• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.123-127
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• 2018

Graduate medical education is the most important phase among the three stages of medical education. It links basic medical education and continuing professional development. It is also a critical period in acquiring meaningful knowledge, skills and professionalism. The residents should be able to develop the core common competencies on top of their specialozeds field's expertise, in order to function as independent and qualified physicians. Despite the obvious importance of graduate medical education, the system in Korea has been designed and executed to meet the needs of the hospitals in the perspective of manpower management, rather than to educate and empower the residents. As a result, graduate medical education in Korea lacks clear educational objectives and systemic, resident-centered curriculums. Yet, we have no accreditation body to evaluate graduate medical education programs. In order to normalize graduate medical education, an integrated and unified institution that manages the whole process of the graduate medical education is desperately needed. Special attention should be given to the role of medical schools in educating the core common competencies. The Korean Association of Medical Colleges, the Korean Institute for Medical Education and Evaluation, and the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences should cooperate intimately to establish a new organization for the systemic management and development of graduate medical education.

• The Journal of Korea CHUNA Manual Medicine
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.111-120
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• 2001

We reviewed literatures of western and oriental medicine about postoperative management of spine. Traditionally, with orthoses and bed rest, many physicians restricted activity of daily life and back exercises of patients who had taken spine surgery. More aggressive early mobilization, however, such as strengthening exercise and stretching after 4 weeks of surgery gets grounds nowadays. Physical therapies including manipulation, TENS, MENS, ultrasound and cryotherapy are being used as helpful treatment modalities of postoperative pain and swelling. Failed back surgery syndrome occurs due to wrong patient, diagnosis and surgery and is managed with conservative treatment or reoperation. In oriental medicine, treatments of musculoskeletal injuries including surgical wound are based on the balance of chi(氣) and blood(血).

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2008

Unintentional injuries are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in the pediatric population, and the home is the most common site of injury for children in Korea. The most common cause of injury was slip down. Fall down and burn were frequent in infant/toddlers group, automobile and bicycle accident more frequent in preschool children. Findings from the survey could then be used to provide targets for direct educational efforts by medical services and to direct environmental safety modifications tailored to the unique situation of each family. Pediatric toxic ingestions are treated commonly by pediatricians and emergency physicians. Significant injury after these ingestions is infrequent, but identifying the dangerous ingestion is sometimes a difficult task. By performing a detailed history, focused physical examination, and directed laboratory evaluation, an estimation of risk can be developed. According to recent Korean poison papers, there were bimodal peak of age distribution in poisoned children patient on the whole: infant and adolescents group. Various types of materials belonged the classes of drugs, household products, and industrial solvents. Most of the poisoned children patients had been poisoned accidentally, while most cases of adolescents poisoning had been intentional. More than half of the adolescents group had a suicidal purpose in Korea, so an understanding of the demographic factors associated with self-harm poisoning may provide useful information to improve prevention and treatment strategies.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.22-24
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• 2022

Elapid snakes have neurotoxic venom which causes diverse neuroparalytic manifestations, including fatal respiratory failure. In South Korea, since elapid snakebites are very rare, the cobra antivenom, which is effective against neurotoxicity, was only introduced recently. Most physicians in South Korea have little experience in the treatment of patients who have been bitten by elapid snakes. A 19-year-old man was brought to the emergency department with sudden diplopia, 1 hour after a snakebite on the left 2nd finger. The patient presented with drowsiness and complained of mild dizziness and binocular diplopia. After 1 hour, he had sudden onset of dyspnea and dysphagia and appeared to be agitated. He was immediately intubated and received mechanical ventilation as he was unable to breathe on his own. A total of 2.5 mg of neostigmine diluted with normal saline was slowly infused, and 1 vial of cobra antivenom was infused for an hour, 5 times every 2 hours, for a total of 5 vials. He slowly recovered self-breathing; on the 3rd day of hospitalization, he showed tolerable breathing and was extubated. He was discharged without any neurological deficits or other complications.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.313-327
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• 2018

The prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is increasing in Korea, and physicians, including surgeons, have been focusing on its treatment. Indeed, in Korea, medical treatment using a proton pump inhibitor is the mainstream treatment for GERD, while awareness of surgical treatment is limited. Accordingly, to promote the understanding of surgical treatment for GERD, the Korean Anti-Reflux Surgery Study Group published the Evidence-Based Practice Guideline for the Surgical Treatment of GERD. The guideline consists of 2 sections: fundamental information such as the definition, symptoms, and diagnostic tools of GERD and a recommendation statement about its surgical treatment. The recommendations presented 5 debates regarding fundoplication: 1) comparison of the effectiveness of medical and surgical treatments, 2) effectiveness of surgical treatment in cases of refractory GERD, 3) effectiveness of surgical treatment of extraesophageal symptoms, 4) comparison of effectiveness between total and partial fundoplication, and 5) effectiveness of fundoplication in cases of hiatal hernia. The present guideline is the first to demonstrate the efficacy of the surgical treatment GERD in Korea.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2015

