• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2019

The purpose of this research is to introduce the best practice of the Japanese national dementia strategy and explore implications to the Korean national dementia strategy. Interview was conducted among professions those who is in charge of Kumamoto dementia care practice in Kumamoto province, upon review of related literature and public documents. The Kumamoto model is implemented by the department of neuropsychiatry in public university hospitals, which can offer dementia-specialized medical services. Medical centers for dementia in public university hospitals play a leading role for managing practice and training local dementia centers specialist, coordinating medical services among medical institutions and community welfare facilities. In reference to the Kumamoto model, the Korean national dementia strategy can find implications in the direction of current system, specifically its approaches toward policy governance.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 2016

Underserved area is a region that has a lack of healthcare resources. In the context of Korea, however, there are not enough detailed criteria for underserved areas. In this study, we aimed to develop indicators for underserved area through Delphi technique. We systematically reviewed the existing measure of underserved area. Sixty indicators were extracted as candidates across four domains in secondary medical care. Four domains are demand, medical resource, quality of care, and health outcome. To develop indicator, two round Delphi survey was conducted among 15 professional experts such as professionals and public administrators. In conclusion, 2 final indicators (accessibility, medical utilization) was determined as an appropriate measure in order to designate underserved area for secondary medical services. Using our criteria from Delphi technique, 36 areas were found as underserved areas for the secondary medical care.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2010

Objectives: To investigate the patterns of unintentional home injuries in Korea. Methods: The study population was 12,382,088 people who utilized National Health Insurance services due to injuries (main diagnosis codes S00 to T28) during 2006. Stratified samples(n=459,501) were randomly selected by sex, age group and severity of injury. A questionnaire was developed based on the International Classification of External Causes of Injury and 18,000 cases surveyed by telephone were analyzed after being projected into population proportionately according to the response rates of their strata. Domestic injury cases were finally included. Results: Domestic injuries (n=3,804) comprised 21.1% of total daily life injuries during 2006. Women were vulnerable to home injuries, with the elderly and those of lower income (medical-aid users) tending to suffer more severe injuries. Injury occurred most often due to a slipping fall (33.9%), overexertion (15.3%), falling (9.5%) and stumbling (9.4%), with severe injury most often resulting from slipping falls, falls and stumbles. Increasing age correlated with domestic injury-related disability. Conclusions: The present findings provide basic information for development of home injury prevention strategies, with focus on the elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.479-490
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• 2021

Background: Conflict in the medical world in 2020 led to the rejection of the national examination for doctors. This study explained the process until the end of the national test refusal situation triggered in 2020 through the signaling game theory. The government has succeeded in requiring medical students to take the national exam. Methods: To explain the rejection of the national examination, we first compose and show an example of two small non-signaling games where medical students know which type the government is of, then combine them to play a signaling game. Results: The behavior of the government and medical students was examined through the signaling game model. In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the government makes an ultimatum, whatever the type. And the medical students accept it. They judged that the government could not be expected to abolish the policy. If COVID-19 had not occurred, medical students would have been able to continue the confrontation. Conclusion: The government instilled in the other party the perception that the government would not bend its policies because it was the surly type and would not be afraid of a strong confrontation. Through the image created in this way, the government was forced to accept the ultimatum by medical students. Academically, this study is to deal with the policy-making process through the signaling game theory. In the area of health care policy, this study suggests that various situations such as the type of government or the spread of COVID-19 can become important in addition to the rationality of the policy itself.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.77-92
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• 2011

Objectives : This study examined the health policy researchers' needs and their accessibility towards health insurance claim datasets according to their academic capacity. Methods : An online questionnaire to capture relevant proxy variables for academic needs, accessibility, and research capacity was constructed based on previous studies. The survey was delivered to active health policy researchers through three major scholarly associations in South Korea. Seven-hundred and one scholars responded while the survey as open for 12 days (starting on December 20th, 2010). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were carried out. Results : Regardless of the definition for operational needs, the prevalent needs of survey respondents were not met with the current provision of claim data. Greater research capacity was shown to be correlated with increased demand for claim data along with a positive correlation between attempts to obtain claim datasets and research capacity. A greater research capacity, however, was not necessarily correlated with better accessibility to the claim data. Conclusions : The substantial unmet need for claim data among the healthcare policy research community calls for establishing proactive institutions which could systematically prepare and make available public datasets and provide call-in services to facilitate proper handling of data.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.80-89
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• 2015

Background: This study aims to identify the monthly average medical expenses of public pension recipients, and analyze the determinants of total health and medical expenses and Western and Oriental medicine expenses, medical service expenses, and medical supplies expenses. Methods: This study used the fifth year data of 2013 out of the raw data of the Korean Retirement and Income Study collected by the National Pension Research Institute. This study conducted t-test, analysis of variance, and linear regression to verify publicly the relevance between pension recipients' general characteristics and health and medical expenses status using IBM SPSS ver. 21.0 for data analysis. Results: It was analyzed that there is a difference in the spending of expenditure and health care costs according to public pension recipients. Medical expenses of the national pensioners was higher compared to the special corporate pensioners. The national pensioner is related expenditure size, education level, family members living together, residential areas, status of spouse, number of chronic illness, and status of limitation in daily life with psychological health status. Conclusion: Therefore, fairness does not occur fire to the medical use between the special corporate pensioners and national pensioners, aggressive of government such as health policy and financial support for the retiree pension policy that reflects the reality intervention would be required.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.176-187
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• 2013

