• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.84-87
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• 2017

Catastrophic healthcare expenditure refers to out-of-pocket spending for healthcare exceeding a certain proportion of a household's income and can lead to subsequent impoverishment. The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion of South Korean households that experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure between 2006 and 2015 using available data from the Korea Health Panel, National Survey of Tax and Benefit, and Household Income and Expenditure Survey. Frequencies and trend tests were conducted to analyze the proportion of households with catastrophic healthcare expenditure. Subgroup analysis was performed based on income level. The results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey revealed that around 2.88% of households experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure in 2015 and that this proportion was highest in the low income group. Results also showed a statistically significant increasing trend in the number of households with catastrophic healthcare expenditure (annual percentage change= 0.92%, p-value < 0.0001). Therefore, the findings infer a need to strengthen public health care financing and to particularly monitor catastrophic healthcare expenditure in the low income group.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.221-231
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• 2015

This paper provides the trend of Internet of Things (IoT) for smart healthcare services and applications. IoT has provided a promising opportunity to build intelligent healthcare system and smart wearable applications by using the growing capability of wireless mobile devices, interactive sensors/actuators, and RFID technologies. For analysis of state-of-art technology of smart healthcare system, this paper includes comparative analysis and investigation of existing standard, network protocol, and devices, etc. In this paper, we examine the market trend of IoT healthcare. In particular, we examine the variety of IoT based healthcare type such as mobile, wearable device. After that, we examine the technologies of IoT healthcare such as standard, sensor, network and security. This survey contributes to better understanding of the challenges in existing IoT healthcare and further new light on future research directions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.107-112
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• 2022

Catastrophic healthcare expenditure refers to out-of-pocket spending for healthcare exceeding a certain proportion of a household's income and can lead to subsequent impoverishment. The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion of South Korean households that experienced catastrophic healthcare expenditure between 2006 and 2020 using available data from the National Survey of Tax and Benefit (NaSTaB), Korea Health Panel (KHP), and Households Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). Trend test was used to analyze the proportion of household with catastrophic healthcare expenditure. In the NaSTaB 2020 data, households who experienced catastrophic health expenditure was 1.73%. Trend analysis was significant with the decreasing trend (annual percentage change [APC], -5.55; p<0.0001) in the proportion of households with the catastrophic health expenditure. Also, in the 2018 KHP and the 2016 HIES, households who experienced catastrophic health expenditure was 2.21% and 2.92% respectively. In contrast, the trend was significantly increased in the KHP (APC, 0.55; p<0.0001) and the HIES (APC, 1.43; p<0.0001). Therefore, the findings suggest the need to strengthen public health care financial support and monitor catastrophic healthcare expenditures, especially for low-income group.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.123-141
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• 2019

The goal of this study is to review the major research trend on the convergence studies of AI and healthcare technologies. For the study, 15,260 English articles on AI and healthcare related topics were collected from Scopus for 55 years from 1963, and text mining techniques were conducted. As a result, seven key research topics were defined : "AI for Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS)", "AI for Medical Image", "Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT)", "Big Data Analytics in Healthcare", "Medical Robotics", "Blockchain in Healthcare", and "Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)". The result of this study can be utilized to set up and develop the appropriate healthcare R&D strategies for the researchers and government. In this study, text mining techniques such as Text Analysis, Frequency Analysis, Topic Modeling on LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation), Word Cloud, and Ego Network Analysis were conducted.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2017

The aim of this study was to investigate the current and trend of healthcare status of South Korea compared to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. We used the position value for relative comparison (PARC) method for measuring the healthcare status of South Korea by five parts of healthcare policy (demand, supply, accessibility, quality, and cost). Additionally, we conducted Mann-Kendall test for analyzing the trend of PARC from 2000 to the present. Demand, supply, accessibility, and quality of healthcare of Korea were located upon the average of OECD countries, and showed an increasing trend from 2000 to the present. However, primary care and screening for cervical cancer were placed at a lower level compared the OECD average. In conclusion, the current state of healthcare in Korea seems to be generally beyond the average among OECD countries. However, some parts, including primary care, need to be improved.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.49-61
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• 2020