Background: Supplier induced demand (SID) indicates the case when doctors increase the demand of the patients, following their (physicians') own best interests rather than patients'. This may occur when asymmetry of information exists between suppliers and consumers. This study aims to confirm whether SID exists in the Korean setting, particularly by dividing SID into both 'induced demand effect' and 'availability effect.' Methods: Induced demand effect and availability effect are differentiated following Carlsen & Grytten's theoretical frame which divides doctor density regions into high and low ones. Results: Positive correlation between doctors' density and utilization of their services was found, which could be interpreted as 'availability effect.' Conclusion: The result suggests that additional medical use for additional doctor, particularly in the area of low doctor density, can be interpreted to occur to meet the basic medical need of the people rather than as a result of unnecessary induced demand. It is important to make more medical doctors provided and to distribute them appropriately across the region in such a country like Korea where doctor's density is relatively low.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.103-111
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• 2011

Objectives : The purpose of this report was to provide the information of activity and safety of galgeun-tang by analyzing domestic/international papers and theses about galgeun-tang. Methods : Domestic/international papers and theses related to galgeun-tang were reviewed and analyzed. These papers were then classified by efficacy, or clinical trials. Results : The basic pharmacological experiment showed antipyretic, analgesic and anti-virus and anti-oxidant efficacy of galgeun-tang. In the case report of galgeun-tang, it showed therapeutic effect for patient with chronic rhinitis. But administration of galgeun-tang induced pruritic eruption in the two case report as a side effects of galgeun-tang. Conclutions : galgeun-tang showed tantipyretic, analgesic and anti-virus and anti-oxidant efficacy in the basic pharmacological experiment. Also, galgeun-tang showed therapeutic effect for patient with chronic rhinitis. But it was reported that galgeun-tang induced pruritic eruption in two case report, so physicians should be aware of the potential side effects.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.176-180
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• 2018

Drug abuse and its related problems are increasing continuously in Korea. One of the most frequently abused drugs is methamphetamine, but there are few medical report in Korea. This is the first report of the identification of methamphetamine in the blood of a patient who had a return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest and survived discharge. A 33-year-old male arrived at the emergency department presenting with chest pain and dyspnea. He had ingested methamphetamine and alcohol approximately 7 hours before arrival. One hour after arrival, he had seizure followed by cardiac arrest. Spontaneous circulation was recovered after 4 minutes of CPR. An analysis of the National Forensic Service identified plasma methamphetamine with an estimated average concentration of plasma methamphetamine at the time of arrival of 0.6 mg/L, a lethal dose. He had rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury but survived after continuous renal replacement therapy. Since then, he has suffered chronic kidney disease, and he is being followed up at the out-patient department. In Korea, although drug abuse is still uncommon, it is on the increase. Therefore, emergency physicians should be aware of the clinical characteristics of methamphetamine poisoning.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.32-39
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• 2022

Background: Industrial accidents can determine the overall level and quality of the work environment in industries and companies that contribute to national economic development. Korea has transformed the country from an international aid recipient to a donor country, but it has ranked first among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries in the number of fatal industrial accidents. Little has been known about the policy effects in terms of the workers' insurance for their industrial accidents and rehabilitation. This study raises two research questions about the influence of workers' personal characteristics and vocational rehabilitation services on their return to workplaces. Methods: The study implements weighted logistic regression analysis using propensity score matching. This research utilizes the relevant dataset (3,924 persons) of Korea's industrial accident and insurance. Results: The findings show that the level of workers' awareness of health recovery and their counseling for rehabilitation by physicians had positive effects on their return to work. Environmental factors such as workers' job stability at the time of industrial accidents and the temporal effects of industrial accidents (e.g., the level of disability, their age) had negative impacts on their return to work. Conclusions: These findings have policy implications that the concentration of rehabilitation services for patients who have been mildly affected by industrial accidents would be effective in the short and medium term. The findings also highlight the necessity of ongoing policies about workers' vocational recovery with concrete evidence about policy impacts.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.296-310
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• 1998

Background : Performance evaluation of medical care providers has become more important than before in Korea. Especially in university hospitals, job contents of medical staffs are so complicated that evaluation is not easily performed. In addition, in order that the feedback of evaluation be successful, acceptance of staffs to be evaluated is essential. This study is aimed at the development of items for evaluation and weighting of each item in one university hospital, and clustering departments by different weight given by medical staffs. Methods : Through resource group meeting. performance items were listed up by categories of education, research, medical services, and other activities in and out of the hospital. For each item, all the medical staffs were asked how important they thought, compared with publishing one original article. By factor analysis, the items in each category were grouped into a few subgroups. In turn, cluster analysis was done for the purpose of grouping departments by priority the medical staffs gave. Results and Conclusion : Among five major categories, medical staffs regard education, research, and medical services more important than other activities in and out of the hospital. Five categories consisted of two or three components. Departments in hospital were grouped into three. However, characteristics of each group was not clearly delineated. This result suggests that more comprehensive tool should be developed and applied in the process of performance evaluation in university hospitals.