• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.16 no.7
• /
• pp.259-265
• /
• 2018

Compartment models, a type of mathematical model, have been widely applied to characterize the changes in a dynamic system with sequential events or processes, such as the spread of an epidemic disease. A compartment model comprises compartments, and the relations between compartments are depicted as boxes and arrows. This principle is similar to that of the system dynamics (SD) approach to constructing a simulation model with stocks and flows. In addition, both models are structured using differential equations. With this mutual and translatable principle, this study, in terms of SD, translates a reference SEIR model, which was developed in a recent study to characterize the transmission of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in South Korea. Compared to the replicated result of the reference SEIR model (Model 1), the translated SEIR model (Model 2) demonstrates the same simulation result (error=0). The results of this study provide insight into the application of SD relative to constructing an epidemic compartment model using schematization and differential equations. The translated SD artifact can be used as a reference model for other epidemic diseases.

• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.87-96
• /
• 2011

In 1967, the problem of occupational lead exposure came to public attention in Korea. Since then, regular progress has been made in lowering workplace lead exposures, instituting new workplace controls, and implementing health examinations of exposed workers. Past serious lead poisoning episodes made it possible to introduce biological monitoring programs on a voluntary basis in high-lead-exposure facilities in Korea. Industry-specific occupational health services for lead workers in Korea during the last 22 years can be categorized into three phases. During the first phase (1988-1993), efforts were directed at increasing awareness among workers about the hazards of lead exposure, biological monitoring of blood zinc protoporphyrin began, and a respiratory protection program was introduced. During the second phase (1994-1997), a computerized health management system for lead workers was developed, blood-lead measurement was added to biologic monitoring, and engineering controls were introduced in the workplace to lower air-lead levels to comply with air-lead regulations. Finally, during the third phase (1998-present), a new biomarker, bone-lead measurement by X-ray fluorescence, was introduced. Bone-lead measurement proved to be useful for assessing body burden and to demonstrate past lead exposure in retired workers. Occupational health service practice for lead workers, including the industry-specific group occupational health system, has brought considerable success in the prevention of lead poisoning and in reducing the lead burden in Korean lead workers during the last several decades. The successful achievement of prevention of lead poisoning in Korea was a result of the combined efforts of lead workers, employers, relevant government agencies, and academic institutes.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.307-318
• /
• 2011

Purpose: This study was to identify topics for evidence-based clinical nursing practice guidelines in Korea. Methods: Data were collected from 330 staff nurses from 10 general hospitals and 53 nurses in charge of nursing education in 110 hospitals with over 500 beds. Using open questions, the nurses identified activities which could not be verified, which lacked consistency among nurses, clinical units and/or hospitals, which were not based on the up-to-date knowledge and which needed reform. The data were analysed by content analysis using a qualitative methodology. Results: Collected data consisted of 1882 clinical topics, which were classified into 50 topics, 207 mid-categories, and 456 sub-categories. The most frequent topics in order of frequency were medications, central line management, intravenous injections, urinary catheterization, perioperative nursing care, skin tests, pressure ulcer care, blood transfusions, laboratory examination-culture, respiratory care which were performed routinely in clinical setting by staff nurses. Conclusion: The research findings indicate the urgent need to develop evidence-based clinical nursing practice guidelines related to these research findings. Further research is needed to identify topics related to health promotion, and symptom/management of health problem.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.508-517
• /
• 2021

Background: After the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in January 2020, Korea has experienced three waves in 2020. This study aimed to analyze changes in health care utilization according to the period of the 1st to 3rd waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We analyzed 3,354,469,401 national health insurance claims from 59,104 medical facilities between 2017 and 2020. Observed-to-expected ratios (O:E ratio) with data from 2017 to 2019 as expected values and data from 2020 as observed values were obtained to analyze changes in medical utilization. T-test was used to test whether the difference of observed and expected values was statistically significant. Results: In 2020, the O:E ratio was 0.894, indicating a decrease in health care utilization overall during the pandemic. The O:E ratio of the 1st wave was 0.832, which was lower than those of the second (0.886) and third (0.873) waves. Health care utilization decreased relatively more among outpatient, women, children and adolescents, and health insurance patients. And health care utilization decreased more in small medical facilities and in Daegu and Gyeongbuk during the first wave. During the pandemic, the O:E ratios of respiratory diseases were 0.486-0.694, while chronic diseases and mental diseases were more than 1.0. Conclusion: Health care utilization decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic overall, and there were differences by COVID-19 waves, and by the characteristics of patients and medical facilities. It is necessary to understand the cause of changes in health care utilization in order to cope with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.444-450
• /
• 2020

Background: In this study, we compared the incidents of humidifier disinfectants and incidents of mild hepatitis in Japan to highlight the differences in government response in the health care field in terms of "chain of responsibility". Methods: We examined whether the three mechanisms of action and the chain of responsibility hypothesis were applied to compare the cases of Korea and Japan. The incident of Japan occurred in 1987 in Misawa city, Aomori prefecture. In the 1990s, the safety of blood products increased dramatically. However, relief for infected victims was neglected. Green Cross did not notify the parties. In Korea, in the spring of 2011, a number of lung disease patients were accidentally admitted to a hospital in Seoul, and a female patient with respiratory failure symptoms expired. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted animal tests and the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued an order for forced collection of humidifier disinfectants. Results: In the case of Japan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare had to take responsibility for follow-up measures such as the investigation of the cause, so it was tied to a "chain of responsibility". However, in the case of Korea, the Ministry of Health and Welfare was free from the chain. Conclusion: Through the comparison between the cases of Japan and Korea, we confirmed that whether or not a government organization chooses to conceal responsibility depends on its past behavior, which is whether it is free from the chain of responsibility or not. Therefore, it was reaffirmed that an organization (ministry or department) free from the chain of responsibility must exist within the government.

