• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.205-218
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• 2014

Background: Most studies on the national health insurance benefit expansion policy have focused on policy tools or decision-making process. Hence there was not enough understanding on how policies are actually implemented within the specific policy context in Korea which has a national mandatory health insurance system with a dominant proportion of private providers. The main objectives of this study is to understand the implementation process of the benefit coverage expansion policy. Unlike other implementation studies, we tried to examine both the process of implementation and decision making and how they interact with each other. Methods: Interviews were conducted with the ex-members of the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee. Medical doctors who implement the policy at the 'street-level' were also interviewed. To figure out major variables and the degree of their influences, the data were analyzed with Winter's Policy Implementation Model which integrates the decision making and implementation phases. Results: As predicted by the Winter model, problems in the decision making phase, such as conflicts among the members of committee, lack of applicable causal theories application of highly symbolic activities, and limited attention of citizen to the issue are key variables that cause the 'implementation failure.' In the implementation phase, hospitals' own financial interests and practitioners' dependence on the hospitals' guidance were barriers to meeting the policy goals of providing a better coverage for patients. Patients, the target group, tend to prefer physicians who prescribe more treatment and medicine. To note, 'fixers' who can link and fill the gap between the decision-makers and implementers were not present. Conclusion: For achieving the policy goal of providing a better and more coverage to patients, the critical roles of medical providers as street-level implementers should be noted. Also decision making process of benefit package expansion policy should incorporate its influence on the implementation phase.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the data regarding questions raised by women with breast cancer through Internet counseling in Korea. Methods: The data were collected from one internet web-site, providing counseling by physicians. A total of 617 questions were analyzed by content analysis method. Results: About 90 percent of the counselees were patients themselves. But most of the general and health-related characteristics of them were not known from the data. As a result of content analysis, 617 questions were grouped into 9 major categories. The most common major category was identified as "life after treatment" (212 questions, 34.2%), followed by "chemotherapy" (139 questions, 22.3%) and "hormone therapy" (115 questions, 18.9%). Questions regarding "physical symptoms" were the most frequent one in the major categories of "life after treatment", "chemotherapy", and "radiotherapy", while questions regarding "psychological problems" were the least. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that it is important for health professionals to provide continuous on-line informational support to women with breast cancer, even after all the treatment is over, especially focusing on physical symptoms. In addition, off-line program needs to be reinforced to provide emotional support that is not well delivered by on-line program.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.222-235
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the reality, status of clinical nurses' emotional labor and the relationship with physical discomfort, burnout, depression and social support. Methods: A thousand three hundred sixteen clinical nurses from 42 hospitals nationwide participated in this study. Questionnaires were developed for evaluating the reality and status of emotional labor of clinical nurses after interviewing focus groups and reviewing literatures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: Ninety eight percent of nurses had answered having emotional labor and they experienced 82 times per year, 9.6 times during last a month which means they experience it every other day. The one who provoke emotional labor were patients, guardians, physicians, supervisor, and colleagues in sequence. Eighty percent of nurses had intention to leave their jobs after experiencing emotional labor. They were doing more surface acting than deep acting of emotional labor. Conclusion: Clinical nurses in Korea experienced excessively high level of emotional labor and delayed responding to clients' requests due to lack of time for caring each patient was revealed as one of the main causes of emotional labor.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.1321-1322
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• 2012

With the advance of Information Technology (IT) and dynamic requirements, diverse application services have been provided for end users. With huge volume of these services and information, users are required to acquire customized services that provide personalized information and decision at particular extent of time. The case is more appealing in healthcare, where patients wish to have access to their medical record where they have control and provided with recommendation on the medical information. PHR (Personal Health Record) is most prevailing initiative that gives secure access on patient record at anytime and anywhere. PHR should also incorporate decision support to help patients in self-management of their diseases. Available PHR system incorporates basic recommendations based on patient routine data. We have proposed decision support service called "Smart CDSS" that provides recommendations on PHR data for diabetic patients. Smart CDSS follows HL7 vMR (Virtual Medical Record) to help in integration with diverse application including PHR. PHR shares patient data with Smart CDSS through standard interfaces that pass through Adaptability Engine (AE). AE transforms the PHR CCR/CCD (Continuity of Care Record/Document) into standard HL7 vMR format. Smart CDSS produces recommendation on PHR datasets based on diabetic knowledge base represented in shareable HL7 Arden Syntax format. The Smart CDSS service is deployed on public cloud over MS Azure environment and PHR is maintaining on private cloud. The system has been evaluated for recommendation for 100 diabetic patients from Saint's Mary Hospital. The recommendations were compared with physicians' guidelines which complement the self-management of the patient.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2022

Purpose: Despite previous studies reporting the development of rhabdomyolysis (RM), this affliction tends to be neglected as an envenomation sign in South Korea. The current retrospective study investigates the prevalence and prognosis of RM after a snakebite. We further searched for predictors of snakebite-induced RM, which can be observed at presentation. Methods: This study included 231 patients who presented to the ED within 24 hours after a snakebite. The patients were classified according to the severity of RM, and the data, comprising baseline characteristics and clinical course including the level of creatine kinase (CK), were collected and compared according to the severity of RM. Results: The prevalence of RM and severe RM were determined to be 39% and 18.5%, respectively. Compared to the group without RM or with mild RM, the group with severe RM had a higher grade of local swelling, a higher frequency of acute kidney injury and neurotoxicity, and a greater need for renal replacement therapy and vasopressor administration. However, the incidence of acute renal injury in the RM group was 7.7%, with two patients needing renal replacement therapy. No mortalities were reported at discharge. Results of the multinomial logistic regression model revealed that the WBC levels are significantly associated with the risk of severe RM. Conclusion: RM should be considered the primary clinical sign of snake envenomation in South Korea, although it does not seem to worsen the clinical course. In particular, physicians should pay attention to patients who present with leukocytosis after a snakebite, which indicates the risk of developing RM, regardless of the CK level at presentation.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.70 no.3
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• pp.199-205
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• 2011

