• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.205-212
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• 2010

The prescription sheets for outpatients from July 2008 to June 2009 from 7 community pharmacies in Ulsan City were surveyed for the anti-inflammatory drug (AID) prescription pattern. The AID prescription rate of pediatricians and ENT physicians were 30.0% and 34.8%, respectively. The oral steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (SAIDs) were prescribed as much as 3.9% by pediatricians and 10.3% by ENT physicians. The chiefly prescribed oral SAID was prednisolone in pediatric clinics and methylprednisolone in ENT clinics. Meanwhile the prescription rate of oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) was 22.5% by pediatricians and 21.4% in ENT physicians. The most favorable NSAIDs were propionate derivatives in both clinics. In case of externally-applied SAIDs, the prescription rate of pediatricians was 3.6% and that of ENT physicians was 2.8%. Among them, nasal spray, inhalant and gargle formulations for upper respiratory infection (URI) treatment occupied 35.8% of externally-applied SAIDs in pediatric clinics and 59.7% in ENT clinics. Further, it was observed that ENT physicians favored much stronger SAIDs in Group III of ATC classification (75.4% of externally-applied SAIDs) than pediatricians (49.2%). In the survey of AID combination rate, pediatric clinics showed much lower rate (1.4% of total AID prescriptions) than ENT clinics (7.5%). Among them, the combination rate of oral SAID and oral NSAID by ENT physicians (52.2% of total AID combinations) was much higher than pediatricians (36.6%), which might be over-prescription of AID agents. In conclusion, the AID prescription rate as well as AID combination rate, especially in SAID prescriptions, was much higher in ENT than pediatric clinics, which implies the higher confidency on AID drugs of ENT physicians even though the severity of patient's symptom could be considered.

• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제25권1호
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• pp.42-49
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• 2015

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the difference of perception on direct-to-consumer advertisement (DTCA) of prescription drugs between healthcare providers and consumers. Methods: The online and offline survey was conducted from May 26th to June 5th, 2013. The questionnaire was composed of 15 items about perception on DTCA of prescription drugs. Results: A total of 215 healthcare providers and 202 consumers responded to the questionnaire. Consumers had an overall positive attitude on permitting DTCA of prescription drugs and carried favorable views about the influence of the DTCA of prescription drugs on providing drug information, promoting communications between healthcare providers and consumers, and improving images of healthcare providers. Healthcare providers displayed negative perception for the needs of permitting the DTCA of prescription drugs compared to consumers. They showed somewhat skeptical perception about the influence of the DTCA of prescription drugs on necessities and efficiencies of delivering drug information, promoting communications between healthcare providers and consumers, and improving images of healthcare providers. Both healthcare providers and consumers were concerned about the increase of drug prices following the increase in advertisement expenses of pharmaceutical products. Conclusion: This study identified the perception differences on direct-to-consumer advertisements of prescription drugs between healthcare providers and consumers. This study could be of much help in the process of review on permitting DTCA of prescription drugs in Korea.

• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제29권1호
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• pp.25-32
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• 2019

Objective: South Korea made a list of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) for elderly patients in 2015 and has prompted medical professionals to prescribe proper medication by using the drug utilization review (DUR) system. It has been three years since the system was introduced, but related studies have rarely been conducted. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the DUR system on the prescription of PIMs for elderly patients. Methods: The data on the prescription of PIMs for elderly patients (${\geq}65$ years) who received medical treatment between March 1st and May 31st in 2015 (before introduction of the DUR system) and who received medical treatment between March 1st and May 31st in 2018 (after introduction of the DUR system) were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records. Results: The prescriptions of PIMs decreased from 3,716 (7.7%) to 3,857 (6.9%) (p < 0.001). The prescription of escitalopram and paroxetine, among selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, increased significantly, and that of short-acting benzodiazepines also increased significantly from 454 (0.93%) to 624 (1.2%). Conclusion: Prescription of PIMs for elderly patients significantly decreased (p < 0.001) after the DUR system was introduced. Further expanded studies of PIMs need to be conducted for the safety of elderly patients.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.579-596
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• 2012

