• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.280-282
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• 2018

Unilateral absence of a pulmonary artery (UAPA) is a rare congenital anomaly that may present with various symptoms, depending on the nature and severity of other cardiovascular anomalies. Furthermore, contralateral lung surgery in patients with UAPA is extremely rare, and clinical experience is limited. This report describes a case of surgical treatment of contralateral primary lung cancer in a patient with isolated UAPA. A 56-year-old man was diagnosed with primary lung cancer accompanied by isolated UAPA on the contralateral side. He underwent meticulous cardiorespiratory function tests preoperatively. We performed a right lower lobectomy. Although in the immediate postoperative period, the patient suffered from a mild decline in his respiratory function, he recovered uneventfully. The present case shows that preoperative awareness of UAPA and meticulous perioperative management enable contralateral lung surgery to be performed safely.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.125-141
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of provider practice patterns in the difference in health expenditure between the two types of patients: Health Insurance and Medical Aid type 1. The study used the outpatient claim data for all Medicaid and health insurance patients of hypertension who received medical services from 8,454 primary care physicians during the first half of 2006. The data were stratified by patient's gender and age for the two groups of patients who received care from the same physician. The dependent variables were the differences in medical expenditure per case, patient days per case and medical expenditure per patient day between Medicaid patients and health insurance patients. Empirical results showed that physician characteristics, such as physicians under age 50, greater proportion of pediatric Medicaid patients, lower proportion of new Medicaid patients and the greater number of comorbidity of Medicaid patients are associated with the greater difference between the two types of patients (i.e., greater expenditure of Medicaid patients relative to health insurance patients). This study shows that factors associated with provider practice patterns need to be taken into account in Medicaid policy.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.3-26
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• 1996

Epidemiology and preventive medicine are changing together with Population and health and with ever expanding medical and non medical technologies. New technologies make epidemiology methodologically more sophisticated, but such advances risk overshadowing epidemiology's most important role: raising questions, providing answers, and helping the medical decision-making at ail levels of prevention. Epidemiology also plays a major role in the evaluation of new and other technologies whose effectiveness is poorly known. Epidemiological approaches, methods, techniques, and interpretations are widely used in new and rapidly expanding fields of medicine: research evaluation and synthesis (meta-analysis), establishment of guidelines for clinical preventive practices, new medical technology assessment, guidelines for national and international health policies, evidence-based medicine, outcomes research and disease management ('population-based' medicine and quality of care improvement). In the nearest future, infectious and noninfectious diseases may cease to be almost the sole subjects of epidemiology and they may share their place with other mass phenomena of the next millennium, such as medical practices and care, or political, social and economic actions and their consequences. Not only will primary, secondary, and tertiary Prevention will remain in the epidemiological mainstream, but health protection and health promotion will require perhaps a redefinition of epidemiology in these domains. Epidemiology and preventive medicine are both subjects of medical ethics and dilemma for right choices.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.126-143
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• 1996

Background : Little work has been carried out regarding quality assessment research in a primary care setting, comparing with that of hospitals. This study aims to evaluate the process of diagnosis and management of hypertension by public health doctors on the basis of pre-established clinical guideline, and to identify several modifying factors associated with them. Methods : Hypertension was selected as the target disease, because it is a chronic disease which is of great public health importance. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to public health doctors practicing at health centers and health subcenters across the nation. The response rate was 20.9%. The questionnaire included the diagnosis and management process such as measuring blood pressure, history taking, physical examinations, and treatment approches and potentially modifying factors such as level of training, duration of practice as a public health doctor, and education on management of hypertension. Results : Public health doctors pay little attention in measuring BP, hypertension related history taking, performing physical examination and laboratory examination. But they devoted much effort in diagnosing hypertension exactly and giving nonpharmacological treatment. Among various antihypertensive drugs, calcium-channel blockers were the most preferred agent(50.9%). Level of training, duration of practice ad a public health doctor, and education on management of hypertension made no difference on quality of care(p>0.05). Conclusion : These public health doctors showed poor compliance with the pre-established clinical guidelines, which leaves much to be desired in diagnosing and managing hypertensive patients by public health doctors. This study might be able to contribute to develop some strategies, such as educational programs, which would be able to improve the process of care in hypertensives.

• 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.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.284-310
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• 2024

