• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.153-159
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• 2024

In X-ray projection, Unskilled radiologists become skilled through fail exam. This causes the patient to be exposed to unnecessary radiation. In this study, pre-position unskilled radiologic technologist presented ways to improve clinical proficiency. presented a skull lateral x-ray projection practice method using visual, spatial, and assistive devices. In addition, the accuracy and usefulness of the use of assistive devices were evaluated. When X-ray images were taken based on learning, the rotational spacing, which indicates image distortion, was 7.85 ± 1.45 mm and the tiliting spacing was 4.84 ± 0.5 mm. When practicing using visual aids, the rotational spacing is 4.4 ± 0.76 mm and the inclination spacing is 3.01 ± 0.87 mm. using a spatial compensation device, the rotational spacing is 5.2 ± 0.69 mm and the tiliting spacing is 3.33 ± 0.61 mm. Skull lateral X-ray Image distortion caused by empirical photography practice decreased by 5.4%, but image distortion caused by tilting increased by 1.2%. When practicing using a visual assistive devices, the degree of rotational spacing by 40.1% and the tiliting spacing decreased by 30.7% compared to the empirical x-ray exposure practice. When using spatial assistive devices, the rotation interval was reduced by 41.7% and the tilting interval by 23.7% compared to conventional empirical x-ray exposure practice. Therefore, if an unskilled radiologist practices using visual and spatial aids,the accuracy will be improved in skull lateral x-ray projection.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.162-166
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• 2006

Purpose : There are few reports in Korean literature on the diagnostic efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology(FNAC) for pediatric cervical lymphadenopathy. This study examined the diagnostic value of FNAC on cervical lymphadenopathy in children. Methods : Data from 57 pediatric patients(aged 0.3 to 14 years) who underwent FNAC due to cervical lymphadenopathy between January 2001 and March 2005 was reviewed retrospectively. Results : Reactive cervical lymphadenitis was the most common result of the FNAC(52.5 percent). Malignant disease were revealed in 14 percent of all cases. The sensitivity, specificity was 86 percent and 96 percent, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values for malignant disease was 75 percent and 98 percent, respectively. There were two false-positive cases on FNAC; one case of Langerhans cell histiocytosis, and another with infectious mononucleosis. A false-negative case on FNAC was found to be acute lymphocytic leukemia. In seven cases(12 percent), the final diagnosis was confirmed by an open biopsy after the FNAC. There were four FNAC cases where the specimen was not satisfactory for making a diagnosis(7 percent). There were no serious complications of the FNAC procedure. Conclusion : FNAC had a high diagnostic efficacy for evaluating children with cervical lymphadenopathy.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 2023

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the level of self-assessment of life satisfaction and various factors related to the life satisfaction of Korean physicians. Methods: This study is a secondary data analysis using the 2016 Korean physician survey Korean Physician Survey(KPS) data collected by the Research Institute for Healthcare Policy of the Korean Medical Association. The member database(DB) of the Korean Medical Association was used for sampling and the target population was formed and surveyed by using stratified quota sampling. A questionnaire was sent by E-mail as an online survey method and was conducted for a total of 7 weeks from November 21, 2016 to January 8, 2017. The final number of respondents was 8,564 (response rate 13.8%). In this study, a total of 7,228 physicians, excluding residents and public health doctors who are currently treating patients directly, were studied. Factors affecting the life satisfaction of physicians were analyzed using ordinal logistic regression analysis. Results: The physical factors positively related to the life satisfaction of physicians were those who were in their 60s, female, and thought they had good health status. As for psychological factors, stress was low. As for economic factors, satisfaction with income was high. As for social factors, the physicians lived with their families and were satisfied with the time they could spend with them. Also, the physicians were satisfied with the social respect they received as a doctors. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it is thought that a multifaceted approach is needed to increase the life satisfaction of physicians.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.120-128
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• 2024

