• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.613-625
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• 2019

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices have greatly influenced many industries and one of them is healthcare where wearable devices started to track all your daily activities for better health monitoring accuracy and even down to tracking daily food intake in some cases. With the amounts of data that are being tracked and shared between from these devices, questions were raised on how to uphold user's data privacy when data is shared between these IoT devices and third party. With the blockchain platforms started to mature since its inception, the technology can be implemented according to a variety of use case scenarios. In this paper, we present a system architecture based on the healthcare system and IoT network by leveraging on multiple blockchain networks as the medium in between that should enable users to have direct authority on data accessibility of their shared data. We provide proof of concept implementation and highlight the results from our testing to show how the efficiency and scalability of the healthcare system improved without having a significant impact on the performance of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that mostly affected by the previous solution since these solutions directly connected to a public blockchain network and which resulted in significant delays and high cost of operation when a large amount of data or complicated functions are involved.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.271-279
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• 2022

Functional cosmetics containing various ingredients that improve skin health are currently being developed. In addition, technologies that help increase the absorption rate of such cosmetics have recently gained significant attention. Sonophoresis is a method to increase the transdermal absorption of cosmetics using ultrasound. A skin-mimicking phantom was fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane, Strat-M^TM membrane, and thermochromic pigments. Gel-type cosmetics used in skin mask packs and epidermal-growth-factor-based nano-cosmetics were tested for their absorption rates at ultrasound frequencies of 1, 3, and 10 MHz in the single frequency mode, and 1/3 and 3/10 MHz in the dual frequency mode. The gel-type cosmetics and epidermal-grow-factor-based nano-cosmetics showed the highest absorption rate at 3/10MHz dual frequency. The size of the cosmetic particles decreased by 5-9 %. Furthermore, the temperature rise caused by ultrasound could be visually recognized by the thermochromic pigment in the phantom turning white. We presented a skin-mimicking phantom. The device can be customized according to the size of the ultrasound probe and has the advantage of quantitatively evaluating the transdermal permeability of cosmetics at a low cost. The development of the skin-mimicking phantom will be useful for determining the suitable conditions required to increase the absorption rate of cosmetics using ultrasound.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.14
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• pp.5921-5926
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• 2014

A large proportion of patients with thyroid nodules in China undergo thyroidectomy in order to get confirmatory histology diagnosis. The financial impact of this modality remains to be investigated. To evaluate rationality of performing thyroidectomy without a routine FNA preoperatively from the economic perspective, we conducted a retrospective, observational study of all archival thyroidectomies with records of cost per stay (CPS), cost per day (CPD) and length of stay (LOS) from 2008 to 2013 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. We compared all the parameters between cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomies. We recruited 6, 140 thyroidectomies with valid records of CPS, CPD and LOS in this period. The CPS of cancer thyroidectomy was significantly higher than non-cancer thyroidectomy. The percentage of cancer thyroidectomy increased from 26.5% to 41.6%. The percentage of annual cost of cancer thyroidectomies rose from 30.2% to 45.2%. The LOS for cancer and non-cancer thyroidectomy decreased while the CPD increased in the past six years. The estimated national cost in 2012 for all thyroidectomies would be USD 1.86 billion with USD 1.09 billion for non-cancer thyroidectomies. We have witnessed great improvement in the healthcare for patients with thyroid nodules in China. However, given limited healthcare resources, currently thyroid FNA for more precise preoperative diagnosis may help to curb the rapidly increasing demand in healthcare costs in the future for nodular thyroid disease in China.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.164-177
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• 2020

This study aims to compare the experience of selected countries in operating separate payment system for new healthcare technology and to find implications for price setting in Korea. We analyzed the related reports, papers, laws, regulations, and related agencies' online materials from five selected countries including the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, and France. Each country has its own additional payment system for new technologies: transitional pass-through payment and new technology ambulatory payment classification for outpatient care and new technology add-on payment for inpatient care (USA), an extra payment for materials with new functions or new treatment (C1, C2; Japan), an additional payment system for new special treatment materials (Taiwan), a short-term extra funding for new diagnosis and treatment (NUB; Germany), and list of additional payments for new medical devices (France). The technology should be proven safe and effective in order to get approval for an additional payment. The price is determined by considering the actual cost of providing the technology and the cost of existing similar technologies listed in the benefits package. The revision cycle of the additional payment is 1 to 4 years. The cost or usage is monitored during that period and then integrated into the existing fee schedule or removed from the list. We conclude that it is important to set the explicit criteria to select services eligible for additional payment, to collect and analyze data to assess eligibility and to set the payment, to monitor the usage or cost, and to make follow-up measures in price setting for new health technologies in Korea.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.213-217
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• 2014

