• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2005

Purpose: Critical pathways (CP), also known as clinical pathways, are management plans that display goals for patients and have led to improved outcomes for many disease entities. This study was aimed at developing a critical pathway for the surgical treatment of gastric cancer patients and evaluating its usefulness. Materials and Methods: A CP was developed and implemented by a team of surgeons, nurses, nutritionists, and administrative officials. Among the 117 patients who received curative gastrectomies for gastric cancer at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, between October 2003 and August 2004, 26 patients were treated according to the CP. We evaluated its usefulness by comparing the clinical characterisctics, postoperative progress, hospital stays, and costs between the CP and the non-CP groups. Patient satisfaction was also surveyed with questionnaires. Results: Of the initial 26 patients in the CP group, two were excluded from the final evaluation; one patient had a duodenal stump leakage, and the other had a gastric stasis postoperatively. In 8 patients, protocol violation occurred; six patients refused to be discharged on the $7^{th}$ postoperative day, one patient who had an gastric staisis postoperatively stayed for 2 additional days, and one patient who needed ICU care stayed for 4 additional days. The drop-out rate was $7.7\%$ (2/26), and the variance rate was $30.8\%$ (8/26). The mean hospital stay was 11.3 days ($10\~15$ days) for the CP group compared with 17.5 days ($9\∼68$ days) for the non-CP group, resulting in a difference of about 6 days (P<0.05). The mean hospital stays after surgery were 10.3 days ($7\∼68$ days) and 8.3 days ($7\∼12$ days) for the non-CP and the CP groups, respectively, but the difference was statistically not significant (P>0.05). The mean charge during the hospital stay was higher in the non-CP group ( $\\$ 6,292,200) than in the CP group ( $\\$ 4,863,685). The charge per hospital day was higher in the CP group ( $\\$ 430,414) than in the non-CP group ( $\\$ 359,554). Patient satisfaction was higher in the CP group than in the non-CP group. Conclusion: By developing and applying a critical pathway in the surgical treatment of stomach cancer patients, we could reduce the length of hospital stay as well as the cost. A multi-centered prospective study to establish a standard treatment pathway and to demonstrate its effectiveness is needed in the future.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.537-545
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• 1994

Background: In 1987, the British Thoracic Society (BTS) subjected an extensive list of patient variables to statistical analysis in a prospective study of prognosis in 453 adults with community-acquired pneumonia and, subsequently published guidelines for management of severe community acquired pneumonia. It was hoped that those at risk of dying from community acquired pneumonia could be easily identified and treated appropriately, thereby reducing mortality. To date, severe community acquired pneumonia has not been well studied in Korea. Therefore, we studied retrospectively 10 patients dying of severe community acquired pneumonia in Dongsan Hospital to see clinical manifestations of dying of severe community-acquired pneumonia. Methods: Between July 1987 and july 1993, 498 patients were admitted to Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital with community acquired pneumonia, and 77 of them received intensive care. Of the 77 patients, 10 patients died. We reviewed medical records of these patients. Results: 1) The mean age of the patients was 56.2 years(range, 25 to 75 years). There were 7 men and 3 women. Seven patients(70%) were older than 60years of age. 2) The clinical features on admission were as follows: tachypnca, hypoxemia, mental change, cyanosis, leukopenia, leukocytosis, azotemia, hypotension, hypoalbuminemia in order of frequency. Three patients had one abnormal physical finding, 3 patients had 2, 2 patients had 3, and 2 patients had none of these abnormal physical findings. All patients had at least one of the abnormal laboratory findings. 3) A potential bacterial pathogen was isolated in sputum culture from 2 patients. One was E.coli, the other Enterobacter species. Sputum stain were positive in eight cases (G(+)cocci in six, G(+) cocci and G(-)bacilli in two). 4) Features of respiratory failure were the main reasons for ICU transfer, but two patients were transferred only following a cardiac or respiratory arrest in the general ward. 5) The mean of 2.7 different antibiotics were given to the patients. The aminoglycoside and first generation cephalosporin were the most frequently prescribed antibiotics, followed by the third generation cephalosporin and vancomycin. The most frequently prescribed antibiotics combination was a 1st generation cephalosporin plus an aminoglycoside. 6) Seven patients death(70%) occured after admission within the first five days, and a mean duration of hospitaliztion was 11.2 days. Conclusion: As the results show most death occured within the first five days after admission and aged patients; consequently, an aggressive intensive treatment should be provided early to the patients with severe community acquired pneumonia, and we should pay more attention to the aged patients.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.57-78
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• 2016