Identifying clinical pathways for disease diagnosis and treatment process recommendations are seriously decision-intensive tasks for health care practitioners. It requires them to rely on their expertise and experience to analyze various categories of health parameters from a health record to arrive at a decision in order to provide an accurate diagnosis and treatment recommendations to the end user (patient). Technological adaptation in the area of medical diagnosis using AI is dispensable; using expert systems to assist health care practitioners in decision-making is becoming increasingly popular. Our work architects a novel knowledge-based recommender system model, an expert system that can bring adaptability and transparency in usage, provide in-depth analysis of a patient's medical record, and prescribe diagnostic results and treatment process recommendations to them. The proposed system uses a set of parallel discrete fuzzy rule-based classifier systems, with each of them providing recommended sub-outcomes of discrete medical conditions. A novel knowledge-based combiner unit extracts significant relationships between the sub-outcomes of discrete fuzzy rule-based classifier systems to provide holistic outcomes and solutions for clinical decision support. The work establishes a model to address disease diagnosis and treatment recommendations for primary lung disease issues. In this paper, we provide some samples to demonstrate the usage of the system, and the results from the system show excellent correlation with expert assessments.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was aimed to develop the multicomponent intervention for preventing delirium among postoperative patients in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). Methods: Using a quasi-experimental pre & post-test design with a non-equivalent control group, a total of 88 hospitalized patients in a SICU participated in this study. The 44 patients were allocated in each experimental and control group. The experimental group received the multicomponent intervention for delirium prevention including a delirium assessment and nursing intervention using a checklist, whereas the control group was provided with a standard care. The primary outcome of this study was the delirium incidence during the course of hospitalization. Results: There were no significant differences in the demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups. The delirium occurred in 19.2% in the experimental group, whereas 38.6% in the control group ($x^2=4.526$, p<.05). Conclusion: The findings of the study demonstrated an effect of the multicomponent delirium prevention intervention in decreasing the delirium incidence rate over the standard care among the patients in SICU.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.84 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2021

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate inhaler device handling in elderly patients. Inhaler devices with respect to misuse and error correction were also compared. Methods: Inhaler use technique was assessed using standardized checklists at the first visit and 3-month follow-up visit after retraining. The primary outcome was difference in the acceptable use ratio among inhaler devices. Secondary outcomes included differences in error correction, the most common step of misuse, and factors affecting the accuracy of inhaler use. Results: A total of 251 patients (mean age, 76.4 years) were included. The handling of 320 devices was assessed in the study. All patients had been trained before. However, only 24.7% of them used inhalers correctly. Proportions of acceptable use for Evohaler, Respimat, Turbuhaler, Ellipta, and Breezhaler/Handihaler were 38.7%, 50.0%, 61.4%, 60.8%, and 43.2%, respectively (p=0.026). At the second visit, the acceptable use ratio had increased. There were no significant differences among inhaler types (Evohaler, 63.9%; Respimat, 86.1%; Turbuhaler, 74.3%; Ellipta, 64.6%; and Breezhaler/Handihaler, 65.3% [p=0.129]). In multivariate analysis, body mass index, Turbuhaler, and Ellipta showed positive correlations with acceptable use of inhalers, whereas Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Assessment Test score showed a negative correlation. Conclusion: Although new inhalers have been developed, the accuracy of inhaler use remains low. Elderly patients showed more errors when using pressurized metered-dose inhalers than using dry powder inhalers and soft-mist inhalers. However, there were no significant differences in misuse among inhaler devices after individual training. Results of this study suggests that repeat training is more important than inhaler type.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.387-396
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between areas of Korea Train Express (KTX) region and external medical service use in Korean society using spatial statistical model. Methods: The data which was used in this study was extracted from 2011 regional health care utilization statistics and health insurance key statistics from National Health Insurance Corporation. A total spatial units of 229 districts (si-gun-gu) were included in this study and spatial area was all parts of the country excepted Jeju, Ulleungdo island. We conducted Kruskal-Wallis test, correlation, Moran's I and hot-spot analysis. And after, ordinary linear regression, spatial lag, spatial error analysis was performed in order to find factors which were associated with external medical service use. The data was processed by SAS ver. 9.1 and Geoda095i (windows). Results: Moran's I of health insurance patients' external medical service use was 0.644. Also, population density, Seoul region, doctor factors positively associated with health insurance patients' external medical service. In contrast, average age, health care organization per 100 thousand were negatively associated with health insurance patients' external medical service use. Conclusion: The finding of this study suggested that health insurance patient's external medical service use correlated for seoul region in korea. The study results imply the need for more attention medical needs in the region (si-gun-gu unit) for health insurance patients of seoul region. It is important to adapt strategy to activation of primary health care as well as enhancing public health institution for prevent leakage of patients to other areas.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.125-139
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• 2021

Background: In Korea, the health gap widens due to the number of medical resources and access to medical services between metropolitan and rural. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of residential migration on medical utilization and accessibility. Methods: This study extracted 528,516 claimed cases in the National Health Insurance Service-Cohort Sample Database from 2006 to 2015. Subjects were classified into two groups by the magnitude of the region, the metropolitan and the rural. The inversed probability weights were calculated for each group. And coefficients of the two-part model were estimated by generalized estimation equation. Results: Those who moved region from metropolitan to rural tend to increase the length of stay and inpatients with ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) disease. Contrariwise, those who moved areas from rural to metropolitan tend to decrease the total medical cost, the adjusted patient days, the number of outpatients and the number of outpatients and inpatients with ACSC disease. Conclusion: This study identified that between the residents who continued to reside in the region and the migrants, there were significant differences in the medical accessibility, quality of primary care, and unmet medical need.