Social welfare services for respiratory-disabled persons in Korea are offered based on the respiratory impairment grade, which is determined by 3 clinical parameters; dyspnea, forced expiratory volume in 1 second ($FEV_1$), and arterial oxygen tension. This grading system has several limitations in the objective assessment of respiratory impairment. We reviewed several guidelines for the evaluation of respiratory impairment and relevant articles. Then, we discussed a new grading system with respiratory physicians. Both researchers and respiratory physicians agreed that pulmonary function tests are essential in assessing the severity of respiratory impairment, forced vital capacity (FVC), $FEV_1$ and single breath diffusing capacity ($DL_{co}$) are the primarily recommended tests. In addition, we agreed that arterial blood gas analysis should be reserved for selected patients. In conclusion, we propose a new respiratory impairment grading system utilizing a combination FVC, $FEV_1$ and $DL_{co}$ scores, with more social discussion included.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.88-94
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• 2009

Background: From November 2006, The national health insurance system in the Republic of Korea began to cover prescribed long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) in patients with chronic respiratory insufficiency. This study examined the current status of LTOT after national health insurance coverage. Methods: Between November 1, 2006 and June 30, 2008, the medical records of patients who were prescribed LTOT by chest physicians were reviewed. The data was collected from 13 university hospitals. Results: 197 patients (131 male and 66 female) were prescribed LTOT. The mean age was 64.3${\pm}$13.0 years. The most common underlying disease was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=103, 52.3%). Chest physicians prescribed LTOT using arterial blood gas analysis or a pulse oxymeter (74.6%), symptoms (14%), or a pulmonary function test (11.2%). The mean oxygen flow rate was 1.56${\pm}$0.68 L/min at rest, 2.08${\pm}$0.91 L/min during exercise or 1.51${\pm}$0.75 L/min during sleep. Most patients (98.3%) used oxygen concentrators. Only 19% of patients used ambulatory oxygen supplies. The oxygen saturation before and after LTOT was 83.18${\pm}$10.48% and 91.64${\pm}$7.1%, respectively. After LTOT, dyspnea improved in 81.2% of patients. The mean duration of LTOT was 16.85${\pm}$6.71 hours/day. The rental cost for the oxygen concentrator and related electricity charges were 48,414${\pm}$15,618 won/month and 40,352${\pm}$36,815 won/month, respectively. Approximately 75% of patients had a regular visit by the company. 5.8% of patients had personal pulse oxymetry. 54.9% of patients had their oxygen saturation checked on each visit hospital. 8% of patients were current smokers. The most common complaint with LTOT was the limitation of daily activity (53%). The most common complaint with oxygen concentrators was noise (41%). Conclusion: The patients showed good compliance with LTOT. However, only a few patients used an ambulatory oxygen device or had their oxygen saturation measured.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.120-129
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• 2015

Objectives: Drug utilization review program in Korea has provided 'drug combinations to avoid (DCA)' alerts to physicians and pharmacists to prevent potential adverse drug events or inappropriate drug use. Seven hundred and six DCA pairs have been announced officially by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) by March, 2015. Some DCA pairs could be grouped based on the drug interaction mechanism and its consequences. This study aimed to investigate the drug-drug interaction (DDI) pairs, which may be potential DCAs, generated by the drug class-drug class interaction method. Methods: Eleven additive/synergistic and one antagonistic drug class-drug class interaction groups were identified. By combining drugs of two interacting drug class groups, numerous DDI pairs were made. The status and severity of DDI pairs were examined using Lexicomp and Micromedex. Also, the DCA listing rate was calculated. Results: Among 258 DDI pairs generated by the drug class-drug class interaction method, only 142 pairs were identified as official DCA pairs by the MFDS. One hundred and four pairs were identified as potential DCA pairs to be listed. QT prolonging agents-QT prolonging agents, triptans-ergot alkaloids, tricyclic antidepressants-monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and dopamine agonists-dopamine antagonists were identified as drug class-drug class interaction groups which have less than 50 % DCA listing rate. Conclusion: To improve the clinicians' adaptability to DCA alerts, the list of DCA pairs needs to be continuously updated.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.512-520
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• 2016

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women, and lymphedema is one of the most common postoperative complications of breast surgery. Exercises are usually prescribed to prevent this occurrence. On the other hand, conflicting results regarding the effects and timing of such exercises have been reported. This study reviewed systematically the contemporary literature, peer-reviewed publications, and web sites of professional organizations that examined exercise for lymphedema prevention or therapy to determine the effects of exercise on lymphedema providing the best evidence for the treatment of patients. Exercise or training groups have strategies that appear to reduce the development of secondary lymphedema and altering its progression compared to the control group. Advances in cancer treatment, cancer and exercise research, and lymphedema management require physicians to have a basic understanding of the current evidence to provide the appropriate patient education and specialist referral.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among job stress, resilience and turn over intention of new graduate nurses in general hospital. Methods: A descriptive regression design was used and the participants were 90 new graduate nurses from one general hospital in S city. Data analysis included t-test, ANOVA, pearson's correlation and multiple regression. Results: There were significant correlations between conflict with physicians(r=.17, p=.049), problem relating to supervisors(r=.18, p=.040), discrimination(r=.18, p=.041), resilience(r=-.21, p=.023) and turnover intention. The regression model explained approximately 24.5 % of turnover intention. Conclusion: The findings suggest that nursing leaders have to reduce job stress and to improve resilience of new graduate nurses.