• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2011

Accuracy control of Linear accelerator installed in OBI is done daily and weekly and importance of accuracy multiplies exponentially at that moment. Purpose of this experiment is everyday and twice a week over a four month period (march~june) 2009 year to confirm maintenance of accuracy through Quality control of OBI. In short, measurement of exponentially multiplying accuracy of OBI and regular accuracy control was able to maintain accuracy from the center of treatment within 0.1 cm. Therefore, evaluation of exponentially multiplying accuracy using OBI accuracy control linear accelerator phantom on daily, weekly basis was confirmed.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.112-129
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• 1996

Background : A small number of high cost patients usually spend a larger proportion of scarce health resources. Aged, long-term care and readmitted patients usually belong to these high cost patient group. Among others, long length of stay and readmission can be reduced by checking its cause, and these are the areas needed most of quality improvement activity. Characteristics of high cost medical users between health insurance program and medical assistance program were reviewed. Methods : The inpatient claims of health insurance and medical assistance program were analyzed. Patients were divided by 6 groups; long-term, mid-term, short-term, readmitted, cancer and aged. We defined high cost patients as those who had spent one and half million won and over per 6 months. Characteristics of high cost patients for each group were reviewed. Results : medical assistance patients used much more resources than the insured members in the average hospital cost per case but less in daily hospital cost. The former had a longer length of stay and had much heavier diseases. Major diseases of both group were cancer, diseases of circulatory system and chronic degenerative diseases. Gallstone and schizophrenia were more in the insured program. However, pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma were more common among the medical assistance patients. Early readmission before 2 weeks were 28-30% of the total readmission. Readmission rate in the malignat neoplasm and renal failure were 80% and more. Q.A program should be installed to prevent unnecessary readmissions. Conclusion : Almost 30% of early readmissions and admissions due to complications and long length of stay should be reviewed carefully to keep cost down and to enhance the quality of hospital care.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.42-49
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• 2015

Purpose: In order to keep the acceptable level of the radiation oncology linear accelerators, it is necessary to apply a reliable quality assurance (QA) program. Materials and Methods: The QA protocols, published by authoritative organizations, such as the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), determine the quality control (QC) tests which should be performed on the medical linear accelerators and the threshold levels for each test. The purpose of this study is to increase the accuracy and precision of the selected QC tests in order to increase the quality of treatment and also increase the speed of the tests to convince the crowded centers to start a reliable QA program. A new method has been developed for two of the QC tests; optical distance indicator (ODI) QC test as a daily test and gantry angle QC test as a monthly test. This method uses an image processing approach utilizing the snapshots taken by the CCD camera to measure the source to surface distance (SSD) and gantry angle. Results: The new method of ODI QC test has an accuracy of 99.95% with a standard deviation of 0.061 cm and the new method for gantry angle QC has a precision of $0.43^{\circ}$. The automated proposed method which is used for both ODI and gantry angle QC tests, contains highly accurate and precise results which are objective and the human-caused errors have no effect on the results. Conclusion: The results show that they are in the acceptable range for both of the QC tests, according to AAPM task group 142.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.129-138
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• 1995