Hacking has raised many critical issues in the modern world, particularly because the size and cost of the damages caused by this disruptive activity have steadily increased. Accordingly, many significant studies have been conducted by behavioral scientists to understand hackers and their practices. Nonetheless, only qualitative methods, such as interviews, meta-studies, and media studies, have been employed in such studies because of hacker sampling limitations. Existing studies have determined that intrinsic motivation was the dominant factor influencing hackers, and that their techniques were mainly acquired from online hacking communities. However, such results have yet to be causally proven. This study attempted to identify the causal factors influencing the motivational and environmental factors encouraging hackers to learn hacking skills. To this end, hacker community members using the theory of planned behavior were observed to identify the causal factors of their learning of hacking skills. We selected a group of students who were developing their hacking skills. The survey was conducted over a two-week period in May 2015 with a total of 227 students as respondents. After list-wise deletion, 215 of the responses were deemed usable (94.7 percent). In summary, the hackers were aware that hacking skills are considered socially unethical, and their attitudes toward the learning of hacking skills were affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In addition, the characteristics of the online hacking community affected their perceived behavioral control. This study introduced new concepts in the process of conducting a causal relationship analysis on a hacker sample. Moreover, this research expanded the discussion on the causal direction of subjective norms in unethical research, and empirically confirmed that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations affect the learning of hacking skills. This study also made a practical contribution by raising the educational and policy response issues for ethical hackers and demonstrating the necessity to intensify the punishment for hacking.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.99-124
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• 2009