From February to now 2024, there continues to be controversy over the expansion of admission number to medical school. Some of the controversy arises from a mix of present and future time points. In the present time point, the controversy over whether physicians are some shortages or not has various aspects. Some aspects are presented as evidence of the physician shortage and others as non-shortage. Also, the presenting evidence of shortage is being disputed, and so is the evidence of the contrary. This controversy over whether there is a shortage or not in the present time point makes it difficult to reach a consensus. In 10 years, the shortage of doctors will increase due to the rapid increase in the elderly population, so the admission number of medical schools will need to be increased. However, the increase must be such that there is minimal deterioration in the quality of medical education. More admission numbers should be allocated to medical schools with a high quality of medical education. This study suggests that large-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 20%-30%, and small-scale medical schools increase the admission number by 40%-50%, if so, the total increasing number is 760 to 1,066. If the 2,000-person increase is enforced, the quality of medical education must be carefully evaluated and the results should be reflected in adjusting the admission number of medical schools. In 20 years later, the admission number of medical schools will have to be reduced. This is because the physician supply is changing to a linear function and the physician demand (medical care demand) is changing to a quadratic function. Even if the current number is maintained, there will be an excess of doctors from 2048, so the medical school admission number must be reduced and its size will be reduced to about 2,000, a 30% reduction from the current number. Because the same reduction rate for all medical schools will result in many small-scale medical schools, the M&A (mergers and acquisitions) strategy should be considered with 40 medical schools and 12 Korean medical schools. In Korea, the main contributor to estimating physician demand is the change in population structure. Due to the rapid decrease in the total fertility rate, future population projections are uncertain. The recent rapid increase in healthcare utilization should be reexamined in the forecasting of physician demand. Since the various factors that affect the estimate of doctor supply and demand are unclear, the estimate of physician supply and demand must be continuously conducted every five years, and the Health Care Workforce Committee must be established and operated. The effects of increasing the admission number of medical schools should be evaluated and adjusted annually.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2004

Purpose: Population using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and the cost or it are increasing all over the world. In this study, we investigated the utilization state of CAM in the elderly people during the last 6 months of life. Methods: We found 4,210 persons in Seoul, older than 65 years who received a funeral subsidy from health insurance after death during the latter half of the year, 2001. We stratified them by age and gender and selected 301 persons and surveyed them by questionnaire. Results: 247 persons (83.1%) used at least one of CAM during their last 6 months of life. Diet and Nutrition remedy showed the highest utilatization rate (65.5%), and drug therapies also were much used (29.9%). Utilization rate was higher in female (60%) and according to the cause of death, the highest in a geriatric disease groups, and the lowest in the cancer group. Whole satisfaction to CAM was high with average 4.25 points out of total 6, and adverse effects were almost free with average 5.55 points out of total 6. Satisfaction was the highest in Diet and Nutrition remedy but the lowest in Manipulative and Body-Based methods. Adverse-effect score was best in Manipulative and Body-Based methods. According to age and the causative disease of death, there were significant differences in satisfaction and adverse effect levels. Conclusion: Majority of old people used at least one of CAM during their last 6months of life. Whole satisfaction and adverse-effect level were very excellent.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2003

In this paper, I proposed a classifier of liver cirrhotic step using T1-weighted MRI(magnetic resonance imaging) and hierarchical neural network. The data sets for classification of each stage, which were normal, 1type, 2type and 3type, were obtained in Pusan National University Hospital from June 2001 to december 2001. And the number of data was 46. We extracted liver region and nodule region from T1-weighted MR liver image. Then objective interpretation classifier of liver cirrhotic steps in T1-weighted MR liver images. Liver cirrhosis classifier implemented using hierarchical neural network which gray-level analysis and texture feature descriptors to distinguish normal liver and 3 types of liver cirrhosis. Then proposed Neural network classifier teamed through error back-propagation algorithm. A classifying result shows that recognition rate of normal is 100%, 1type is 82.3%, 2type is 86.7%, 3type is 83.7%. The recognition ratio very high, when compared between the result of obtained quantified data to that of doctors decision data and neural network classifier value. If enough data is offered and other parameter is considered, this paper according to we expected that neural network as well as human experts and could be useful as clinical decision support tool for liver cirrhosis patients.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.21-28
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• 2011

Recently medical and entertainment applications using conducting textile are suggested, but the data of conducting threads are not characterized, classified and verified. Only the data sheet published by manufacturing companies is available. Thus we need to verify the performances of the threading threads in communication. And we need a guideline if the existing communication protocols can be used for the conducting threads communication or the new specific communication protocols have to be developed for the communication. This paper classifies the characteristics of conducting threads made by domestic and overseas companies. Based on the criteria we classified conducting threads into three classes: class A, class B and class C. Further we carried out experiments to verify the adaptability of existing simple serial communication protocols such as RS232. Six different conducting threads are used in experiments and the length of each thread was 0.5m, 1m, 2m and 3m. The data transmission rate and error rate are collected and analyzed. RS485 is very prone to error due to static electricity from human and environment. So it may not be appropriate as long-distance communication protocol up to 12km which is possible in theory. RS232 shows stable and error-less data transmission ability even though every conducting thread didn’t show transmission capability over RS232. USB protocol shows high data rate transmission but the distance cannot be exceeded over 2m. Additionally, USB requires stable power supply. But if the power is supplied through conducting thread, its function is not.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.53-55
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• 2004

