• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2023

Objectives: National health insurance herbal prescription of Korean medicine has been serving important role in public healthcare in spite of continuous demand on revision of system. However, the categories of insurance herbal prescriptions are not equally distributed throughout the KCD-based major disease categories. We analyzed statistical database of claimed national health insurance classified as major disease categories by years. We classified all 56 herbal prescriptions as per their total medical indications into 22 major disease categories to analyze their distribution. Significant increase of M and S-T code claims were found, whereas decrease of U code claims by years. We figured out that the 56 prescriptions were unequally distributed along with enrichment of certain codes such as K and J. Meanwhile, the insurance claim of each prescription was positively correlated with number of code types of their indications. As a result, we believe that the reform of national health insurance herbal prescription list is necessary to promote use of it in clinic.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.504-516
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• 2018

Many countries have tried to reform financing systems toward UHC and paid attention to the function of strategic purchasing. This study was performed to examine theoretical foundations and the function of strategic purchasing. And we examined the functions of strategic purchasing in Korea based on the framework proposed by Preker(2005). For this purpose, we reviewed literature related to purchasing. we defined the strategic purchasing as strategic activities to provide health care services people need within a given budget, which is carried out by certain organizations, purchasing organizations. These activities include selecting appropriate providers, designing and operating the payment system, setting the price, and determining the target populations and their needs etc. The relationships among government, purchasers and healthcare providers can be explained by the principal-agent theory. In addition to Preker's framework, we emphasized the importance of the infrastructure such as decision making support systems, information systems, health care resource management systems, or expenditure monitoring systems. The National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service play major roles in performing strategic purchasing.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.47-73
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• 2006

Objectives: This study aims to identify gaps between knowledge regarding migration and the spread of HIV/AIDS, to improve understanding of migrants with HIV/AIDS and their human rights, and to make suggestions for Korean policy makers to reform laws and policies towards granting migrants with HIV/AIDS more human rights and access to treatment and care. Methods: This study is based on an extensive literature review, questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews from randomly selected 8 countries from 5 different continents: Japan from Asia; Australia from Oceania; Finland, Germany, Ireland and United Kingdom(UK) from Europe; and Canada and United States of America(USA) in North America. Results: This study has found that Korea has a discriminating policy regarding HIV/AIDS and foreigners. Classifying HIV/AIDS into a legal communicable disease, it requires a presentation of HIV/AIDS test results from foreigners wanting a long-term stay before entering. In principle, foreigners with HIV/AIDS cannot either enter or stay in Korea. If they are known infected with HIV/AIDS by any reason, they became to face an immediate deportation regardless of their sojourn statuses and purposes. Conclusion: With the results, this study suggests three reasons why Korean government needs to change the current HIV/AIDS policy on foreigners: 1) HIV-related travel restrictions have no public health justification, 2) its strict HIV/AIDS policy on foreigners could result in restriction on the mobility and migration of its people by the other countries, inversely, and 3) it needs to meet international guidelines and to observe conventions that international organizations suggest to maintain its status as a member of the international society.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.324-335
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• 2017

Background: The aim of this study is to analyze determinants of welfare attitudes toward healthcare services in South Korea, using three main theories: self-interest (positive welfare attitudes if the policy fulfills people's personal interests), symbolic attitudes (positive welfare attitudes if the person is politically progressive or egalitarian), and sociotropic perception (positive welfare attitudes if the person experienced positive aggregated collective experiences of societal events and trends regarding the policy). Although the definition of the welfare attitude is rather ambiguous in literatures, in this investigation, we operationalize the concept as the 'willingness to pay higher taxes to improve the level of health care services for all people in Korea' which shows individuals' actional propensity. Methods: We used the health module from the International Social Survey Program 2011 for the analysis (N= 1,391). Five logistic regression models were built successively using two variables for each theory to measure key concepts of self-interest, symbolic attitudes, and sociotropic perceptions as independent variables. Results: The result showed self-interest and symbolic attitudes factors to be strong determinants of welfare attitudes towards healthcare services in South Korea, whereas sociotropic perception factors have inconsistent effects. Conclusion: For a more politically elaborated healthcare reform in South Korea and elsewhere, there needs to be further research on various dimensions and determinants of welfare attitudes to understand popular basis of welfare expansion, especially in the era of inequality.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.17-23
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• 2023

