• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.295-301
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• 2023

Since its inception in 2009, medical tourism in South Korea has continued to progress. Reaching its peak in 2019, the industry experienced a sharp decline in inbound patients after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 due to international border closures and a surge in patient numbers. However, from 2021 onwards, there has been a gradual increase in inbound patients. The purpose of this study was to classify the top 12 countries based on the number of actual patients entering the country from 2014 to 2022, using statistics from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. It also analyzed the changes in the number of foreign patients visiting Korea and the evolving proportion of actual patients compared to short-term visa arrivals on a yearly basis. Through this content, we aim to examine the trends on a country-by-country basis and identify the direction in which the future of South Korean medical tourism should progress. By focusing on healthcare, we intend to pinpoint areas that require attention and improvement, as well as highlight any existing issues. Through modifications and enhancements based on these considerations, we aspire to attract a significant number of foreign patients, thereby promoting South Korea's medical technology on a global scale.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.187-199
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• 2018

In this study, only 2,877 men, 2,614 men (44.6%), and 143 women (2.3%) were selected as the subjects who were over 18 years old in response to the health consciousness of the Korean medical panel data in 2012. Emergency of smokers through medical use and medical expenditure data by smoking. The social costs were estimated through medical expenses according to the number of hospitalization and outpatient medical use. The social cost was calculated by summing the social expenditure on health care costs, insurer (corporation) costs, copayment, non - salary, and productivity costs by adopting the social perspective established by the health economist Rice (1968). The rate of annual emergency medical use by smoking status is 7.5% for smokers per 100 people, 9.8 times for use, and 809,003 won for social expenses. The annual rate of hospitalization per 100,000 population by smoking status was 9.6% for smokers per 100 population, 9 times for use, The social cost is 706,870 won. Annual smoking rate by smoking status was 68.6% for smoking, 9 cases for annual medical use,

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2022

Background: PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD) had a great impact on health care workers during the COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019, COVID-19). Better knowledge of the prevalence of PTSD and its risk factors is a major public health problem. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence and important risk factors of PTSD among medical staff during the COVID-19. Methods: The databases were searched for studies published during the COVID-19, and a PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis) compliant systematic review (PROSPERO-CRD 42021278970) was carried out to identify articles from multiple databases reporting the prevalence of PTSD outcomes among medical staff. Proportion random effect analysis, I² statistic, quality assessment, subgroup analysis, and sensitivity analysis were carried out. Results: A total of 28 cross-sectional studies and the PTSD results of doctors and nurses were summarized from 14 and 27 studies: the prevalences were 31% (95% CI [confidence interval, CI]: 21%-40%) and 38% (95% CI: 30%-45%) in doctors and nurses, respectively. The results also showed seven risks (p < 0.05): long working hours, isolation wards, COVID-19 symptoms, nurses, women, fear of infection, and pre-existing mental illness. Two factors were of borderline significance: higher professional titles and married. Conclusion: Health care workers have a higher prevalence of PTSD during COVID-19. Health departments should provide targeted preventive measures for medical staff away from PTSD.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.29-37
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• 2022

MDR, a new European medical device regulation newly enacted in 2017, requires that medical device products that have received CE conformity certification through MDD be re-certified by May 2024 in line with the new CE MDR regulation. The new MDR requires more stringent medical device clinical evaluation and clinical investigation than the previous MDD required, and also require the submission of documented post-marketing surveillance data. Korean medical device makers also need to meet the new MDR requirements and obtain conformity certification, but the industry is still confused because they do not understand the new regulations thoroughly. In this study, medical device regulations in Korea, the United States, and Europe are compared, and the European MDR is further compared with the previous European Medical Device Directive MDD to help understand the requirements of the new European Medical Device Act.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1081-1089
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• 2008

Beginning in the 2007-2008 season, the men's pro-basketball league changed a foreigner selection method by introducing a draft system which leads to a tryout from the free agency system. Also in the same season, the woman's pro-basketball league changed its system from one that permitted foreign players to one that doesn't allow foreign player participation. The reason for this change is thought to be financial problems. However this institutional change brings about the reduction in the quality of basketball and it will affect spectators in a negative way. The empirical study attempted to analyze the effects which follows an institutional change in Korean men's pro-basketball. The research showed that the men's pro-basketball league wasn't affected at all due to foreigner selection method by a draft system that led to a tryout from the free agency system.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.153-185
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• 2020

In principle, even if serious consequences such as death or serious injury of a patient occur as a result of a medical accident, if the medical malpractice of a health care worker is not recognized, the health care worker is not held liable for said consequences. However, with the opening of the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency on April 7, 2012, a system was established to compensate health care personnel for their medical malpractices only in the case of "injuries caused by medical accidents in the course of childbirth" (hereinafter referred to as "program for compensation of medical accidents"). Article 46 paragraph 1 of the current Medical Dispute Mediation Act, which is the basis of the Force Majeure Medical Accident Compensation System, stipulates that "medical accidents under delivery" claims are to be determined by the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee are subject to the compensation project. And the details of the compensation, ratio of sharing financial resources for compensation, scope of compensation, and the guidelines and procedure for the payment of compensations are prescribed by Presidential Decree. In other words, the Presidential Decree requires the state to pay 70 percent of the compensation funds, and 30 percent of the above funds among health care providers. The Constitutional Court has decided on the 2015Hun-Ga13 that the scope of the health care institution's founders and the share of the compensation funds cannot be directly determined by the law, and that the portion delegated by the Presidential decree does not violate the Principle of Legal Protection nor Comprehensive Nondelegation Doctrine. However, this can be seen as an exclusion of accountability for force-induced delivery accidents even if there is no negligence of the medical staff. If the nature of the system is a type of social security system with a social compensatory nature, it could consider eliminating the health care innovator's cost-sharing provisions, leaving the full cost to the state. However, it is also necessary to review institutional protocols that strengthen the efforts of medical institutions in areas such as analysis of the causes of medical accidents and measures to prevent their recurrence. In addition, I think that the conclusion of the Act is in line with the purpose of the Comprehensive Wage Support Regulations that at minimum the law sets an upper limit of the compensation funds that are to be paid by health and medical institutions. Moreover, it is reasonable for the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee to specify gestational age and weight of births, which are the criteria for compensation, under the Enforcement Decree of the Medical Dispute Mediation Act, in relation to the criteria for payment of contributions by the Medical Accident Compensation Review Committee, and to set the detailed criteria.

