• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.197-225
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• 2015

The presentation of this paper was triggered by the spread of MERS in Korea in the year 2015. The analysis of the present acts related with MERS is necessary in order to cope efficiently with any probable spread of such infectious diseases as MERS in future. The acts that should be analyzed in this paper include 'Medical Service Act' and 'Infectious Disease Control And Prevention Act' (hereafter, IDCAPA). At first the classification of the infectious diseases in IDCAPA should be referred to. The Act does not properly classify them because the scope of concept of each group of the infectious diseases overlaps each other. This overlap should be removed. The present system in IDCAPA is not proper for the efficient notification and reporting of the infectious disease patients. This is so in some viewpoints including the persons obligated to make the notification and reporting, the persons to whom they should notify and report such patients, and the process of notification and reporting. The efficient approach to the information related with the infectious disease is necessary for the rapid prevention of its spread. Cohort isolation and quarantine of the infectious patients and exposed contacts are the strongest and most efficient steps for the prevention of spread of the infectious diseases. One of the great problems related with such steps would be the conflict of powers or attributions, the likelihood of which is inevitable under the present system of IDCAPA. The IDCAPA distributed the power or attribution to take the steps to the three governments including the central government, the metropolitan government and the primary local government. The power should be concentrated in the central government, which could afford financially to compensate for the huge amount of damages caused likely by the steps. The power to take the steps would be actually just a useless thing for its holder without such financial capacity. The remedy for the victims by the fault of spreader should be approached to in the sense of national wealth. The general principle of tort law could not supply the victims with the sufficient remedy because the damages would be likely too huge for the wealth of such spreader to cope with. In future another parliamentary inspection could reveal another problems in the administration by the government of the MERS event in the year 2015. Any problem caused by defect in the legal system of the control and prevention of the infectious diseases should be taken into consideration when the legal system would be reformed in future.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.53-75
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• 2008

The end of life problem in the United States has been evolved from the development of concept of brain death over last 50 yr. The invention of ventilator and the development of emergency medicine also played a key role to elongate the end stage of life and which caused the American people to ask a question about the patients self determination and refusing the unwarranted medical treatment in the view of the death with dignity. With regard to the patient unable to self determination, surrogate decision was also considered. To guarantee the self determination, The patient self determination act also enacted on the level of Federal regulation in 1990s. But no law has effectively dealt with the situation when medical treatment became futile. Along with the significant debates on literature and court cases. The American Medical Association's Council on Medical and Judical Affairs presented formal opinion and the Texas was the first states to regulate the medical futile situation in 1999. Even though that definition was in controversy, the concept of medical futility mainly focused on the doctors' right to refuse the treatment.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.331-364
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• 2006

Medical supplies have contradiction of efficacy and side effect to the various diseases together. Therefore, people have tried to reduce the side effects and also provide various methods to cope with any damages from the medicine quickly. In the case of accidents by medical supplies, the victim can be protected with advantage by the Product Liability Law rather than the Torts. The limit of Product Liability Law's application depends on whether medical supplies belong to the product or not. According to Product Liability Law, the product should be processed. Therefore, medical supplied should be processed to be the category of product. It can be said that the medical supplies in pharmacy, Chinese medicine, medical herbs, biological medicine manufactures, blood manufactured medicine, cord blood, hemopoietic progenitior cell and stem cell belongs to the manufactured products. The mixture by the prescription of doctor or preparation of pharmacist can be recognized as the product because prescription or preparation is a manufacturing act. Therefore, applying Product Liability Law to manufacturer, doctor or pharmacist would achieve the goal which is protecting the victims extensively.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2012

To examine the potentiation of Macrolepiota procera extracts (MPE-4) to act as adjuvant enhancing the tumor specific anti-tumor immune response, tumor vaccine prepared by boiling (HK vaccine) admixed with MPE-4 and immunized in mice. Vaccination of mice with HK vaccine in combination with MPE-4 resulted in higher inhibition in tumor metastasis compared with the mice of HK vaccine alone treatment against live syngeneic tumor cell challenge. The splenocytes from mice immunized HK vaccine mixed with MPE-4 was able to elicit a stronger cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response as compared with HK vaccine alone. In addition, the splenocytes from MPE-4 admixed HK vaccine immunized mice secreted a higher concentration of Th1 type cytokine such as IFN-${\gamma}$, and GM-CSF. Furthermore, the adoptive transfer of splenocytes from mice immunized HK vaccine and MPE-4 led to a more robust anti-tumour response than the HK vaccine alone. Overall, these results indicate that MPE-4 is a good candidate adjuvant of anti-tumor immune response.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.295-309
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• 2019

Eight years have passed since the Korean government's medical agency officially reported that the fatal lung disease found in some hospitals in 2011 was caused by chemical disinfectants used in household humidifiers, marking the introduction of the humidifier disinfectant disaster. Over the past eight years, a medical-scientific approach has been taken by the Korean government in its efforts to solve the problems in terms of relief of and compensation for the potential victims. One of the unintended consequence of this approach has been the fact that the number of "official victims" recognized by the government is quite small compared to the total number of applicants who claim to be suffering from the humidifier disinfectant disaster. This is mainly due to the fact that the medical-scientific approach relies on excessively strict, rigid, and narrow medical-scientific criteria provided by medical experts for judging the degree of applicants' bodily damage from the use of humidifier disinfectants. As a result, this medical-scientific approach is becoming increasingly criticized by patients' organizations mainly composed of rejected applicants. Based on the analysis of the limits of this medical-scientific approach and after clarifying the social implications of the disaster from a sociological perspective, this paper proposes certain social approaches focused on participatory governance as a means of dealing with the current issue. Finally, the paper emphasizes that the act of taking social responses to the humidifier disinfectant disaster should also be considered a process of enlarging and deepening democracy in Korea.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.83-107
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• 2019