This study purports to explore the landscape of welfare attitudes of young generation of Korea in their 20s and 30s focusing upon potential differences from those of older generations. Korea has recently been in the significant debate on pension reform and the disadvantages of relatively young generations has been on of the most crucial issues during the reform. Survey data from 17th Korean Welfare Panel are analyzed and such variable as attitudes toward government expenditure on public pension, health care, old age support, poverty, family and child care and so on. In addition, welfare-related variables such as universalism vs selectivism, tax increase for welfare expenditure, and political orientation are to be analyzed. The results show several findings. First of all, correspondence analysis shows that young generation in Korea are strongly associated with higher education and full time employment compared to older generations. Secondly, the most interested welfare issues of young generations are housing and child support. Moreover, young generations' attitudes toward government expenditure increase differ from those of older generations on the issues of public pension, housing, and family and child support. Lastly, political orientation of those young generation tend to be progressive and they support universalism in welfare policy, but they do not support tax increase for welfare purpose, which, I would say, is inconsistent.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.60-88
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• 2001

This paper examined the impacts of the welfare reform program, California Work Pays Demonstration Program(CWPDP), implemented in 1992. CWPDP was designed to move welfare recipients into the labor market by reducing the amount of AFDC grants and one-third earned income disregard. The evaluation of the policy impacts on the welfare recipients was conducted in two areas: employment and earnings. This study used a subset of a database created by the California Department of Social Services, and University of California Data Archive and Technical Assistance. The subset is composed of 3,936 AFDC-FG cases selected in LA County: 1,311 control cases and 2,625 experimental cases. The control group was kept on the AFDC rules as of September 1992, while the experimental group was subject to AFDC rule changes implemented under CWPDP. The analyses of the employment and earnings using the random effects probit model and the random effects regression model, respectively, indicated that CWPDP did not effectively encourage female heads to participate in the labor market. It also revealed that CWPDP did not significantly increase the earnings of female heads. The findings imply that the disincentive structure of the public assistance program is not the main barrier preventing female heads from getting jobs and leaving the welfare rolls. Rather, participation in the labor market and exit from welfare is mainly determined by their own demographic characteristics and the economic cycle. Based on the findings, policy implications are suggested on the National Minimum Protection Program in Korea. Those include a flexible exemption rate for the earned income of beneficiaries, affordable child care services, and guaranteed public jobs.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.265-278
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• 1996

This paper concerns professional socialization of medical students. Professional socialization, in the context of this paper, means the process through which a layperson becomes a doctor equipped with professional identity and values. While medical education does not include such process in the curriculum, medical students obtain certain values and identity informally. The dependent variables were professional values and professionalism. The former means the desirable attributes required to conducting professional works such as humane attitudes, science-oriented mind, capability for organizational management. The latter means socio-political reasoning with which doctors can rationalize their privileges such as autonomy. A specially designed questionnaire was developed. The data were collected from five medical schools for 1,318 students in 1994. A total of 1,070 cases were finally included in the statistical analysis. The students emphasized the human factor in the professional values. Their attitude did not change with the grade. Other independent variables such as motives for entering a medical school, socioeconomic status, satisfaction with medical education, etc. also did not influence professinal values. It implies that professional values were not consolidated among the students. However, the factors of professionalism change significantly with the grade. It implies that the students paid more attention to socio-political issues related to doctor's interests as the grade went up. And the factor scores for professionalism were higher for those students who had more positive attitude towards doing medical practice for profit, expected higher income, and were more conservative about social reform. Other independent variables did not influence professionalism. It seems that the students also give emphasis on professionalism, like current medical doctors, mainly because of their concern with recent unfavorable changes in economic conditions of medical care providers.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.41.1-41.9
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• 2023