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.173-178
• /
• 2018

In May 2015, the first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome occurred, leaving 186 patients, 38 deaths, and 16,693 quarantine patients. The government has carried out a monitoring of people in contact with the confirmed or suspected patients to prevent the spread of MERS infection. The management staff conducted monitoring of the quarantine subject twice a day during the 14-day period, to check compliance with isolation. However, as the number of people subject to isolation was increased explosively, such issues as the occurrence of residents occurred due to limitations of management personnel. Managers have also admitted that their home quarantine rules have become nominal when they checked the status of quarantine subject by using a call only two or three times a day, and that it is virtually impossible to control when the departees leave without permission. In this paper, home quarantine equipments and their means of authentication are proposed and verified. As a result of the verification, the proposed methods in this paper are expected to be used later as their own authentication method for home quarantine equipments.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.491-498
• /
• 2022

In our daily life, quality of sleeping is closely related to happiness index. Whether or not people perceive sleep disturbance as a chronic disease, people complain of many difficulties, and in their daily life, they often experience difficulty breathing during sleep. It is very important to automatically recognize breathing-related disorders during a sleep, but it is very difficult in reality. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a mobile-based non-contact sleeping monitoring for health management at home. Respiratory signals during the sleep are collected by using the sound sensor of the smartphone, the characteristics of the signals are extracted, and the frequency, amplitude, respiration rate, and pattern of respiration are analyzed. Although mobile health does not solve all problems, it aims at early detection and continuous management of individual health conditions, and shows the possibility of monitoring physiological data such as respiration during the sleep without additional sensors with a smartphone in the bedroom of an ordinary home.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.125-130
• /
• 2022

For the extended duration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, reports emerged that mother-to-child transmission rates were low. However, the pandemic protocols including strict isolation, testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and negative pressure isolation remained in Korea. Recently, the guideline for the management of neonates born to mothers with COVID-19 have been revised based on guidelines in other countries. Here, we introduce this newly developed guideline and review the foreign guidelines that were used for reference.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.131-151
• /
• 1992

The contents of prescription service were comparatively analysed between health centers(HC) and private clinics(PC). Medical chart review was done for 330 otu-patients diagnosed with upper respiratory tract infection(UR) of 120 adults and 90 children, and gastritis or duodenitis of 120 adults. Emphasis on comparison was the prime cost of medication which used in prescription service. The results were as follows; 1. The prime costs fro the medication per visit of HC group were significantly higher than PC group in all three diseases, and the out of pocket payments of patients per visit were significantly lower in the HC group than PC group. 2. The reason for high prime costs of medication per visit of HC in adult case of URI were due to the idverse use of medication and long prescription period per visit. And high medication costs in children cases of URI in HC group were due to the longer prescription day. In cases of gastritis, the prime cost of medication was also higher because of longer prescription period and the higher prime cost of medication. The proportions of medications for injection in the HC and PC groups showed similar features. 3. In depth analysis of the prescription services showed the differences of the contents of medication. In adults cases of URI, the averaged cost of oral medication was significantly lower in HC group, but that of medication for injection was higher in HC group. In children cases of URI, the averaged cost of oral medication and medication for injection was lower in HC group than in PC group. But in the cases of gastritis it was was higher in HC group than in PC group. The prescription periods were longer in HC group than in PC group in all three diseases. As a conclusion prime medication cost and quality of prescription services of HC group were higher than PC group. In terms of health care the cost containment and quality assurance in physician visit for common disease, public sector utilization is good option for those perspectives. But it should not be generalized unless future study about structure and outcome research for quality assurance.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2023

Purpose : Sleep disturbances in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are related to health problems after discharge. Therefore, active prevention and management are required. Hence, identification of the factors that affect sleep in patients who are critically ill is necessary. Methods : The PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases were searched. Selection criteria were observational and experimental studies that assessed sleep as an outcome, included adult patients admitted to the ICU, and published between November 2015 and April 2022. Results : A total of 21,136 articles were identified through search engines and manual searches, and 42 articles were selected. From these, 22 influencing factors and 11 interventions were identified. Individual factors included disease severity, age, pain, delirium, comorbidities, alcohol consumption, sex, sleep disturbance before hospitalization, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, and high diastolic blood pressure (DBP), low hemoglobin (Hb), and low respiratory rate (RR). Environmental factors included light level, noise level, and temperature. Furthermore, treatment-related factors included use of sedatives, melatonin administration, sleep management guidelines, ventilator application, nursing treatment, and length of ICU stay. Regarding sleep interventions, massage, eye mask and earplugs, quiet time and multicomponent protocols, aromatherapy, acupressure, sounds of the sea, adaptive intervention, circulation lighting, and single occupation in a room were identified. Conclusion : Based on these results, we propose the development and application of various interventions to improve sleep quality in patients who are critically ill.