• Journal of Dental Anesthesia and Pain Medicine
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 2016

Background: In dental intravenous sedation, continuous intravenous infusion of a low-dose drug requires an infusion pump such as a syringe pump. To develop a new syringe pump for clinical use, the functions of the pump must meet certain international standards. Various safety and efficacy tests must be performed on the syringe pump, as stipulated by these standards, and an approval must be received from the approving agency based on such test results. Methods: The authors of the present study developed a novel syringe pump and performed efficacy evaluation by testing its infusion speed at 1 and 25 ml/h, and infusion performance testing at 2 and 24 h. Moreover, performance evaluation was conducted by comparing the novel pump to an existing pump with the infusion speed varied from 1 to 5 ml/h. Results: In the efficacy testing on the newly developed syringe pump, infusion with the infusion speed initially set to 1 ml/h resulted in infusion speeds of 1.00 and 0.99 ml/h in the 2- and 24-h assessment, respectively. Changing the infusion speed setting to 25 ml/h resulted in an infusion speed of 25.09 and 23.92 ml/h in the 2- and 24-h assessment, respectively. These results show no significant differences when compared with other commercially available pumps. Conclusions: The efficacy testing of the newly developed syringe pump showed the accuracy to be within tolerance. Based on these findings, we believe that the newly developed syringe pump is suitable for clinical use.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.147-154
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• 2013

Objectives: Many epidemiological studies have suggested that a variety of medical illnesses are associated with suicide. Investigating the time-varying pattern of medical care utilization prior to death in suicides motivated by physical illnesses would be helpful for developing suicide prevention programs for patients with physical illnesses. Methods: Suicides motivated by physical illnesses were identified by the investigator's note from the National Police Agency, which was linked to the data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment. We investigated the time-varying patterns of medical care utilization during 1 year prior to suicide using repeated-measures data analysis after adjustment for age, gender, area of residence, and socioeconomic status. Results: Among 1994 suicides for physical illness, 1893 (94.9%) suicides contacted any medical care services and 445 (22.3%) suicides contacted mental health care during 1 year prior to suicide. The number of medical care visits and individual medical expenditures increased as the date of suicide approached (p<0.001). The number of medical care visits for psychiatric disorders prior to suicide significantly increased only in 40- to 64-year-old men (p=0.002), women <40 years old (p=0.011) and women 40 to 64 years old (p= 0.021) after adjustment for residence, socioeconomic status, and morbidity. Conclusions: Most of the suicides motivated by physical illnesses contacted medical care during 1 year prior to suicide, but many of them did not undergo psychiatric evaluation. This underscores the need for programs to provide psychosocial support to patients with physical illnesses.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.203-208
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• 2019

Medical color graphic research will serve as the basis for globally expanding and disseminating the design quality of the company's products through the era of production of medical robots. This study was based on technologies and contents suitable for the era of medical robot bed expansion, universal medical color application, ergonomic color, etc. In addition, the medical bed robot's color research direction was presented from the perspective of universal design. Accordingly, a universal color design was proposed, taking the functions of a medical robot under development by a domestic company as an example. The characteristics of this robot bed can be divided into three types of functions: first, treatment characteristics for prevention of pressure ulcers with curative, second, automatic seat exchange with cleanliness for medical environment, and third, Convenient, which can implement patient transport. The main idea is to present a combination of functional colors appropriate for this. The resulting color analysis and universal color design techniques could be a useful methodology for illustrating the appearance and function of a modern medical robot bed.

• Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.272-277
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• 2018

Objective While the effect of typhoons on emergency medicine has been evaluated, data are scarce on their effects on the emergency medical service (EMS). This study evaluated the effect of typhoons on EMS patients and performance. Methods The study period was January 2010 to December 2012. Meteorological data regarding typhoons were provided by the Korean Meteorological Administration. EMS data were retrieved from the EMS database of the national emergency management agency. The database includes ambulance run sheets, which contain clinical and operational data. In this case-crossover study, the cases and controls were EMS calls on the day of typhoon warnings and calls one week prior to the typhoon warnings, respectively. Results During the study period, 11 typhoons affected Korea. A total of 14,521 cases were selected for analysis. Overall, there were no obvious differences between the case and control groups. However, there were statistically significant differences in age, place, and time requests. There were fewer patients between 0 and 15 years of age (P=0.01) and more unconscious patients (P=0.01) in the case group. The EMS operational performance, as measured by the times elapsed between call to start, call to field, and call to hospital did not differ significantly. There was also no significant difference in the time from hospital arrival between the cases (28.67, standard deviation 16.37) and controls (28.97, standard deviation 28.91) (P=0.39). Conclusion Typhoons did not significantly affect the EMS system in this study. Further study is necessary to understand the reasons for this finding.