High-energy and high-dose X-ray and electron beam have been used in radiation therapy after developing particle accelerators. It is recommended to irradiate patients exect real dose for improving therapy effectiveness by International Committee on Radiation Units and Measurement. The radiation detector for daily beam checks of medical accelerators is described. Using thirteen silicon diodes, we have designed the diode detector providing information about calibration, beam symmetry, flatness, stability variation according to radiation damage, time and general quality assurance for both photon and eletron beams. we also compared these measurement values with those of using ionization chamber, film and semiconductor dosimeter.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.17
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• pp.107-133
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to analyze a trend of profitability classified by characteristics of hospitals and to analyze related factors. The data for this study were derived from survey material conducted by the Korean Hospital Association on 33 hospitals in Korea between 1993 and 2002. Profitability was measured in the aspect of investment profit rate and operation profit rate with net profit to total assets, normal profit to total assets and operating margin to gross revenue as dependent variables. Independent variables were classified by general factors (ownership, number of beds, period of establishment, region), financial factors (total asset turnover, liabilities to total assets, current ratio, fixed ratio, inventories turnover, personnel costs per operation profit, material costs per operation profits), composition of manpower and facilities(personnel and area per beds), productivity index(the number of daily patients per medical doctor, the number of daily patients per nurse), the score of quality assurance activities. First, Concerning the specialists per beds or area per beds and profitability of hospitals there was not statistically significant. Second, Those hospitals having the most daily patients per nurse had significantly higher profitability than the others, but the number of daily patients per medical doctor had little effect on the profitability. Thirds, Those hospitals having a higher proportion total asset turnover tended to show significantly higher profitability compared to other hospitals, but the liabilities to total assets and liquidity ratio had a little difference to the profitability. Those hospitals having a higher proportion personnel costs per operation profit and material costs per operation profits tended to show significantly lower hospital profitability compared to other hospitals. Fourth, In regression analysis, hospital profitability had negative relationship with personnel costs per operation profit or material costs per operation profits. While it had positive relationship with total asset turnover, the number of daily patients per nurse. In conclusion, private hospitals had higher profitability than that of public hospitals. Though factors related to profitability of hospital were different according to ownership, it is important for securing appropriate profitability by operating appropriate number of nurse, raising total asset turnover, and reducing personnel costs, material costs per operation profits. This study can be used as a baseline data for planning of hospital management. But the study may be limited in that the results cannot be generalized due to its small sample size. However, this longitudinal observation of 33 hospitals over ten year period has significant merit alone.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.41-43
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• 2005

Purpose : Wish to present degree management process that is efficient confirm radiation treatment exclusive use CT simulator's Q.A item that become Q.A and Differentiation of diagnosis area that present Report of the AAPM Task Group No.66 using Q.A tool that produce itself and secure safe and correct CT-simulation process and equip convenience. Method and material : Manufacture CT simulator's Q.A tool on source and confirm virtue between isocenter of wall laser system, patient table, CT scanner's imaging plane that present in Report of the AAPM Task Group No.66 by daily publication unit. Result : Confirmed measured value from Report of the AAPM Task Group No.66 to confirmation of presenting degree management item in wall laser's ${\pm}2mm$, table's ${\pm}2mm$, imaging plane's ${\pm}2mm$ tolerance extent. Conclusion : There is unconfirmed item from CT-simulation process for therapy to CT Q.A protocol of existent diagnosis area, premising suitable degree management of radiation treatment exclusive use CT-simulator equipment confirming presenting Q.A item in Report of the AAPM Task Group No.66 safe and correct CT-simulation process guarantee can

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2010

Due to the convergence of voice, data, and video, today's telecom operators are facing the complexity of service and network management to offer differentiated value-added services that meet customer expectations. Without the operations support of well-developed Business Support System/Operations Support System (BSS/OSS), it is difficult to timely and effectively provide competitive services upon customer request. In this paper, a suite of NGOSS-based Telecom OSS (TOSS) is developed for the support of fulfillment and assurance operations of telecom services and IT services. Four OSS groups, TOSS-P (intelligent service provisioning), TOSS-N (integrated large-scale network management), TOSS-T (trouble handling and resolution), and TOSS-Q (end-to-end service quality management), are organized and integrated following the standard telecom operation processes (i.e., eTOM). We use IPTV and IP-VPN operation scenarios to show how these OSS groups co-work to support daily business operations with the benefits of cost reduction and revenue acceleration.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.65-73
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• 2017