Competencies are defined as an observable and assessable set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Graduation competencies, which are more comprehensive, refer to the required abilities of students to perform on-site work immediately after graduation. As graduation competencies set the goal of education, various countries and institutions have introduced them for new veterinary graduates. The Korean Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges has recently established such competencies to standardize veterinary education and enhance quality levels thereof. The purpose of this study is to describe the process of establishing graduation competencies as well as their implication for veterinary education in Korea. Graduation competencies for veterinary education in Korea comprise 5 domains (animal health care and disease management, one health expertise, communication and collaboration, research and learning, and veterinary professionalism). These are further divided into 11 core competencies, and 33 achievement standards, which were carefully chosen from previous case analyses and nation-wide surveys. Currently, graduation competencies are used as a standard for setting clear educational purposes for both instructors and students. Establishing these competencies further initiated the development of detailed learning outcomes, and of a list of basic veterinary clinical performances and skills, which is useful for assessing knowledge and skills. The establishment of graduation competencies is expected to contribute to the continuous development of Korean veterinary education in many ways. These include curriculum standardization and licensing examination reform, which will eventually improve the competencies of new veterinary graduates.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2012

Objective : To investigate the current status of prescription drugs in Oriental medical institutes and to draw up a future plan for the revitalization of Oriental medical health insurance, this survey has been performed. Method : The survey has been made with 321 doctors working at Oriental medical institutes in Daegu and Kyungbuk areas for a period of 3 month from June 1, 2010 until September 1, 2010. Result : 1. When it comes to the current status of the use of herbal drugs in Oriental Health insurance, most of doctors surveyed prescribe insurance drugs, and they prescribe insurance drugs to patients, who are less than 20% of total patients visiting their clinics. 2. The awareness of Herbal Health Care Drugs is investigated. When it comes to the understanding of the difference between insurance drugs(powder type drugs) and granular type drugs, doctors admit that they differ only in one aspect, whether or not their being covered by health insurance. Based on the survey results on the understanding of insurance coverage of granular type drugs, doctors, even though they long for granular type drugs to be accepted as insurance drugs, are worrying whether the number of outpatients might dwindle due to increased insurance co-payments. They also point out that the biggest obstacles in the expansion of the granular type drugs as insurance drugs are the lack of understanding of the government and the objection of the Health Insurance Review and Assesment service (HIRA) for fear of increased insurance claims. 3. Upon investigation on Oriental medicine doctors' understandings of herbal pharmaceutical industry, it is found that doctors' responses on pharmaceutical industry are not all positive ones('new product development and neglect of R&D infrastructure' and 'smallness of industry'). When it is investigated what area needs the greatest improvement in herbal pharmaceutical industry, 'securing sufficient capital, good manufacturing, and strengthening quality control', is the highest. 4. When it is asked what are the most needed in order to improve herbal health insurance medicine, responses such as 'the increase in the accessibility to and the utilization of Oriental medical clinics through the diversification of the means of prescriptions', 'the improvement of insurance benefits(cap adjustments)', 'increase the proportion of high quality medicinal plants', 'the ceiling of co-payments(deductible) at 20,000 won or more', 'expansion of the choices of formulations', 'formulational expansions of tablets and pills', and finally 'admittance and expansion of granular type drug as insurance drug' are the highest. 5. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the current status of the usage of Oriental health care herbal drugs, the followings are observed. First, the frequency of use of health insurance drugs by the doctors who use health insurance with general characteristics shows similar differences in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.001), average number of daily patients (p<0.05). Secondly, as to the willingness of the expanded usage of insurance drugs, similar differences are observed in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05). 6. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the perception of Herbal health care drugs, the followings are observed. First, inspecting general characteristics and insurance claims due to increased co-payments(deductible amount) reveals similar differences in case of working period (p<0.01) and in case of total monthly sales amount (p <0.01). Secondly, inspecting general characteristics and the obstacles that hinder granular type drugs from being accepted as health care insurance drugs shows similar differences in case of working period (p<0.05). 7. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the understanding of Oriental Herbal pharmaceutical companies, the followings are observed. First, opinions on the general characteristics of pharmaceutical companies, when examined with variance analysis, shows similar differences in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05). Secondly, when opinions are examined on general characteristics and the problems of herbal pharmaceutical companies, similar differences are found in case of working period (p<0.01) and in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.001). Lastly, opinions on the general characteristics and reforms of pharmaceutical companies, similar differences are observed in case of working period (p<0.001). 8. Upon investigating the general characteristics of the improvement of insurance Herbal drugs, the followings are observed. First, regarding general characteristics and insurance benefits, similar differences are observed in case of working period (p<0.05), in case of total monthly sales amount (p<0.05), and in case of average number of daily patients (p<0.01). Secondly, opinions on the general characteristics and the needs for the improvement of Herbal insurance drugs are examined in 5 different aspects, which are the approval of granular type drugs as insurance drugs, the expanded practices of the number of prescription insurance drugs, the needs of a variety of formulations, the needs of TFT of which numbers of Oriental medical doctors are members for the revision of the existing system, and the needs of adjusting the current ceiling of the fixed amount and the fixed rate. When processed by the analysis of variance, the results show similar differences in case of average number of daily patients (p<0.01). Conclusion : From the results of this study the first measures to take are, to reform overall insurance benefit system, including insurance co-payment system(fixed rate cap adjustment), to expand the number of the herbal drugs to be prescribed matching with insurance benefit accordingly, and to revitalize herbal medicine insurance system through the change of various formulations. In addition, it is recommended to improve the effectiveness of herbal medicine by making plans to enhance the efficacy of herbal medicine and by enabling small pharmaceutical companies to outgrow themselves.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.258-276
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• 1998

