• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2018

Objectives: The post-accreditation management system should be systematic in order to ensure that the accredited hospital continues to strive for patient safety and quality improvement during the accreditation period. In this study, we compare the post-accreditation management system in four countries (the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Korea) and provide suggestions for improving the post-accreditation management system in Korea. Results: All four countries had the post-accreditation management system, and the basic structure of the system in Korea was similar to that of others. However, there were differences in the practical operation processes and the use of the results. In the operation process, Korea's monitoring relies on voluntary reporting by accredited hospitals. In terms of results utilization, analytical feedback to data submitted by the acrredited hospital is not provided in Korea. Conclusions: It is necessary to establish a continuous monitoring system for post-accreditation changes and provide feedback to accredited hospitals. It is also necessary to perform a survey without advance notice and establish a firm legal basis for monitoring.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a framework for the real-time monitoring of wireless biosensors. This is a scalable platform that requires minimum human interaction during set-up and monitoring. Its main components include a biosensor, a smart gateway to automatically set up the body area network, a mechanism for delivering data to an Internet monitoring server, and automatic data collection, profiling and feature extraction from bio-potentials. Such a system could increase the quality of life and significantly lower healthcare costs for everyone in general, and for the elderly and those with disabilities in particular.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.46-60
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• 2004

Background : Recently, we have experienced various changes in the healthcare environment. Healthcare organizations are facing a financial crisis due to more competitive relationships among themselves as well with low health insurance fees. The purposes of the current study were: (1) to develop a data warehouse-based system for evaluating and monitoring the case management activities, and (2) to measure and analyze its effects. Methods : In order to collect the data for the study, the database on discharged patients was utilized at a university hospital located in Seoul from June 1, 2002 through December 31, 2002. Initially, a data warehouse was built for the case management system. The case management activities were analyzed using structured methodology to establish the case management system. Results : The findings of this study were as follows: (1) A case management system was developed to make it possible to monitor of healthcare quality and resource utilization. The Case management System included monitoring functions regarding utilization reviews, critical pathways, and clinical indicators. (2) Utilizing the case management system, unplanned readmissions were documented among total discharged patients during two months from November 1, 2002 through December 31, 2002. The unplanned readmission rate was 2.3%(276 patients) in total of 11,960 discharged patients. Among them 81 patients(0.7% of total discharges, 29.3% of unplanned readmission) were readmitted to the same physician in charge under the same diagnosis. No significant differences were found in the demographic variables such as gender and age among the patients. (3) After implementing the case management system, 2.9% of average length of stay reduced. Applying cost-benefit analysis, the 2.9% reduction of length of stay represents net profit of ${\backslash}$ 279,592,000 in the year of 2004. In addition, applying value acceleration analysis, cumulative net benefit of ${\backslash}$ 1,481,000,000 was expected by the year of 2007. Also we were able to expect ${\backslash}$ 247,800,000 of cumulative benefit for the prospective 5 years in value linkage analysis. It represents average ${\backslash}$ 787,700,000 of pure net benefit a year. Conclusion : The value of present study would be not only implementing the knowledge management system into the existing case management activities, but also evaluating its effects and estimating its financial benefits. This study suggested that the case management system would be a supportive tool for monitoring and improving the quality of healthcare, and a cost-effective tool for increment of healthcare organization's financial benefit.

• Healthcare Informatics Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.387-393
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• 2018

Objectives: This paper describes an experience of implementing seamless service trials online and offline by adopting Internet of Things (IoT) technology based on near-field communication (NFC) tags and Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) beacons. The services were provided for both patients and health professionals. Methods: The pilot services were implemented to enhance healthcare service quality, improve patient safety, and provide an effective business process to health professionals in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. The services to enhance healthcare service quality include healing tours, cancer information/education, psychological assessments, indoor navigation, and exercise volume checking. The services to improve patient safety are monitoring of high-risk inpatients and delivery of real-time health information in emergency situations. In addition, the services to provide an effective business process to health professionals include surveys and web services for patient management. Results: Considering the sustainability of the pilot services, we decided to pause navigation and patient monitoring services until the interference problem could be completely resolved because beacon signal interference significantly influences the quality of services. On the other hand, we had to continue to provide new wearable beacons to high-risk patients because of hygiene issues, so the cost increased over time and was much higher than expected. Conclusions: To make the smart connected hospital services sustainable, technical feasibility (e.g., beacon signal interference), economic feasibility (e.g., continuous provision of new necklace beacons), and organizational commitment and support (e.g., renewal of new alternative medical devices and infrastructure) are required.