Purpose: Machine Performance Check (MPC) is a self-checking software based on the Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) to measure daily beam outputs without external installation. The purpose of this study is to verify the usefulness of MPC by comparing and correlating daily beam output of QA Beamchecker PLUS. Materials and Methods: Linear accelerator (Truebeam 2.5) was used to measure 10 energies which are composed of photon beams(6, 10, 15 MV and 6, 10 MV-FFF) and electron beams(6, 9, 12, 16 and 20 MeV). A total of 80 cycles of data was obtained by measuring beam output measurement before treatment over five months period. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the consistency of the beam output between the MPC and the QA Beamchecker PLUS. In this study, if the Pearson correlation coefficient is; (1) 0.8 or higher, the correlation is very strong (2) between 0.6 and 0.79, the correlation is strong (3) between 0.4 and 0.59, the correlation is moderate (4) between 0.2 and 0.39, the correlation is weak (5) lower than 0.2, the correlation is very weak. Results: Output variations observed between MPC and QA Beamchecker PLUS were within 2 % for photons and electrons. The beam outputs variations of MPC were $0.29{\pm}0.26%$ and $0.30{\pm}0.26%$ for photon and electron beams, respectively. QA Beamchecker PLUS beam outputs were $0.31{\pm}0.24%$ and $0.33{\pm}0.24%$ for photon and electron beams, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient between MPC and QA Beamchecker PLUS indicated that photon beams were very strong at 15 MV, and strong at 6 MV, 10 MV, 6 MV-FFF and 10 MV-FFF. For electron beams, the Pearson correlation coefficient were strong at 16 MeV and 20 MeV, moderate at 9 MeV and 12 MeV, and very weak at 6 MeV. Conclusion: MPC showed significantly strong correlation with QA Beamchecker PLUS when testing with photon beams and high-energy electron beams in the evaluation of daily beam output, but the correlation when testing with low-energy electron beams (6 MeV) appeared to be low. However, MPC and QA Beamchecker PLUS are considered to be suitable for checking daily beam output, as they performed within 2 % of beam output consistency during the observation. MPC which can perform faster than the conventional daily beam output measurement tool, is considered to be an effective method for users.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.223-231
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• 2010

We have taken surveys about total 72 departments of radiation oncology which is performing the treatment with linear accelerator and brachytherapy unit in Korea. The survey was included the research about the linear accelerator, brachytherapy, Also, we surveyed the various performance (QA period, manpower, time) of quality control for understanding of efficiency. The survey results show that the QA test of daily and weekly are almost same comparing to USA and Europe but the QA performance of monthly and yearly in Korea are 15.5 which is less than USA and Europe recommended QA item number of 17 to 21. The manpower and QA time in Korea also lower than 50% of USA and Europe recommended because the manpower and QA time limitation in Korea. It will be expected that the manual of quality management in each clinic could be appropriately established when combining the present results with previously published AAPM TG-40 and other protocols.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2012

Mean background concentrations of greenhouse gases such as $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ were estimated on Ulleungdo using PICARRO Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) analyzer. To improve the accuracy of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ concentrations, a standardized QA${\cdot}$QC (Quality Assurance Quality Control) procedure was employed with three steps: 1) the inspection procedure of physical limitation (e.g. the exclusion of data corresponding to the number of data of ${\leq}$50%) for hourly mean values, 2) a stage inspection (e.g. the use of data corresponding to ${\geq}15$ observations per day) for daily mean values, and 3) a fast fourier transform (FFT) analysis using curve-fitting methods for the investigation of climatic characteristics. The monthly mean concentrations of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ derived from three-step QA${\cdot}$QC procedure were then compared with those observed at Anmyundo (Korea) and Ryori (Japan). Overall, the error of mean $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ concentrations estimated in this study distinctly decreased. However, in comparison with their concentrations monitored at Ryori, the $CO_2$ concentration at estimated at Ulleungdo is soemwhat lower than that of Anmyundo due to the missing data, which is statistically significant. On the other hand, the former has a statistically significant higher value of $CH_4$ that of the latter.