This study was conducted to justify the "prescribed shelf life" currently used in Samsung Medical Center and give recommendations based on scientific data to adopt for safe and cost-effective storage times for sterile goods Since the early 1970's, predetermined expiration dating policy has been used in Korea on all in-house sterilized products like any other countries; six months for the supplies wrapped in polyethylene peel pouches and two weeks for the rest. Recently, however, the studies suggest that current standards for preserving the sterility can be changing. It looks like we unnecessarily have too-short expiration date of sterilized supplies, that is far from being cost effective. Certainly, this research is an exciting project, especially in Korea, and will be leading and contributing to the paradigm shift of the conservative concept of shelf life for sterile supplies in Korean healthcare facilities. The major goal of this study was placed on the measurement of the recontamination time in packs wrapped in all kinds of wrapping materials used in S.M.C and stored in various conditions for periods ranging from three months to six months, and then develop a practical standard of "shelf life" based on the analyzed data. Objectives: To measure and compare the recontamination time of sterile packs among wrapppers and storage conditions, and develop a practical standard for the shelf life and storage conditions of sterile products. Samples and Method: The sterile integrity was investigated of the total 1,440 sterile sample packs containing gauze strip($1.5cm{\times}0.5cm$) we prepared and wrapped in nine wrapping materials (randomized reprocessed linens, linens reprocessed 99 times, linens reprocessed 120 times, new kraft paper, used kraft paper, new nonwoven fabrics, 6-time reprocessed nonwoven fabrics, new polyethylene peel pouches, used polyethylene peel pouches), and stored in four locations(closed cabinet of one of the typical wards, open shelf of one of ICUs, open shelf of separate storage room in ER, open shelf in OR), for three to six months, respectively in 1998. Each type of packs were opened weekly and the gauze strips inoculated into Brewer's thioglycollate broth at $35^{\circ}C$ for seven days. Results: There was no growth found for any types of the pack and storage conditions studied. Discussion: This study was conducted in an attempt to identify the possibility of extending the current shelf life for sterile goods we use in a sense of cost effectiveness. The findings suggest that we could extend our expiration dates, that means we can save a lot of materials and personnel time meeded for resterilizing, outdating, recleaning, wrapping, and reshelving. Then it will initiate a great reform in the field of healthcare in Korea, and now we are looking forward to this valuable revolution. We are going to continue this study and take all steps need to apply this new concept to our practice, and then trying to extend to other hospitals.