• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.27-38
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• 2016

Backgrounds : Taiwan has similar national health insurance (NHI) system for traditional medicine with South Korea. Recently, new quality improvement policies for traditional medicine is being attempted in Taiwan. Objectives : This study aimed to review the Taiwanese NHI system for Chinese Medicine (CM) and introduce quality improvement policies. Methods : Research articles, reports, government publications and year books which handled traditional medicine system and NHI system in Taiwan were searched and collected. The authors analyzed and summarized the contents in a qualitative manner. Results : In Taiwanese NHI system, CM procedures and medication for outpatients are reimbursed through a mix of fee-for-service and global budget payment system. CM shares 4% of total expenditure of NHI in Taiwan. Mostly, the expenses for procedures are reimbursed regardless of disease type, however, in the specialized program for quality improvement, CM doctors have to comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs). Conclusions : Taiwanese NHI system implemented SOP-based new reimbursement system for CM. Yet, the scientific evidences for SOPs are not sufficient, it can be useful references when we develope disease related reimbursement system for Korean Medicine in South Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.713-716
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• 2013

Social and behavioral scientists have proposed that a person's belief system crucially influences his or her behaviour, and therefore may affect outcomes of pain management. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between analgesic beliefs, analgesic adherence and pain experience amongst Taiwanese cancer outpatients. The cross-sectional study included 92 oncology outpatients in two teaching hospitals in the Taipei area of Taiwan. The research instruments included the Pain Opioid Analgesic Beliefs Scale-Cancer (POABS-CA), opioid adherence, and the Brief Pain Inventory-Chinese (BPI-Chinese). Beliefs about pain and opioids demonstrated a significant relationship with patients' opioid adherence (r = -0.30, p < 0.01). The more negative beliefs regarding opioids and pain the patient had, the worse their adherence to around the clock (ATC) analgesic regimen. However, there was no significant correlation between opioid belief and pain experience. As well, there were no significant relationships between adherence to opioid regimen and any of the measures of pain experience. The study highlights the potential importance of a patient's pain and opioid beliefs in adherence to pain medication.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.4077-4082
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• 2013

The purpose of this descriptive and comparative study was to examine gender differences relevant to pain intensity, opioid prescription patterns and opioid consumption in Taiwanese oncology outpatients. The 92 participants had been prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain at least once in the past week and were asked to complete the Brief Pain Inventory - Chinese questionnaire and to recall the dosage of each opioid analgesic that they had ingested within the previous 24 hours. For opioid prescriptions and consumption, all analgesics were converted to morphine equivalents. The results revealed a significant difference between males and female minimum pain thresholds (t = 2.38, p = 0.02) and current pain thresholds (t = 2.12, p = 0.04), with males reporting a higher intensity of pain than females. In addition, this study found that males tended to use prescribed opioid analgesics more frequently than females on the bases of both around the clock (ATC) (t = 1.90, p = 0.06) and ATC plus as needed (ATC + PRN) (t = 2.33, p = 0.02). However, there was no difference between males and females in opioid prescriptions on an ATC basis (t = 0.52, p = 0.60) or at an ATC + PRN basis (t = 0.40, p = 0.69). The results suggest that there may be a gender bias in the treatment of cancer pain, supporting the proposal of routine examination of the effect of gender on cancer pain management. These findings suggest that clinicians should be particularly aware of potential gender differences during pain monitoring and the consumption of prescribed opioid analgesics.