• IE interfaces
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.246-256
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• 2010

As wireless and mobile technologies have advanced significantly, lots of large sized healthcare organizations have implemented so called mobile hospital (m-Hospital) which provides a location independent and point of care (POC) clinical environment. Implementation of m-Hospital enhances quality of care because health professionals such as physicians and nurses can use hospital information systems at the very place where patients are located without any delay. This paper presents a real-time patient monitoring system based on wireless network technologies. A general framework for the patient monitoring process is introduced and the architecture and components of the proposed monitoring system is described. The system collects and analyzes biometric signals of in-patients who suffer from cancer. Specifically, it continuously monitors oxygen saturation of patients in bed and alarms health professionals instantly when an abnormal status of the patient is detected. The monitoring system has been used and clinically verified in a university hospital.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1229-1248
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• 2016

With the feature of convenience and low cost, remote healthcare monitoring (RHM) has been extensively used in modern disease management to improve the quality of life. Due to the privacy of health data, it is of great importance to implement RHM based on a secure and dependable network. However, the network connectivity of existing RHM systems is unreliable in disaster area because of the unforeseeable damage to the communication infrastructure. To design a secure RHM system in disaster area, this paper presents a Secure VANET-Assisted Remote Healthcare Monitoring System (SVC) by utilizing the unique "store-carry-forward" transmission mode of vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). To improve the network performance, the VANET in SVC is designed to be a two-level network consisting of two kinds of vehicles. Specially, an innovative two-level key management model by mixing certificate-based cryptography and ID-based cryptography is customized to manage the trust of vehicles. In addition, the strong privacy of the health information including context privacy is taken into account in our scheme by combining searchable public-key encryption and broadcast techniques. Finally, comprehensive security and performance analysis demonstrate the scheme is secure and efficient.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.30-38
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• 2022

Purpose: The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) in South Korea initiated a quality assessment (QA) program for blood transfusion healthcare services in 2020 to ensure patient safety and appropriate blood use. This study examines the quality of blood transfusion services since the first national QA program for blood transfusion services in Korea. Methods: We analyzed HIRA claims and QA investigation data based on inpatient medical records from all tertiary, general, and primary hospitals between October 2020 and March 2021. The target population was patients aged 18 years and older who received either total knee arthroplasty or red blood cell transfusion. The QA indicators for transfusion healthcare service consisted of four quality indicators and four monitoring indicators. Results: We analyzed the results of QA indicators for transfusion service from the medical records of 189,668 patients from 1,171hospitals and expressed indicators as proportions. The average results for evaluation indicators were as follows: transfusion checklist presence, 64.8%; irregular antibody tests, 61.8%; transfusions in which the hemoglobin levels before transfusion met the transfusion guidelines for patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 20.6%, and transfusions in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 59.3%. The average results for monitoring indicators were as follows: transfusion management implementation in medical institutions, 56.9%; preoperative anemia management in anemia patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty, 43.9%; one-unit transfusions, 82.5%; and the transfusion index. Conclusion: The quality of blood transfusion healthcare varied and the assessment revealed that there is scope for improvement. Hospitals require more effective blood transfusion management and this can be facilitated by providing feedback on the QA results about blood transfusion healthcare services to medical institutions, and by disclosing the results to the public.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.99-114
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• 2020

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), including deep learning, has led to the development of technologies that may assist in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, prediction of disease risk and prognosis, health index monitoring, drug development, and healthcare management and administration. However, in order for AI technology to improve the quality of medical care, technical problems and the efficacy of algorithms should be evaluated in real clinical environments rather than the environment in which algorithms are developed. Further consideration should be given to whether these models can improve the quality of medical care and clinical outcomes of patients. In addition, the development of regulatory systems to secure the safety of AI medical technology, the ethical and legal issues related to the proliferation of AI technology, and the impacts on the relationship with patients also need to be addressed. Systematic training of healthcare personnel is needed to enable adaption to the rapid changes in the healthcare environment. An overall review and revision of undergraduate medical curriculum is required to enable extraction of significant information from rapidly expanding medical information, data science literacy, empathy/compassion for patients, and communication among various healthcare providers. Specialized postgraduate AI education programs for each medical specialty are needed to develop proper utilization of AI models in clinical practice.

• The Magazine of the IEIE
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.58-72
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• 2004

Smart sensors and biochip technologies have received a great deal of attention in recent years not only because of the enormous potential markets in the healthcare expenditures but more importantly because of its great impact on the quality of human life in the future. Collaborative research among BT (Bio Technologies), IT (Information Technologies) and NT (Nano Technologies) will bring us a new paradigm of the healthcare services. Examples include disease prediction based on the genetic tests, personal medicines, point-of-care analysis, rapid and sensitive infectious disease diagnostics, environmental monitoring for chemical or biological warfares, intelligent drug delivery systems etc. In this report, recent accomplishment in the research area on biosensors, DNA chips, Protein Chips and Lab-on-a-chips are reviewed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.14-22
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• 2011

It is important for the strategy of service to provide the health information in the environment that the healthcare has been changed focusing on the preventive medicine. Recently, the various applications of u-healthcare have been presented by researchers. In this paper, we proposed the health information monitoring system using the context sensors based band. By wearing the proposed hand, the health status is gathered and vital signals are transmitted to the connected UMPC. It can be easily monitored according to the user locations in real time. To provide the health index according to the temperature, the air conditioning, the illumination, the humidity, and the ultraviolet rays, we use the various XML links extracted from RSS of the Korea Meteorological Administration. The health information is analyzed in terms of factors, such as, the asthma index, the stroke index, the skin disease index, the pulmonary disease index, the pollen concentration index, and the city high temperature index. Ultimately, this paper suggests empirical application to verify the adequacy and the validity with the proposed system. Accordingly, the satisfaction and the quality of services will be improved the healthcare.