• Journal of Korean Foot and Ankle Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.43-48
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• 2023

The incidence of osteoporotic ankle fractures is increasing as the population ages. These fractures are becoming more common in clinical practice and require careful management because of the higher likelihood of developing complications than typical ankle fractures. The introduction of a method for measuring the ankle joint bone mineral density is a valuable tool for assessing the bone quality of the ankle joint. By evaluating the bone mineral density, healthcare professionals can better understand the extent of osteoporosis and the overall strength of the ankle joint. This information is crucial for determining the appropriate treatment for individual fractures. Several factors must be considered when deciding on the treatment for osteoporotic ankle fractures. These include the ankle joint bone mineral density, skin condition, any comorbidities the patient may have, and the patient's functional demands. Taking these factors into consideration allows healthcare providers to tailor the treatment plan to the specific needs and the circumstances of each patient. By applying the appropriate treatment, it is expected that the complications associated with osteoporotic ankle fractures can be minimized, and the prognosis for patients can be improved.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1484-1502
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• 2023

The medical sector actively changes and implements innovative features in response to technical development and revolutions. Many of the most crucial elements in IoT-connected health services are safeguarding critical patient records from prospective attackers. As a result, BlockChain (BC) is gaining traction in the business sector owing to its large implementations. As a result, BC can efficiently handle everyday life activities as a distributed and decentralized technology. Compared to other industries, the medical sector is one of the most prominent areas where the BC network might be valuable. It generates a wide range of possibilities and probabilities in existing medical institutions. So, throughout this study, we address BC technology's widespread application and influence in modern medical systems, focusing on the critical requirements for such systems, such as trustworthiness, security, and safety. Furthermore, we built the shared ledger for blockchain-based healthcare providers for patient information, contractual between several other parties. The study's findings demonstrate the usefulness of BC technology in IoHT for keeping patient health data. The BDSA-IoHT eliminates 2.01 seconds of service delay and 1.9 seconds of processing time, enhancing efficiency by nearly 30%.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.295-305
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• 2023

Purpose: This study compared health behaviors and health-related clinical characteristics between individuals with normal glucose levels without diabetes and those with undiagnosed diabetes. Factors that were associated with undiagnosed diabetes were identified by sex. Methods: This was an observational study with a cross-sectional design based on data from the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which used a stratified, multi-stage, cluster-sampling design to obtain a nationally representative sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis was employed to compute the odds ratios of health behaviors and clinical characteristics to identify risk factors for undiagnosed diabetes. Results: The overall prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes was 5.2% (weighted %, n = 700, p < .001). Among individuals with undiagnosed diabetes, 58.3% were men. Univariate logistic regression for undiagnosed diabetes identified sex, age, house income, educational level, and triglycerides as influencing factors. In multiple logistic regression by sex, the factors associated with undiagnosed diabetes in men were age, perceived health status, a diagnosis of angina, and triglycerides. Conclusion: Strategies should be targeted to improve health behaviors and clinical characteristics for specific age groups, men in bad perceived health status, women with high systolic blood pressure, and high triglycerides. Moreover, healthcare providers should understand the barriers to health behaviors and health-related quality of life to effectively deliver healthcare services.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.140-154
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• 2024

A physician's empathy plays a crucial role in patient-centered care, and in modern medicine, patients, their caregivers, and society demand a high level of empathy from healthcare providers. The conceptualization of clinical empathy, which has emphasized cognitive empathy since the mid-20th century, has been widely accepted in medical schools and the healthcare industry without much critical ref lection. This study provides an overview of the ongoing debates on empathy versus sympathy and cognitive empathy versus affective empathy to clarify the concept of empathy. Based on recent research findings, clinical empathy is proposed to encompass three components: cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and empathic motivation. It is suggested that fully demonstrating these components requires empathic communication skills. Additionally, the cognitive characteristics of medical students and the features of the academic environment demonstrate the need for education to strengthen their empathy skills. Considering this, proposed intervention methods that medical schools can consider include utilizing tutoring programs and debriefing processes for team activities, which can facilitate problem-solving as a coping strategy for stress. Learning communities can create an environment where students can receive social support and recover from stress. Medical schools can contribute to the development of students' professional identities as practicing clinicians who embody empathy and respect by cultivating professors as positive role models. Additionally, utilizing scales to assess the empathic nature of doctor-patient communication or incorporating patients and caregivers as evaluators can actively improve empathic communication skills.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.445-456
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• 2017

Mobile healthcare apps should be paid more attention not just as software, but also as significant health information providers. We examine the impact of psychological factors (e,g., instrumental efficacy, informational efficacy, health information orientation, playfulness, and responsiveness) on intention to continuous use of mobile healthcare apps. Based on an expanded technology acceptance model (TAM II), this study examined the effects of psychological factors influencing the usage of mobile healthcare apps. The results showed that informational efficacy and instrumental efficacy influenced intention to use through perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Playfulness influenced intention to continuous use directly as well as indirectly through perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Health information orientation and responsiveness influenced intention to continuous use through perceived usefulness. This study suggests the need for adopting instrumental, informative perspectives and playfulness in contemporary health research and production of mobile healthcare apps.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.325-338
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• 2022