This article focuses on §10 of Criminal Act of the Republic of Korea to discuss how to determine criminal responsibility of a perpetrator suffering from mental disorders, while reviewing existing process and standards of mental examination at each stage of the criminal procedure as well as exploring suggestions regarding how they should be complied. The determination of the sanity or criminal responsibility of the mentally ill as defined in the §10 of Criminal Act, by its nature, cannot be approached with a traditional, clear-cut dichotomy of biology by medical practitioner and psychology·normative science by lawyer. Looking into the actual procedure of determining mental and physical disorder with special consideration of mental illness reveals the inevitability of collaboration between lawyers and psychiatrists. In the meantime, the process and standards of mental examination at each stage of the criminal procedure must be definitive and clear. First of all, during the investigation stage, examination prior to prosecution should be more actively encouraged, considering that judging sanity of the perpetrator at the time of committing a criminal act is important. During the trial stage, the mandatory examination must be conducted depending on the sensitivity and gravity of the case. Next, medical examination to determine criminal responsibility and the one to order treatment and custody must be separately conducted in order to properly execute medical treatment and custody. Obligatory mental examination could be considered both during the stage of request for and execution of the treatment and custody. Lastly, the procedure of examination and format of examination documents need to be standardized for better objectivity and reliability.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5968-5975
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to reveal correlation between scope of practice and clinical paramedic properties. from April 9 to May 12, 2012, one hundred and eighty-one clinical paramedics filled out anonymously to the questionnaire which includes gender, academic background, clinical career, clinical practice and medical direction. To analyse the collected data, Pearson's r at ${\alpha}$=0.05 (two-tailed) was performed using IBM SPSS 19 (Chicago, IL, USA). One hundred and forty (77.4%) working at medical facilities, one hundred and four (57.5%) graduated from four-year colleges, seventy seven (42.5%) acquired paramedic certificate in 2010-2012, one hundred and twelve (61.9%) charted on nursing records, one hundred and sixteen (69.6%) had a good knowledge in scope of practice, one hundred and six (58.5%) thought of legal restriction & absence of direct medical direction leading to narrow clinical practice. Implementing practices and practices needed were thirty two. There were significant relationships in Likert scale 1-5 between paramedic competency and legal practice (p=0.039); implementing practice (p=0.006); practice needed (p=0.049); and overall (p=0.001). Also, between knowledge on scope of practice and implementing practice (p=0.003); overall (p=0.047); clinical career and legal practice (p=0.019); practice needed (p=0.002); and overall (p=0.002). However, these correlations were relatively low (r $$\leq_-$$ 0.238). The working condition of clinical paramedics was restricted by the Emergency Medical Services Systems Act, which requires a narrow scope of practice. This condition leads to the poor quality of emergency care, therefore the scope of practice in the act will be revised from specificism to generalism, from direct medical direction to indirect medical direction by means of quality management.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.80 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2017

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of our new video-assisted asthma education program on patients' knowledge regarding asthma and asthma control. Methods: Adult asthmatics who were diagnosed by primary care physicians and followed for at least 1 year were educated via smart devices and pamphlets. The education sessions were carried out three times at 2-week intervals. Each education period lasted at most 5 minutes. The effectiveness was then evaluated using questionnaires and an asthma control test (ACT). Results: The study enrolled 144 patients (mean age, $56.7{\pm}16.7years$). Half of the patients had not been taught how to use their inhalers. After participating in the education program, the participants' understanding of asthma improved significantly across all six items of a questionnaire assessing their general knowledge of asthma. The proportion of patients who made errors while manipulating their inhalers was reduced to less than 10%. The ACT score increased from $16.6{\pm}4.6$ to $20.0{\pm}3.9$ (p<0.001). The number of asthmatics whose ACT score was at least 20 increased from 45 (33.3%) to 93 (65.3%) (p<0.001). The magnitude of improvement in the ACT score did not differ between patients who received an education session at least three times within 1 year and those who had not. The majority of patients agreed to the need for an education program (95.8%) and showed a willingness to pay an additional cost for the education (81.9%). Conclusion: This study indicated that our newly developed education program would become an effective component of asthma management in primary care clinics.

• Journal of TMJ Balancing Medicine
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2013

Objectives: This study is aimed to recognize the role of TMJ in Korean medicine basic theory and clinic, which is the foundation of human life sustaining. Methods: It was identified and confirmed the organic connection between TMJ and Korean medicine specially Meridian theory. Results: In Korean medicine be based policies to promote of Oriental Medicine Promotion Act, the therapy of TMJ balancing is one of the parts of Korean medicine treatment of technique. TMJ balancing performs a primary role to treat diseases in the brain and the cervical vertebrae. Conclusions: TMJ balancing medicine is the part of integrative medicine for systemic diseases treatment to be based on Korean medicine basic theory.

• Korean journal of aerospace and environmental medicine
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.6-8
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• 2018

It is essential to study the effects of hypergravity on the human body in the research field of aerospace medicine. Previous studies have shown that hypergravity could act in a harmful way to the human body. However, recent studies have shown that moderate degree of hypergravity can act in a beneficial way to the human body. The authors have in particular been studying the effects of hypergravity on immune diseases, especially allergic asthma and rhinitis. Therefore, this review paper will introduce the results of recent studies on hormetic (health promotion) effect of hypergravity. In addition, this review paper also examines the mechanism by which hormetic effect of hypergravity could be possible. Furthermore, we will also discuss how to apply these hormetic effects in clinical practice.