In emergency cases, such as the severe trauma involving the fracture of skull, spine, or cervical bone, from auto accident or a fall, and/or pneumothorax which can not be diagnosed exactly by the eye examination, it is necessary the radiological examination during transferring to the hospital for emergency care. The aim of this study was to design and evaluate the prototype of mobile medical image communication system based on CDMA 1X EVDO. The system consists of a laptop computer used as a transmit DICOM client, linked with cellular phone which support to the CDMA 1X EVDO communication service, and a receiving DICOM server installed in the hospital. The DR images were stored with DICOM format in the storage of transmit client. Those images were compressed into JPEG2000 format and transmitted from transmit client to the receiving server. All of those images were progressively transmitted to the receiving server and displayed on the server monitor. To evaluate the image quality, PSNR of compressed image was measured. Also, several field tests had been performed using commercial CDMA2000 1X-EVDO reverse link with the TCP/IP data segments. The test had been taken under several velocity of vehicle in seoul areas.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.142-149
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• 2014

Korea conducts a national health screening program to improve and check-up on public health and in recent years, the screening usage has been increased. Given the increased screening usage for radiographic exams, this study predicts the frequency of using radiographic exams and the exposure dose. This study estimates the usage of radiographic exams by isolating radiographic exams from the 2011 analysis of the national health insurance corporation, and estimates the public exposure dose by applying each procedure's dose table from UNSCEAR 2008. As a result of the analysis, in the 2011 National Health Screening, the average exposure dose per person is assumed to be 0.57 mSv, and depending on the type of screening program from the radiographic exam, an examinee could be exposed to between 0.2 mSv and 11.081 mSv. The frequency of using radiographic exposure was found to be 16,005,914 and the exposure dose was 6,311.76 person-Sv. The most frequent exam is the Chest X-ray, which was performed 1,070,567 (69.17%), and the UGI has the highest exposure dose at 5,217.94 person-Sv (82.67%). The outcome is categorized based on gender and age, excluding those under 39 years old. In all age groups, the screening usage and exposure dose are higher in females than in males. In particular, females between 50 and 54 years old have the highest screening usage (1,674,787, 10.5%) and exposure dose (701.59 person-Sv, 11.1%). As UGI accounts for 82.76% of procedures, except when done for medical purposes, if the government supports a voluntary UGI exam (which includes the UGI exam in the National Screening Program) or abolishes it completely, as seen overseas, the cost-effectiveness and validity of the UGI exam, as well as the exposure dose from the National Screening Program will all decrease significantly.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2014

Purpose: As PET-MRI which has excellent soft tissue contrast is developed as integration system, many researches about clinical application are being conducted by comparing with existing display equipments. Because PET-MRI is actively used for head and neck cancer diagnosis in our hospital, lymph node metastasis before the patient's surgery was diagnosed and clinical usefulness of head and neck cancer PET-MRI scan was evaluated using pathological opinions and idiopathy surrounding tissue metastasis evaluation method. Materials and Methods: Targeting 100 head and neck cancer patients in SNUH from January to August in 2013. $^{18}F-FDG$ (5.18 MBq/kg) was intravenous injected and after 60 min of rest, torso (body TIM coil, Vibe-Dixon) and dedication (head-neck TIM coil, UTE, Dotarem injection) scans were conducted using $Bio-graph^{TM}$ mMR 3T (SIEMENS, Munich). Data were reorganized using iterative reconstruction and lymph node metastasis was read with Syngo.Via workstation. Subsequently, pathological observations and diagnosis before-and-after surgery were examined with integrated medical information system (EMR, best-care) in SNUH. Patient's diagnostic information was entered in each category of $2{\times}2$ decision matrix and was classified into true positive (TP), true negative (TN), false positive (FP) and false negative (FN). Based on these classified test results, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, false negative and false positive rate were calculated. Results: In PET-MRI scan results of head and neck cancer patients, positive and negative cases of lymph node metastasis were 49 and 51 cases respectively and positive and negative lymph node metastasis through before-and-after surgery pathological results were 46 and 54 cases respectively. In both tests, TP which received positive lymph node metastasis were analyzed as 34 cases, FP which received positive lymph node metastasis in PET-MRI scan but received negative lymph node metastasis in pathological test were 4 cases, FN which received negative lymph node metastasis but received positive lymph node metastasis in pathological test was 1 case, and TN which received negative lymph node metastasis in both two tests were 50 cases. Based on these data, sensitivity in PET-MRI scan of head and neck cancer patient was identified to be 97.8%, specificity was 92.5%, accuracy was 95%, FN rate was 2.1% and FP rate was 7.00% respectively. Conclusion: PET-MRI which can apply the acquired functional information using high tissue contrast and various sequences was considered to be useful in determining the weapons before-and-after surgery in head and neck cancer diagnosis or in the evaluation of recurrence and remote detection of metastasis and uncertain idiopathy cervical lymph node metastasis. Additionally, clinical usefulness of PET-MRI through pathological test and integrated diagnosis and follow-up scan was considered to be sufficient as a standard diagnosis scan of head and neck cancer, and additional researches about the development of optimum MR sequence and clinical application are required.