This study was conducted to explore the acceptance behavior of undergraduate students toward telemedicine, which is temporarily allowed in the COVID-19. We applied social cognitive theory and technology acceptance model in order to reflect the convergence characteristics between medical service and digital technology of telemedicine. Based on these theoretical backgrounds, we investigated perception toward telemedicine and determinants of intention to accept telemedicine. To examine the research model and hypothesis, an online survey was conducted for college students who have not used telemedicine from September 8 to 10, 2021. A total of 184 data were collected, and multiple regression analysis was conducted using the SPSS 28.0 program. The results showed that health technology self-efficacy, usefulness and convenience benefits, social norm, and trust in telemedicine providers had positive effects on intention to accept telemedicine. This study is meaningful in that it selected undergraduate students, who are digital natives, as new targets for telemedicine, and presented the basic direction of strategies to target them.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.111-137
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• 2018

Considering the increase in health insurance benefits and the elderly population of the baby boomer generation, the amount consumed by health care in 2020 is expected to account for 20% of US GDP. As the healthcare industry develops, competition among the medical services of hospitals intensifies, and the need of hospitals to manage the quality of medical services increases. In addition, interest in online reviews of hospitals has increased as online reviews have become a tool to predict hospital quality. Consumers tend to refer to online reviews even when choosing healthcare service providers and after evaluating service quality online. This study aims to analyze the effect of sentiment score of healthcare service quality on hospital rating with Yelp hospital reviews. This study classifies large amount of text data collected online primarily into five service quality measurement indexes of SERVQUAL theory. The sentiment scores of reviews are then derived by SERVQUAL dimensions, and an econometric analysis is conducted to determine the sentiment score effects of the five service quality dimensions on hospital reviews. Results shed light on the means of managing online hospital reputation to benefit managers in the healthcare and medical industry.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2893-2900
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• 2014

Background: Statistical methods are very important to precisely measure breast cancer patient survival times for healthcare management. Previous studies considered basic statistics to measure survival times without incorporating statistical modeling strategies. The objective of this study was to develop a data-based statistical probability model from the female breast cancer patients' survival times by using the Bayesian approach to predict future inferences of survival times. Materials and Methods: A random sample of 500 female patients was selected from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry database. For goodness of fit, the standard model building criteria were used. The Bayesian approach is used to obtain the predictive survival times from the data-based Exponentiated Exponential Model. Markov Chain Monte Carlo method was used to obtain the summary results for predictive inference. Results: The highest number of female breast cancer patients was found in California and the lowest in New Mexico. The majority of them were married. The mean (SD) age at diagnosis (in years) was 60.92 (14.92). The mean (SD) survival time (in months) for female patients was 90.33 (83.10). The Exponentiated Exponential Model found better fits for the female survival times compared to the Exponentiated Weibull Model. The Bayesian method is used to obtain predictive inference for future survival times. Conclusions: The findings with the proposed modeling strategy will assist healthcare researchers and providers to precisely predict future survival estimates as the recent growing challenges of analyzing healthcare data have created new demand for model-based survival estimates. The application of Bayesian will produce precise estimates of future survival times.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2010

It is essential to guarantee a smooth communication and data exchange in a PHD(Personal Healthcare Device) network for applications providing U-health services. In spite of that, most of PHDs are heterogeneous, so the heterogeneity of their protocols makes it difficult to develop an integrated gateway sending sensed healthcare data to U-health service providers. To solve this problem, we suggest the design and implementation of a device adapter model based on dynamic managed module in this paper. Our model were implemented to work on the OSGi-based gateway middleware and to have interoperability in connection with the HL7 system that is the standard of the Healthcare Information systems. In addition, our model has an architecture supporting a communication based on the object serialization in order to provide extensibility in the functional aspect of applications. Through the experiment on a test-bed which is an implementation of the device adapter module for electrocardiogram and blood-pressure/blood-sugar device having one channel, we have confirmed the accuracy of sensing and sending data.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.170-175
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• 2018

Purpose: Lactose intolerance (LI) is perceived to be frequent in Asia and has been reported to have considerable impact on dietary intake, nutritional status and the quality of life. We aimed to gather information from healthcare professionals on the perceived incidence, diagnosis and management of LI in 1 to 5 year old children in Southeast Asia. Methods: An anonymous electronic survey was sent randomly among healthcare professionals registered in the database of the pediatric societies in Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore between June and October 2016. Results: In total, 259 health care professionals responded of which 45.5% (n=118) were from Thailand, 37.4% (n=97) from Indonesia and 16.9% (n=44) from Singapore. Of the participants who responded (n=248), primary LI prevalence among children 1 to 3 years of age was estimated to be less than 5% by 56.8%. However, about 18.9% (n=47) answered they did not know/unsure. Regarding secondary LI, 61.6% of respondents (n=153) estimated the prevalence to be less than 15%. But again, 10.8% (n=27) answered they did not know or unsure. Rotavirus gastroenteritis was ranked as the top cause for secondary LI. There was considerable heterogeneity in the diagnostic methods used. The majority of respondents (75%) recommended lactose-free milk to manage primary and secondary LI. Conclusion: More education/training of pediatricians on this topic and further epidemiological studies using a more systematic approach are required.