Many firms in Korea have adopted and used advanced information technology in an effort to boost efficiency. The process of adapting to the new technology, at the same time, can vary from one firm to another. As such, this research focuses on several relevant factors, especially the roles of social interaction as a key variable that influences the technology adaptation process and the outcomes. Thus far, how a firm goes through the adaptation process to the new technology has not been yet fully explored. Previous studies on changes undergone by a firm or an organization due to information technology have been pursued from various theoretical points of views, evolved from technological and institutional views to an integrated social technology views. The technology adaptation process has been understood to be something that evolves over time and has been regarded as cycles between misalignments and alignments, gradually approaching the stable aligned state. The adaptation process of the new technology was defined as "appropriation" process according to Poole and DeSanctis (1994). They suggested that this process is not automatically determined by the technology design itself. Rather, people actively select how technology structures should be used; accordingly, adoption practices vary. But concepts of the appropriation process in these studies are not accurate while suggested propositions are not clear enough to apply in practice. Furthermore, these studies do not substantially suggest which factors are changed during the appropriation process and what should be done to bring about effective outcomes. Therefore, research objectives of this study lie in finding causes for the difference in ways in which advanced information technology has been used and adopted among organizations. The study also aims to explore how a firm's interaction with social as well as technological factors affects differently in resulting organizational changes. Detail objectives of this study are as follows. First, this paper primarily focuses on the appropriation process of advanced information technology in the long run, and we look into reasons for the diverse types of the usage. Second, this study is to categorize each phases in the appropriation process and make clear what changes occur and how they are evolved during each phase. Third, this study is to suggest the guidelines to determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group and organizational level. For this, a substantially grounded theory that can be applied to organizational practice has been developed from a longitudinal comparative case study. For these objectives, the technology appropriation process was explored based on Structuration Theory by Giddens (1984), Orlikoski and Robey (1991) and Adaptive Structuration Theory by Poole and DeSanctis (1994), which are examples of social technology views on organizational change by technology. Data have been obtained from interviews, observations of medical treatment task, and questionnaires administered to group members who use the technology. Data coding was executed in three steps following the grounded theory approach. First of all, concepts and categories were developed from interviews and observation data in open coding. Next, in axial coding, we related categories to subcategorize along the lines of their properties and dimensions through the paradigm model. Finally, the grounded theory about the appropriation process was developed through the conditional/consequential matrix in selective coding. In this study eight hypotheses about the adaptation process have been clearly articulated. Also, we found that the appropriation process involves through three phases, namely, "direct appropriation," "cooperate with related structures," and "interpret and make judgments." The higher phases of appropriation move, the more users represent various types of instrumental use and attitude. Moreover, the previous structures like "knowledge and experience," "belief that other members know and accept the use of technology," "horizontal communication," and "embodiment of opinion collection process" are evolved to higher degrees in their dimensions of property. Furthermore, users continuously create new spirits and structures, while removing some of the previous ones at the same time. Thus, from longitudinal view, faithful and unfaithful appropriation methods appear recursively, but gradually faithful appropriation takes over the other. In other words, the concept of spirits and structures has been changed in the adaptation process over time for the purpose of alignment between the task and other structures. These findings call for a revised or extended model of structural adaptation in IS (Information Systems) literature now that the vague adaptation process in previous studies has been clarified through the in-depth qualitative study, identifying each phrase with accuracy. In addition, based on these results some guidelines can be set up to help determine which strategies are needed in an individual, group, and organizational level for the purpose of effective technology appropriation. In practice, managers can focus on the changes of spirits and elevation of the structural dimension to achieve effective technology use.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.311-318
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the prevalence rate of refractive error with gender and age presenting visual acuity of primary student in Jeonnam. Methods: Subjective refraction, objective refraction and visual acuity test were examined on 735 primary school children who ages of 8~13 years lived in Jenman. Presenting visual acuity test was using Han's visual acuity chart and objective refraction was carried out using auto-refractometer. Results: The presenting visual acuity was 0.1 worse in the eye of 54(7.3%) students and 49(7.3%) of them wearing the glasses. The rate of the wearing glasses were 79.3% in 0.125~0.25 visual acuity, 64.2% in 0.3~0.5 visual acuity and 61.6% in 0.6~0.8 visual acuity. It was appeared that 269(36.6%) of them were emmetropia, 321(43.7%) of them were myopia and 56(7.6%) of them were hyperopia, and 89(12.1%) of them were astigmatism. The prevalence rate of myopia was the highest and followed by the prevalence rate of astigmatism. The low degree of myopia occupied the most and the medium degree of myopia showed the tendency of increase as the students get olds. The prevalence rate of the hyperopia showed the tendency of decrease as the students get olds. The prevalence rate of with the rule astigmatism were 50.6% students and against the rule astigmatism were 48.3% of students. Conclusions: The present study reveals the considerable prevalence rates, 466(63.4%) of included subjects, of refractive errors among primary students in Jeonnam province. The rate of the wearing glasses were 313(42.6%). The prevalence of myopia increases as the students get older. Therefore students of visual management is considered necessary through the visual acuity test and refractive examination.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.1134-1140
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• 2002

Purpose : Childhood accidents have been increasing recently. Accidents rank as the leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity. We performed this study to evaluate the causes of childhood accidents. Methods : The authors analysed retrospectively the medical records of 6,410 cases of childhood accidental injuries who visited the emergency room of Asan Medical Center from January 1990 to December 1999. Results : The most common type of accidents was trauma which accounted for 5,038 cases of the total accidents, followed by falls, burns, foreign body aspiration, and poisoning. The most common age of foreign body aspiration was under two years old and the male to female ratio was 2 to 1. The most common site of foreign body aspiration was the esophagus and the stomach, followed by the respiratory tract. In airways, the right and left main bronchus were the most common site for foreign body aspiration and were accompanied by the highest mortality. The most common foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract were coins and peanuts, respectively. Conclusion : The most common cause of accidents was trauma, followed by falls, burns, foreign body aspiration, and poisoning. The incidence of foreign body aspiration and poisoning is increasing in infants. In cases of foreign bodies in airways, proper management is needed because of the high mortality rate.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.1095-1100
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• 2003

Purpose : Children with acute colonic diverticulitis(ACD), can be misdiagnosed with acute appendicitis. Methods : We reviewed 15 cases of ACD during five years, from January 1998 to June 2002 retrospectively. Results : Most patients(80%) with ACD in children presented with right lower quadrant pain. The primary diagnosis on admission was mostly acute appendicitis(87%), and all ACD in children occurred in the right colon. Fourteen patients were managed by conservative treatment including antibiotics. A follow-up study was performed in 15 patients. There were symptomatic recurrences in two patients, but no significant complication was noted. The frequency of ACD was 11.7 per 1000 acute appendicitis. Conclusion : ACD in children can mostly be cured by conservative treatment. It is prudent to choose the management through the diagnostic work up, including abdominal sonography and computed tomography, because there was no significant difference of clinical findings between ACD and acute appendicitis.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.44-49
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• 2009

