital hired physicians. Methods: We analyzed 4,014 job advertisements posted on an internet invitation information site about physician recruitment from May 2016 to May 2019. We used univariate analysis to determine the relationship between average monthly salary and the other related variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of physician salary level. Results: The average monthly salary for the service physician was 15.4 million won, highest for orthopedic surgeons with 22.24 million won, and lowest for diagnostic laboratory physician with 11.4 million won. The factors significantly associated with average monthly salary were; non-major specialty, housing provision, no severance pay, and incentives(p<0.05). Non-major specialty, incentives, and the regions were predictors of the average standardized monthly salary(p<0.05). Conclusion: Factors associated with average monthly salary as revealed by this study were; medical specialty, hospital regional location, housing provision, payment of retirement allowance, and payment of other incentives respectively. However, this study was a cross-sectional study, and further studies will be required.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.283-287
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• 1998

Background: Recently, pain clinic is attracting attention and interest of both physicians and laymen. It is the purpose of this article to analyze our 10 years' experience to seek and improve better protocol of treating pain. Methods & Materials: We analyzed retrospectively 11,235 patients who visited the clinic during 10 years from 1986 to 1996. Total number of hospital visits was 51,908. Male to female ratio was 35：65(3910：7325). Treatment modalities employed were SGB(stellate ganglion block), TPI(trigger point injection), etc. Results: Yearly distribution showed a gradual upward curve until 1992 and remains in a horizontal pattern thereafter. Of age distribution, 6th decades occupied the largest proportion(27.29%). As of disease entities, Low back pain & lower extremities pain comprised of the majority(34.01%) and the epidural block was most frequently given as a treatment. Conclusion: Pain clinic is improving rapidly as an important part of medical science in Korea and outpatients of clinic are on an increasing trend. So, anesthesiologists should be make every efforts to research for treatment of good quality.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.507-511
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• 2001

Electrocardiograph(ECC), one of the major vital signals, is widely used in the hospitals to check a heart disease patient. In tole-medicine information system, If the ECC signal could be acquired at the patient's home and sent to the physician via telecommunication line, the number of visit to the hospital and medical expenses can be reduced dramatically. The tole-medicine information system proposed by this paper is designed to acquire patient's ECC signal by portable ECC terminal at his or her home and to send it to the hospital server via internet. For the mobility of physicians, the patient's real-time data ran be viewed at any internet connected computer as well as server connected terminal.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.214-217
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• 2013

Tetanus is a neurologic disorder caused by a tetanospasmin released from Clostridium tetani and usually occurs as a result of a dirty open wound or abrasion. Post traumatic tetanus is a life threatening disease and has a mortality rate of 15~39%. Because of a nationwide active immunization program, tetanus is a rare disease in Korea. Thus, many physicians have little experience with its diagnosis and management, and misdiagnosis and therapeutic delay may have catastrophic consequences. We report a case of tetanus that developed in a patient who had been diagnosed with a traumatic rectal rupture.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.353-355
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• 2012

We report here a case of inguinal sparganosis, initially regarded as myeloid sarcoma, diagnosed in a patient undergone allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation (HSCT). A 56-year-old male patient having myelodysplastic syndrome was treated with allogeneic HSCT after myeloablative conditioning regimen. At day 5 post-HSCT, the patient complained of a painless palpable mass on the left scrotum and inguinal area. Pelvic magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography revealed suspected myeloid sarcoma. Gun-biopsy was performed, and the result revealed eosinophilic infiltrations without malignancy. Subsequent serologic IgG antibody test was positive for sparganum. Excisional biopsy as a therapeutic diagnosis was done, and the diagnosis of sparganosis was confirmed eventually. This is the first report of sparganosis after allogeneic HSCT mimicking myeloid sarcoma, giving a lesson that the physicians have to consider the possibility of sparganosis in this clinical situation and perform adequate diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2021.05a
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• pp.144-146
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• 2021

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is one of the most dreadful lung diseases which effects the performance of the lung unpredictably. There is no any authentic natural history discovered yet pertaining to this disease and it has been very difficult for the physicians to diagnosis this disease. With the advent of Artificial intelligent and its related technologies this task has become a little bit easier. The aim of this paper is to develop and to explore the machine learning models for the prediction and diagnosis of this mysterious disease. For our study, we got IPF dataset from Haeundae Paik hospital consisting of 2425 patients. This dataset consists of 502 features. We applied different data preprocessing techniques for data cleaning while making the data fit for the machine learning implementation. After the preprocessing of the data, 18 features were selected for the experiment. In our experiment, we used different machine learning classifiers i.e., Multilayer perceptron (MLP), Support vector machine (SVM), and Random forest (RF). we compared the performance of each classifier. The experimental results showed that MLP outperformed all other compared models with 91.24% accuracy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.449-456
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• 2005

Objectives : The biosafety level (BSL) practiced in microbiology laboratories in Korea according to the laboratory biosafety manual published by the World Health Organization (WHO) was evaluated using the data obtained by a survey. Methods : Under the advise of Clinical Laboratory Physicians, 144 types of microorganisms were screened based on the guidelines of biosafety in microbiological and biomedical laboratories published by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and classified into 1-4 risk groups. A questionnaire containing 21 questions in 5 areas was developed using the biosafety manual by published WHO. Of the 1,876 different organizations sent the survey, 563 responded to the survey (response rate: 30.0%). The species of microoganisms handled by as well as the biosafety level in microbiology laboratories were analyzed. Results : There were 123 species of microorganisms handled in microbiology labs in Korea. The BSL required in 512 microbiology labs was answered by the survey responders as the first grade in 33 labs (6.4%), 2nd in 437 (85.4%), 3rd in 42 (8.2%), and 4th in none. The average number of items satisfied was 12.2, showing only a 57.9% satisfactory rate and normal distribution. Conclusions : The state of overall observance of BSL in most microbiology labs of Korea was evaluated as lagging compared with the standard set up by WHO. Therefore, the Korean government need to produce and distribute a biosafety manual in microbiology laboratories and make efforts to prevent this threat through measures such as training in biosafety in microbiology labs.