• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2024

Background: E-waste workers in Hong Kong are handling an unprecedented amount of e-waste, which contains various neurotoxic chemicals. However, no study has been conducted to evaluate the neurological health status of e-waste workers in Hong Kong. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of neurobehavioral alterations and to identify the vulnerable groups among Hong Kong e-waste workers. Methods: We recruited 109 Hong Kong e-waste workers from June 2021 to September 2022. Participants completed standard questionnaires and wore a GENEActiv accelerometer for seven days. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Questionnaire 16/18 (Q16/18) were used to assess subjective neurobehavioral alterations. The GENEActiv data generated objective sleep and circadian rhythm variables. Workers were grouped based on job designation and entity type according to the presumed hazardous level. Unconditional logistic regression models measured the associations of occupational characteristics with neurobehavioral alterations after adjusting for confounders. Results: While dismantlers/repairers and the workers in entities not funded by the government were more likely to suffer from neurotoxic symptoms in Q18 (adjusted odds ratio: 3.18 [1.18-9.39] and 2.77 [1.10-7.46], respectively), the workers from self-sustained recycling facilities also have poor performances in circadian rhythm. Results also showed that the dismantlers/repairers working in entities not funded by the government had the highest risk of neurotoxic symptoms compared to the lowest-risk group (i.e., workers in government-funded companies with other job designations). Conclusion: This timely and valuable study emphasizes the importance of improving the working conditions for high-risk e-waste workers, especially the dismantlers or repairers working in facilities not funded by the government.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.82 no.2
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• pp.245-258
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• 2022

Many Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) methods have been proposed for structural damage diagnosis and prognosis. However, SHM for pinched hysteretic structures can be problematic due to the high level of nonlinearity. The model-free hysteresis loop analysis (HLA) has displayed notable robustness and accuracy in identifying damage for full-scaled and scaled test buildings. In this paper, the performance of HLA is compared with seven other SHM methods in identifying lateral elastic stiffness for a six-story numerical building with highly nonlinear pinching behavior. Two successive earthquakes are employed to compare the accuracy and consistency of methods within and between events. Robustness is assessed across sampling rates 50-1000 Hz in noise-free condition and then assessed with 10% root mean square (RMS) noise added to responses at 250 Hz sampling rate. Results confirm HLA is the most robust method to sampling rate and noise. HLA preserves high accuracy even when the sampling rate drops to 50 Hz, where the performance of other methods deteriorates considerably. In noisy conditions, the maximum absolute estimation error is less than 4% for HLA. The overall results show HLA has high robustness and accuracy for an extremely nonlinear, but realistic case compared to a range of leading and recent model-based and model-free methods.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.153-164
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• 2024