Purpose : Early surfactant treatment and minimal ventilation, bronchopulmonary dysplasia needed prolonged oxygen supplement is a problem. This study aimed to report the effects of early surfactant treatment and minimal ventilation on the prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in respiratory distress syndrome. Methods : We retrospectively studied 139 premature newborn infants (gestational age, 36 weeks; birth weight, 1,500 gm) admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of Daegu Fatima Hospital between January 2001 and December 2006. We analyzed the occurrence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia with respect to ventilator care and surfactant treatment. Results : The incidence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia was significantly higher with prolonged ventilator care, moderate to severe respiratory distress syndrome, and low Apgar score (P<0.001). Despite early surfactant treatment and minimal ventilation, mild bronchopulmonary dysplasia occurs in a considerable number of patients with mild respiratory distress syndrome. The patient group with low Apgar scores required ventilator care for a prolonged period (P=0.020). Conclusion : Early surfactant treatment and minimal ventilation shortens the duration of ventilator care; however, the preventive effects on bronchopulmonary dysplasia are limited. Therefore, not only early surfactant treatment and minimal ventilation but also appropriate management in the delivery room is essential.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2009

Purpose : The rate of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in children is an indicator of the effectiveness of TB control programs in the community. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of DR-TB in children and evaluate TB management. Methods : Between January 1999 and July 2007, drug susceptibility tests for anti-TB drugs were employed for patients aged less than 19 years with culture-positive TB. Results : A total of 607 cases (16.6%) were resistant to at least one anti-TB drug as follows: isoniazid (INH; 13.8%), rifampin (8.9%), pyrazinamide (4.2%), streptomycin (3.7%), ethambutol (EMB; 5.9%), and para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS; 1.9%). Multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB was found in 276 cases (7.6%); extensive drug resistant (XDR) TB, in 5 cases (0.2%). The rate of resistance to at least one anti-TB drug in children aged >15 years (16.1%) was significantly lower than that in children aged <15 years (20.5%) (P=0.016). The rate of resistance to at least one anti-TB drug and multidrug-resistance in this survey decreased significantly (P<0.001) as compared to the previous survey (1987-1995). The rate of resistance to INH, EMB, and PAS also significantly decreased (P<0.05). Conclusion : The rate of DR-TB in children in Korea has decreased over time; however, it remains higher than that in other countries. MDR-TB and XDR-TB are the emerging problems in Korean children. Therefore, the selection of effective drugs through drug susceptibility tests and evaluating risk factors of resistant TB is essential to successful therapy and a decreased incidence of DR-TB.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.1012-1017
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• 2008

Purpose : This study aimed to assess the mechanical properties of the abdominal aorta in school-aged patients treated for Kawasaki disease and in normal, healthy children. Methods : This study examined 28 children with Kawasaki disease who had been followed up on and 30 healthy subjects of the same age and gender. We recorded systolic (Ps) and diastolic (Pd) blood pressure values and the aortic diameter at both minimum diastolic (Dd) and maximum systolic (Ds) expansion using two-dimensional echocardiography. These measurements were used to determine 1) aortic strain: S=(Ds-Dd)/Dd; 2) pressure strain elastic modulus: Ep=(Ps-Pd)/S; and 3) normalized Ep: $Ep^*=Ep/Pd$. Results : Ep (P=0.008) and $Ep^*$ (P=0.043) of the Kawasaki disease group were relatively high compared to those of the control group. Ep (P=0.002) and $Ep^*$ (P=0.015) of patients with coronary aneurysm were also relatively high compared with those of patients without coronary aneurysm, but lipid profiles did not differ, except for homocysteine (P=0.008). Therefore, in patients with coronary aneurysm, aortic stiffness was higher, compared to not only the control group but also patients without coronary aneurysm. However, in patients without coronary aneurysm, aortic stiffness was not significant, different compared to the control group. Conclusion : Measuring aortic distensibility may be helpful in assessing the risk of early atheroscletic change in the long-term management of Kawasaki disease.