Background: In 2006 Emergency Medical Services Index (EMSI), which summarizes the performance of regional emergency medical services system, was developed. This study assesses the performance of the EMSI to help determine whether EMSI can be used as evaluation tool. Methods: To build a composite score of the EMSI from predefined 24 indicators, 3 normalized values were calculated for each indicator, the normalized values of each indicator were weighted using 4 weighting methods, and the weighted values were aggregated into the final composite score using 2 aggregation schemes. The performance of EMSI was evaluated using 3 criteria: discrimination, construct validity, and sensitivity. Discrimination was the proportion of regions that did not include the overall median rank in the 5th to 95th percentiles rank interval, which was calculated from Monte Carlo simulation. Construct validity was a correlation among the alternative EMSIs. Sensitivity of EMSIs was evaluated by total shift of quartile membership and changes of 5th to 95th percentile intervals. Results: The total discrimination performance of the EMSI was 50.0%. Correlation coefficients between EMSIs using standardized values and those using rescaled values ranged from 0.621 to 0.997. Variation of the quartile membership of regions ranged from 0.0% to 75.0%. The total change in the 5th to 95th percentile intervals ranged from -19 to +17 places. Conclusion: The results suggested that the EMSI could be used as a tool for evaluating quality of regional EMS system and for identifying the areas for quality improvement.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.295-310
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• 2023

Background: The long-term care (LTC) group has higher rates of chronic disease and disability registration compared to the general older people population. There is a need to provide integrated medical services and care for LTC group. Consequently, this study aimed to identify medical usage patterns based on the ratings of LTC and the characteristics of benefits usage in the LTC group. Methods: This study employed the National Health Insurance Service Database to analyze the effects of demographic and LTC-related characteristics on medical usage from 2015 to 2019 using a repeated measures analysis. A longitudinal logit model was applied to binary data, while a linear mixed model was utilized for continuous data. Results: In the case of LTC ratings, a positive correlation was observed with overall medical usage. In terms of LTC benefit usage characteristics, a higher overall level of medical usage was found in the group using home care benefits. Detailed analysis by medical institution classification revealed a maintained correlation between care ratings and the volume of medical usage. However, medical usage by classification varied based on the characteristics of LTC benefit usage. Conclusion: This study identified a complex interaction between LTC characteristics and medical usage. Predicting the requisite medical services based on the LTC rating presented a challenge. Consequently, it becomes essential for the LTC group to continuously monitor medical and care needs, even after admission into the LTC system. To facilitate this, it is crucial to devise an LTC rating system that accurately reflects medical needs and to broaden the implementation of integrated medical-care policies.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.37-56
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to identify and present suitable recognition types of policy alternative for before and after response, according to the recognition types of problems in response to violence. Methods: This study investigated 36 EMT's of 17 cities and provinces nationwide. The study was approved by the Kongju National University Institute Review Board (KNU_IRB_2021-17). Data were collected from May 1, 2021 to August 30, 2021 and analyzed by Q factor analysis using the PC-QUNAL program. Results: Recognition types of the problem in 119 EMT's response to violence were described as "I type; lack of professional manpower," "II type; inadequate policy on violence," and "III type; lack of awareness on the emergency field." Recognition types of policy alternative on response to violence by 119 EMT's were described as "Itype; training and public relations oriented," "II type; work environment improvement," "III type; violence handling specialization demand," and "IV type; recovery support seeker." Conclusion: This study provides the foundation required to develop and implement the policies regarding the response to violence; therefore, contributing to EMT's provision.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.219-227
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• 2001

Objectives : To understand the current status of the opening, closing and relocation of primary medical institutes in Korea and identify the underlying decision factors. Methods : Sources of analyzed data included the medical institutional master file at the National Health Insurance Corporation(1998, 2000) and Regional Statistic Annual Bulletins. To investigate changes including the opening, closing and relocation, a total of primary medicalinstitutions(16,757 in 1998, 19,267 in 2000) were analysed. Results : Between 1998 and 2000, there was a 15.0%(2,510) increase in the number of primary medical institutions and the rate of increase in the rural area was higher than the urban area, and higher for specialty clinics than primary practice. However, these findings did not suggestany improvement in the maldistribution of primary medical institutions. During the time period studied, newly opened and closed primary medical institutions numbered 4,085 and 1,573, respectively. Additionally, institutions thatrelocated numbered 2,729, or 16.3% of all primary medical institutions in operation in 1998. These openings and closings were more frequent among young doctors. As a result of our analysis on the underlying regional factors forrelocation, the factors that were statistically significant were local per capita tax burden and the number of schools per ten thousand persons. !n, the case of institutional factors, movements were significantly associated with gender and the location of primary medical institutions. Conclusions : In order to establish effective long-term intervention for primary medical institutions, further study and monitoring of primary medical institutions and the identification of factors influencing opening location and relocation is necessary.