The second National Patient Safety Comprehensive Plan was developed in 2023. In this, national-level patient safety education is designated as the fifth core task, with the establishment of an educational system for preliminary healthcare professionals included as a detailed task. The foundation for providing patient safety education to preliminary healthcare professionals has now been established. In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) published standard guidelines for patient safety education for healthcare professionals. This study introduces the WHO's 'Patient Safety Curriculum Guide: Multi-professional Edition' and shares the experiences and cases of patient safety education conducted for nursing students-that is, future nurses-according to these guidelines. The patient safety and nursing course was designed as an elective in the second semester of the third year. Before the class was conducted, only 6.9% of the students were familiar with the concept of patient safety. Of the 11 WHO topics, this course covers nine (excluding infection control and medicine safety) and is divided into seven modules. Three modules consist of lectures only, whereas the remaining modules involve practical training. To practice patient safety, it is essential for all healthcare professionals to acquire knowledge regarding patient safety during their undergraduate curriculum. This study aimed to provide foundational information regarding patient safety education for nursing and other healthcare students who have not yet undergone patient safety training.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.72-91
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the recognition of health information managers, and to analyze the level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment of medical record technicians. The data for this study were collected through a self-administered survey with a structured questionnaire to 172 subjects from medical record technicians working in hospitals in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province as well as the faculty of medical schools across South Korea. In this analysis frequency, t-test, ANOVA, factor analysis and structural equation model were used. The main findings of this study are as follows: 1. As for recognition of the seven dimensions in the role of health information managers, the role as clinical data specialist received the most positive feedback, followed by document & repository managers, patient information coordinators, health information managers, data quality managers, security officers and research & decision support analyst. 2. The level of job satisfaction among medical information handlers and managers averaged 3.14. In terms of the factors in the work environment concerned with job satisfaction, being able to work independently and as team players reached the top among 6 factors with the average of 3.39, followed by professional position, salary & rewards, expectations for job performance and administration. 3. The average rate of organizational commitment stood at 3.09. Respondents tend to be focused on present tasks rather than future-oriented tasks. 4. The result of the analysis based on the relationship between recognition as health information managers, job satisfaction and organizational commitment found that all analysis are statistically meaningful. The more the respondents were aware of their roles as health information managers, the more they tended to be committed to their work and satisfied with their work. The more the respondents were committed to their work, the more satisfaction was seen. The effects of recognition as health information managers on organizational commitment measured 0.27 and for job satisfaction it was 0.17. The effects of organizational commitment on job satisfaction stood at 0.71. The feasibility of the model meets the standard at Chi-square value of 66.755 and the P value of 0.057. The Normed Fit Index (NFI) of 0.930 was in compliance with the standard for model feasibility and the squared multiple correlation coefficient of this model was 8% in organizational commitment and 60% in job satisfaction.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.7
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• pp.969-975
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a healthcare service based on standard protocol and information communication technology for mother's sustainable postpartum care. The developed service was consisted of a client area where mothers measure, manage and transmit their vital signs using their own smartphone and personal health devices, and a server area that manages and shares with the received mother's vital signs and the results of examination results and personal health records. The client area collects vital signs through the IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device (PHD) using the m-health application of the previous study and Continua Health alliance certified personal health devices and transfers to Health Level Seven (HL7) V2.4, Continuity of Care Record (CCR) and Continuity of Care Document (CCD). The server area consists of a mobile web that manages and shares the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR)-compliant personal health records to ensure interoperability of examination results, and a mobile web where the postpartum caregiver enters and manages the results of the mother's examination results and provides it to the mother. In this way, the healthcare service of this study securing continued exchanges between the mother and postpartum caregiver improves the quality of life of the mother not only to satisfy the needs of the mother who was discharged but also through self-management and postpartum. In the future, we will conduct a study applying mothers and postpartum caregiver after approval of a clinical trail at a university hospital to evaluate developed healthcare services.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the cohesions status of the coordination within response teams in the emergency response team (ERT) in a refinery. Methods: For this study, cohesion indicators of social network analysis (SNA; density, degree centrality, reciprocity, and transitivity) were utilized to examine the coordination of the response teams as a whole network. The ERT of this research, which was a case study, included seven teams consisting of 152 members. The required data were collected through structured interviews and were analyzed using the UCINET 6.0 Social Network Analysis Program. Results: The results reported a relatively low number of triple connections, poor coordination with key members, and a high level of mutual relations in the network with low density, all implying that there were low cohesions of coordination in the ERT. Conclusion: The results showed that SNA provided a quantitative and logical approach for the examination of the coordination status among response teams and it also provided a main opportunity for managers and planners to have a clear understanding of the presented status. The research concluded that fundamental efforts were needed to improve the presented situations.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.317-326
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• 2018