The purpose of the study is to examine the use of medication among adults by comparing the pattern of outpatient prescription drug use with the pattern of long term taking lifestyle drug use. Furthermore, the study investigates factors associated with the use of medication, particularity focusing on socioeconomic factors. Korea Health Panel data of 2008 was used to conduct the study analysis. By performing four different logistic regression models, the study noticed different patterns of the medication use between prescription drugs and lifestyle drugs. More specifically, the study showed that adults with lower education level tend to more frequently receive prescriptions while adults with higher education as well as income level tend to more use lifestyle drugs than their counterparts. Furthermore, other control factors such as age and gender were statistically significant for the use of both prescription and lifestyle drugs in different patterns. The study findings expect that reimbursement structure of drugs may be significantly associated with the different patterns and accordingly the accessability of medicine in particularly vulnerable population. Therefore, these policy factors should be considered in future study to more comprehensively understand about the diverse patterns in the medication use.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.484-494
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• 2000

Objective : To evaluate the relative benefits and the costs associated with the introduction of the new pharmaceutical provision called 'Mandatory Prescription System' which separates the role of physicians from that of pharmacists with respect to the prescription and dispensation of from the perspective of consumers (i.e., patients). Methods : The costs of the system were measured by considering both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs included additional payments for ambulatory care and dispensing fees that occurred under the new system. indirect costs consisted of transportation expenses and costs related to time spent for physician consultation, waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, and extra traveling. Benefits identified in this study were the reduction of drug misuse and overuse, and the overall decrease in drug consumption among the Korean population. Sensitivity analysis was peformed for the inclusion of benefits for outpatients of hospitals, price elasticity, and increased fees for established patients. Results : The net benefit was estimated to be about minus 1,862 billion won and the benefit-cost ratio was 0.478. This indicates that the costs of 'Mandatory Prescription' outweigh its benefits, relative to the previous system. The sensitivity analysis results for all the variables considered in this study consistently showed the benefit-cost ratio to be less than 1. Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that implementing Mandatory Prescription System in Korea might be inefficient from the consumer's perspective. The results of this study do not coincide with the results of previous studies, presumably because of the differences in study design and in which items of costs and benefits were considered.

• 약학회지
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• 제58권4호
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• pp.262-267
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• 2014

Unused medication disposal is a burden due to the cost of disposing as well as the cost of the drugs. Investigating medication returns is expected to suggest areas of intervention to reduce unused medications. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine types, quantity, costs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and therapeutic category of the medications returned to community pharmacies. Method: From January 15, 2014 to February 28, 2014, the medications returned to the 17 community pharmacies in Gimhae, Jinju, and Incheon, Korea were examined. The pharmacists and student volunteers worked cooperatively to identify the medications and analyze drug cost of prescription pill medications returned to the pharmacies. Results: A total of 2,720 pills of prescription medication were analyzed and 91 active pharmaceutical ingredients were identified. According to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification, the most predominant group was A (alimentary tract and metabolism) with 33.3%, followed by N (nervous system) with 15.0%. With regard to the drug cost of groups, group A was the highest with 26.6%, followed by J01 (antibacterials for systemic use) with 20.2% and N (nervous system) with 18.3%. The total cost of the oral pill prescription medications was 468,477 won. Conclusion: The result from this study implies that unused drugs impose a significant cost to the health care system in Korea. In this study, medicines used to treat gastrointestinal conditions were returned most frequently with the highest drug cost. Further research in nationwide level is necessary to establish strategies to reduce the wastage of unused medicines.