The widespread use of microsurgery in numerous surgical fields has increased the need for basic microsurgical training outside of the operating room. The traditional start of microsurgical training has been in undertaking a 5-day basic microsurgery course. In an era characterised by financial constraints in academic and healthcare institutions as well as increasing emphasis on patient safety, there has been a shift in microsurgery training to simulation environments. This paper reviews the stepwise framework of microsurgical skill acquisition providing a cost analysis of basic microsurgery courses in order to aid planning and dissemination of microsurgical training worldwide.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.126-133
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• 2010

This study was conducted to analyze cost-utility of bosentan versus iloprost indicated for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in a Korean healthcare setting from a payer's perspective. We constructed a Markov model to estimate total costs and outcomes for 1-year time horizon in a hypothetical cohort of 50-year-old patients with PAH. Base analysis showed that bosentan resulted in KW 5.5 billions saving and 18 quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gains per 100 patients compared to iloprost. Bosentan as a dominant strategy was found to be robust through various sensitivity analyses.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2010

This study was conducted to analyze cost-effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer in Korean healthcare setting. We constructed a decision analytical model to estimate total costs and outcomes of paclitaxel+cisplatin (PC) or docetaxel+cisplatin+5-FU (DCF) for 2 years time horizon in 100 patient cohort with locally advanced head and neck cancer. Base analysis showed that cost savings of PC regimen were 379 million Korean Won and 231 million Korean Won in societal and payer's perspectives, respectively, compared to DCF regimen, and life saved was 0.18. PC regimen as a dominant strategy was found to be robust through sensitivity analyses.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.176-182
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• 2023

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is being developed to guide various ophthalmic surgical procedures. However, the high cost of the intraoperative OCT system limits its availability mostly to the largest hospitals and healthcare systems. In this paper, we present a design and evaluation of a low-cost intraoperative common-path free-hand scanning OCT system. The lensed fiber imaging probe is designed and fabricated for intraocular use and the free-hand scanning algorithm that could operate at a low scanning speed was developed. Since the system operates at low frequencies, the cost of the overall system is significantly lower than other commercial intraoperative OCT systems. The assembled system is characterized and shows that it meets the design specifications. The handheld OCT imaging probe is tested on multilayer tape phantom and ex-vivo porcine eyes. The results show that the system could be used as an intraoperative intraocular OCT imaging device.

• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.33-40
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• 2016

Previous works for detecting arrhythmia have mostly used nonlinear method to increase classification accuracy. Most methods require accurate detection of ECG signal, higher computational cost and larger processing time. But it is difficult to analyze the ECG signal because of various noise types. Also in the healthcare system based IOT that must continuously monitor people's situation, it is necessary to process ECG signal in realtime. Therefore it is necessary to design efficient algorithm that classifies different arrhythmia in realtime and decreases computational cost by extrating minimal feature. In this paper, we propose R wave detection considering complexity and arrhythmia classification based on binary coding. For this purpose, we detected R wave through SOM and then RR interval from noise-free ECG signal through the preprocessing method. Also, we classified arrhythmia in realtime by converting threshold variability of feature to binary code. R wave detection and PVC, PAC, Normal classification is evaluated by using 39 record of MIT-BIH arrhythmia database. The achieved scores indicate the average of 99.41%, 97.18%, 94.14%, 99.83% in R wave, PVC, PAC, Normal.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.453-461
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• 2013

This study, changes in raw water quality is to indicate on the efficiency of ozone treatment of each pollutant as compared to derive the appropriate operating measures. The appropriate selection for injection rate of pre-ozone and did not inject pre-ozone assess changes in the water. When good water quality, you not injected of pre-ozone to evaluate the economic efficiency of electricity and put the most cost-effective ozone concentration were evaluated. Evaluation remove organic matter and chlorophyll-a concentration level in experiments with each factor of the water DOC> 2.5 mg/L, THMFP> 70 ${\mu}g/L$, Chl-a> 30 $mg/m^3$or less constant process, if you do not need to put pre-ozone showed little impact. It also does not put you in pre-ozone appropriate produce enough power rate savings was calculated as approximately 90 million won. Ability to remove organic materials and the ability to produce disinfection byproducts, and cost-effective decisions by considering the concentration of injection if pre-ozone 1 mg/L was investigated by the appropriate concentration of ozone injection.