Objectives: The demand for hospice has been increasing among patients with cancer. This study examined the current hospice referral scenario for terminally ill cancer patients and created a data form to collect hospice information and a modified health information exchange (HIE) form for a more efficient referral system for terminally ill cancer patients. Methods: Surveys were conducted asking detailed information such as medical instruments and patient admission policies of hospices, and interviews were held to examine the current referral flow and any additional requirements. A task force team was organized to analyze the results of the interviews and surveys. Results: Six hospices completed the survey, and 3 physicians, 2 nurses, and 2 hospital staff from a tertiary hospital were interviewed. Seven categories were defined as essential for establishing hospice data. Ten categories and 40 data items were newly suggested for the existing HIE document form. An implementation guide for the Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture developed by Health Level 7 (HL7 CCDA) was also proposed. It is an international standard for interoperability that provides a framework for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information. Based on these changes, a hospice referral scenario for terminally ill cancer patients was designed. Conclusions: Our findings show potential improvements that can be made to the current hospice referral system for terminally ill cancer patients. To make the referral system useful in practice, governmental efforts and investments are needed.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.359-370
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• 2018

Objectives: We assessed the public acceptance of a health information exchange (HIE) and examined factors that influenced the acceptance and associations among constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Methods: We collected data from a survey of 1,000 individuals in Korea, which was administered through a structured questionnaire. We assessed the validity and reliability of the survey instrument with exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficients. We computed descriptive statistics to assess the acceptance and performed regression analyses with a structural equation model to estimate the magnitude and significance of influences among constructs of TAM. Results: Eighty-seven percent of the respondents were willing to use the technology, and the average level of agreement with the need for the technology was 4.16 on a 5-point Likert scale. The perception of ease of use of the technology significantly influenced perceptions of usefulness and attitudes about the need for HIE. Perceptions of usefulness influenced attitude and behavioral intention to use HIE, and attitude influenced intention. Age showed a wide range of influences throughout the model, and experience with offline-based information exchange and health status also showed noteworthy influences. Conclusions: The public acceptance of HIE was high, and influences posited by TAM were mostly confirmed by the study results. The study findings indicated a need for an education and communication strategy tailored by population age, health status, and prior experience with offline-based exchange to gain public buy-in for a successful introduction of the technology.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-82
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• 2015

Objective : The purpose of this study is to present the desirable model for the promotion of care coordination between Korean Medicine and Western Medicine and develope the instrument to measure the level of coordination. Moreover, we verified the validity and reliability of the developed Instrument. Method : In this study, We developed the 16 items regarding care coordination in Korean Medicine and Western Medicine by literature review and expert interviews. In addition, we verified the validity and reliability of the instrument as a methodological research. Results : We developed two factors such as 'Inter-professional activities' and 'Organizational support' as the instrument to measure the level of care coordination, and each of seven, eight total of 15 measurement items are listed. Conclusion : Since the legal permission, the level and type of care coordination and the effects of them are needed to be checked. So, the measurement instrument driven by this study has a political signification in healthcare system specially in these times. In addition, by utilizing this instrument, we propose to perform a variety of future studies on the levels of healthcare coordination and related outcomes.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1049-1055
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• 1995

This study was designed to investigate the effects of calcium supplementation on calcium metabolism in seven healthy college women, aged from 19 to 21 years old. For this purpose, metabolic studies were conducted for two weeks. During the first week, the subjects ate experimental diet which nutrients composition was similar to their usual intake. And during the consecutive second week, they ate the same experimental diet supplemented with 500mg of calcium daily. The results were summarized as follows ; 1) Fecal excretion of calcium increased significantly (P<0.05), but urinary excretion of that did not show any change after supplementary intake of calcium. 2) Mean apparent calcium absorption was 28.5% and retention was 182mg/day when subjects ate the experimental diet without calcium supplementation. Calcium retention was significantly ate the experimental diet without calcium supplementation. Calcium retention was decreased to 24.1% by additional intake of calcium. 3) Phosphorus balance did not show any change after additional intake of calcium. 4) Serum calcium level was also not changed by additional intake of calcium. 5) Serum calcium level increased significantly(P<0.05) but serum phosphorus level did not show any change after additional intake of calcium. The above results showed that supplementation of 500mg calcium daily can be helpful to increase calcium retention as well as the peak bone mass in young women eating usual Korean diets.