• 한국학교ㆍ지역보건교육학회지
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.45-59
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• 2000

This study was designed to figure out current situation of use of non prescription drugs and psychological factors of high school girl students on drug use, and conducted from Nov. 1 through Nov. 20. 1998. 536 girl students were randomly selected for this study. Symptom Check list-90-Revision questionnaires used for interview. The data obtained were analyzed by SAS program. The results are as follows: 1. 94.8% of students had experiences of using more than one kind of drug; lenitive(57.8%), digestant(74.1%), remedy for colds(84.9%), antibiotic(9.3%), stimulant(3.2%) remedy for constipation(22.4%). 2. Students had experiences of using non prescription drug, lenitive(88.1%), digestant(91.7%), remedy for colds(57.4%), antibiotic(58.0%), stimulant(88.2%) remedy for constipation(88.3%) 3. 19.4% of students had experiences using drugs more than one time a week and 23.5% of students experienced tolerance, prescription group(11.1%) and non prescription group(88.9%) and 21.4% of students were keeping some medicine who experienced tolerance. 4. The scores of Symptom Check list-90-Revision of students' were higher than Kim's standard group and the psychological states were worse than Kim's standard group. 5. There were significant differences among groups(no use of drug, use of less than three kinds of drugs, use of more than three kinds of drugs) in Symptom Dimension without Paranoid Ideation and Phobic Anxiety and between using group and non using group of drug in Psychological factors on Drug use by lenitive, antibiotic, and stimulant.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.434-442
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• 2023

The relationship between acute kidney injury (AKI) prediction and nephrotoxic drugs, or drugs that adversely affect kidney function, is one that has yet to be explored in the critical care setting. One contributing factor to this gap in research is the limited investigation of drug modalities in the intensive care unit (ICU) context, due to the challenges of processing prescription data into the corresponding drug representations and a lack in the comprehensive understanding of these drug representations. This study addresses this gap by proposing a novel approach that leverages patient prescription data as a modality to improve existing models for AKI prediction. We base our research on Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, extracting the relevant patient prescription information and converting it into the selected drug representation for our research, the extended-connectivity fingerprint (ECFP). Furthermore, we adopt a unique multimodal approach, developing machine learning models and 1D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) applied to clinical drug representations, establishing a procedure which has not been used by any previous studies predicting AKI. The findings showcase a notable improvement in AKI prediction through the integration of drug embeddings and other patient cohort features. By using drug features represented as ECFP molecular fingerprints along with common cohort features such as demographics and lab test values, we achieved a considerable improvement in model performance for the AKI prediction task over the baseline model which does not include the drug representations as features, indicating that our distinct approach enhances existing baseline techniques and highlights the relevance of drug data in predicting AKI in the ICU setting.

• 한국임상약학회지
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• 제30권3호
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• pp.185-195
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• 2020

Objective: This study aimed to explore a veteran patients' behavior of prescribing drug use and of which influencing factors from the veteran patients' perspective through qualitative interviews. Methods: We recruited veteran patients through purposive sampling and interviewed 30 veteran patients aged 20 and over who had been taking prescription drugs. We developed and utilized an interview guide consisting of three themes for data collection. We made verbatim transcripts and analyzed data using the framework analysis. Results: Participants were aware that they had large amounts of prescribing medicines and discarded the medicines. They often used improperly by the person himself or his family or acquaintances. The factors that influenced these inefficient prescription drug usage were grouped into 'factors procuring more drugs than necessary' and 'factors being prescribed more drugs than necessary'. Anxiety about downgrading from the upper class to the lower among reward classes for veterans, and suspicion or dissatisfaction with the veteran policy caused the participants to procure more drugs than necessary. Additionally, they received too many medicines due to long-term prescriptions and lack of communication with their doctors, and poor quality of veteran health services. Conclusion: To improve the medication use behavior of veteran patients, providing information or introducing interventions for the proper medication use is not enough. Efforts should be made to improve their negative recognition over relevant policies and health care services.

• 대한한의학방제학회지
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.83-103
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• 2001

I studied conductant drug(使藥) in a prescription. As results of these studies, conductant drug(使藥) with meaning of medicinal guide(引經) were Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix(牛膝), Platycodi Radix(桔梗), Cinnabaris(朱砂), Sal Maritimus(食鹽), alcoholic drink(酒,) Cimicifugae Rhizoma(升麻) and Bupleuri Radix(柴胡). Conductant drugs with meaning of harmonizing medicines in a prescription were almost Glycyrrhizae Radix(甘草). And sometimes Mel(蜂蜜) was used with meaning of harmonizing medicines in pill. And Jujubae Fructus was used with meaning of harmonizing medicines in purgation medicines.