Prior studies on technology predictions attempted to predict the emergence and spread of emerging technologies through the analysis of correlations and changes between data using objective data such as patents and research papers. Most of the previous studies predicted future technologies only from the viewpoint of technology development. Therefore, this study intends to conduct technical forecasting from the perspective of the consumer by using keyword search frequency of search portals such as NAVER before and after the introduction of emerging technologies. In this study, we analyzed healthcare technologies into three types : measurement technology, platform technology, and remote service technology. And for the keyword analysis on the healthcare, we converted the classification of technology perspective into the keyword classification of consumer perspective. (Blood pressure and blood sugar, healthcare diagnosis, appointment and prescription, and remote diagnosis and prescription) Naver Trend is used to analyze keyword trends from a consumer perspective. We also used the ARIMA model as a technology prediction model. Analyzing the search frequency (Naver trend) over 44 months, the final ARIMA models that can predict three types of healthcare technology keyword trends were estimated as "ARIMA (1,2,1) (1,0,0)", "ARIMA (0,1,0) (1,0,0)", "ARIMA (1,1,0) (0,0,0)". In addition, it was confirmed that the values predicted by the time series prediction model and the actual values for 44 months were moving in almost similar patterns in all intervals. Therefore, we can confirm that this time series prediction model for healthcare technology is very suitable.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.607-616
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• 2020

Health care wearables are devices that are attached to or combined with the human body to improve the health care capabilities of the human body that can be safely and adjustable according to preference. This study provided direction for future research on healthcare wearables in the field of clothing science, considering trends observed in this field from 2010 to 2019. Over the last 10 years, 812 studies have been conducted on healthcare wearables in Korea. Research has increased significantly since 2015, with a large number of articles published in this field. The research for this study was broken down into the following categories: technology development, marketing analysis, and technology analysis. The results according to the research method demonstrated that development and production methods were used most frequently, followed by trend analysis, experiment and evaluation, and survey. An analysis of keywords in the articles studied revealed that device, healthcare, big data (biometric data and database), and healthcare convergence technologies were trending. Similarly, detailed research on healthcare wearable devices and related technologies was actively being conducted. However, focusing on fiber, textiles, design, and clothing articles, in relation to the field of clothing in healthcare wearables, only 81 articles were found on this topic (10.0%), which was low compared to other studies. Therefore, it was determined that more research on healthcare wearables is necessary in the field of clothing.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.203-213
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• 2023

This study examined the trend of healthcare status and compared the status of South Korea and other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) using the OECD health statistics 2022. We used the OECD health statistics from 2022 and a position value for relative comparison (PARC) index to compare the five elements of the healthcare system. The study also used a Mann-Kendall test to analyze the trend of the PARC values from 2000 to the present year. The findings of the study indicate that many South Korea's PARC values were higher than the OECD median. But practicing physician in supply part and medical cost were lower than OECD median but the trend significantly increased. Medical accessibility part and quality of care part except primary care, and mental health had a high relative position but the trend did not increased significantly. After outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, there were changes in medical accessibility. Health screening and vaccinations showed an overall decline in 2020 compared to 2019. These results suggest that policymakers need to take necessary steps for a sustainable healthcare system in the country.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.80-83
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• 2017

The proportion of people who reported unmet healthcare needs is an important indicator to measure the access problem in healthcare service. To examine current status and trends of unmet needs in Korea, we used data from four sources: the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES, '2007-2015); the Community Health Survey (CHS '2008-2015); the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP '2011-2013); the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS '2006-2015). The proportion of individual reporting unmet healthcare needs as of 2015 was 12.6% (KNHNES), 11.7% (CHS), and 16.3% (KHP, as of 2013). Annual percent change which characterizes trend for follow-up period was -9.4%, -3.4%, and 7.6%, respectively. The proportion of individual reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost was 2.8% (KNHNES), 1.7% (CHS), and 4.6% (KHP). The proportion of household reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost was 1.2% (KOWEPS). Annual percent change was -9.0%, -14.9%, 9.4%, and -18.2%, respectively. Low income population reported about 5 times more unmet needs than high income population. Therefore for decreasing the unmet healthcare needs, strategies focusing on low income population were needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.120-125
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• 2020

Unmet healthcare needs lead to increased disease severity, increased likelihood of complications, and worse disease prognosis. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, the four different data configured with nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used: the Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNAHANES, 2007-2018), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2018), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2016), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2018). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 7.8% (KNHANES, 2018), 8.8% (CHS), and 10.8% (KHP, 2016). Annual percentage change which characterizes trend for the follow-up period was -9.1%, -3.2%, and -6.8%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.2% (KNAHANES, 2018), 1.2% (CHS, 2018), 2.5% (KHP, 2016), and 0.5% (KOWEPS, 2018). Annual percentage change which characterizes trend for the follow-up period was -10.3%, -12.0%, -11.3%, and -18.8, respectively. The low-income population and the elderly population were vulnerable groups reporting the highest rate of unmet health care needs. The rate of unmet healthcare needs has been declining since the past decade, still, the disparity between different income groups and age groups suggests that there are many challenges to address.