• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.48
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• pp.27-56
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• 2010

Pollution emissions from international shipping and port activities have a significant impact on public health and global climate changes. The purpose of this paper is to review the status of pollution mitigation measures implemented to date in port industry and find out some implications for Korean ports. For this aim, the clean air strategies of the world major ports including six USA ports (Los Angeles/Long Beach, Now York/New Jersey, and Seattle and Tacoma), two European ports (Rotterdam and Gothenburg) and Busan Port were considered. Various measures to reduce emission from ports are evaluated by sectors-ocean going vessels, cargo handling equipments, truck and rail-, on the basis of categories such as reduction control technologies, operational changes and market-based measures. The policy implications of this paper are as follows. First, Clean Air Act Plans of Korean ports are required as soon as possible. Second, integrated approach is required to reduce emission effectively. Finally, the effect of port-related emission reduction can be maximized when various measures are conducted on a regional basis including neighboring ports. Furthermore, regional or global-based approach is useful to guarantee the level playing field among ports.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.158-165
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• 2018

Objectives: We analyzed the problems that work environment measurement results don't lead to workplace improvement in the Work Environment Measurement System to propose an alternative. Methods: We reviewed reports and articles written by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency and academic circles to identify the problems in the current Work Environment Measurement System and suggest an alternative. Results: One of the reasons that the Work Environment Measurement has not resulted in workplace improvement is that there were no proper regulating systems for managing the workplace improvement plans or improvement results. Moreover, there are not enough professional manpower in ministry of labor to evaluate the improvement plans and results from the Work Environment Measurement. Therefore, all of the workplace whose Work Environment Measurement results exceed the occupational exposure limit (OEL) should be managed by regional ministry of labor, and outside experts and new system for verifying improvement are needed. Conclusions: To accomplish the purpose of Work Environment Measurement, it is necessary to improve the work environment according to the results of Work Environment Measure. For this, it is necessary for the government to manage the fulfillment of workplace improvement plans and for measurement agencies to secure expertise.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.275-289
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• 2005

In Korea, health-related items under current EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) system can only be found in the categories of hygiene and public health. However, environment and public health are not adequately connected and also health is underestimated even though health is an important component of environmental assessments. As a result, health is not well integrated within criteria for investigating the impacts on environment. International trends in HIA (Health Impact Assessment) to strengthen the connection between environment and health were investigated in this research. Definitions, functions, circumstances, and merits of HIA in foreign countries were compared. By collecting and analyzing international organizations' and other countries' data related with HIA and EIA, preceding conditions and execution plans were suggested to link EIA and HIA from SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment) aspects and to successfully accomplish EIA in Korea. According to this research, EHIA (Environmental Health Impact Assessment) can predict and manage the results of economical development only under the principles of inhabitants' participation, sustainability, and social justice. EHIA should be modified and improved towards increasing regional and national capabilities. For this, preparation of adequate procedure is required to connect EIA and HIA.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.561-574
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• 2018

In this study, regional variations and factors associated with prevalence of metabolic syndrome were grasped using GWR (geographically weighted regression) and methodologies for the efficient management of metabolic syndrome were then set up to resolve health inequalities. Based on the National Health Screening Statistical Yearbook published by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), community health survey (KCDC) and other governmental institutions, indicators of social structural and mediation factors related to the regional prevalence of metabolic syndrome were collected. First, the existence of indicators to measure variations in metabolic syndrome were confirmed with the collected data by calculating the EQ (extremal quotient) and CV (coefficient of variations). The GWR, which is able to take spatial variations into consideration, was then adopted to analyze the factors of regional variations in metabolic syndrome. The GWR analysis revealed that severity and management of the main causes need to be prioritized in accordance with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Consequently, the order of priority in management of regional prevalence of metabolic syndrome was established, and plans that can increase the effectiveness of management of metabolic syndrome were confirmed to be feasible.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2019

The fee-for-service system is used as the main payment system for health care providers in Korea. It has been argued that it can't reflect differences in the medical practice costs across regions because the fee schedule is calculated based on the average cost. So, some researchers and providers have disputed that there is need for adopting geographic practice cost index (GPCI) used in the United States for the Medicare program for the elderly to the fee-for-service payment system. This study performed to identify whether the difference in the practice costs among regions exists or not and to examine the feasibility of applying GPCI to Korea payment system. For this purpose, we calculated modified-GPCI and examined considerations to introduce GPCI in Korea. First we identified available data to calculate GPCI. Second, we made applicable GPCI equations to Korea payment system and computed it based on four types of regions (metropolitan, urban, suburban, and rural). We also categorize the regions based on the availability of the medical resources and the capability of utilizing them. As a result, we found that there wasn't any significant difference in the GPCI by regional types in general, but the indices of rural areas (0.91-0.98) was relatively low compared to the indices of other regions (0.96-1.07). Considering the need to use GPCI floor, the pros and cons of using GPCI, and the concern of the regional imbalance of resources, the introduction of GPCI needs to be carefully considered.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.37-45
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• 2014

Purpose: Numerous researches about healthcare buildings have been performed however, they were mainly focused on convenience or healing condition for medical treatments. The hospitals consume energy and generate $CO_2$ as twice as the residential or commercial buildings do(Lim, et al., 2010a:154). The public regional hospitals are especially in serious conditions. They are more than 20 years old in average. Energy efficiency and environmental friendliness in the public regional hospitals are far behind ones in private sectors. Even though the ministry of health & welfare is supporting renovation of the builidngs and enhancement of the facilities every year, it is not integrated including sustainibility. In this study, we investigates current conditions of the regional public hospital in envrionment-friendly standpoint, especially focused on Chungcheong Province area Hospitals. Methods: we investigates current conditions of the regional public hospital in envrionment-friendly standpoint, especially focused on Chungcheong Province area Hospitals. The study was executed by qualitative and quantitative evaluations with site inspection, drawing analysis and interviews. Results: Through this study, we found that the Chungnam regional public hospitals can be environmentally improved by management plans and programs. Implications: Based on this analysis, Korean Green Building Certification for healthcare facilities will be developed in near future.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2017

There are an increasing number of healthcare facilaties, especially branch offices, in rural areas to serve the aging population living there. However, there has been a gradual decline in the ratios of recognition, satisfaction and utilization by people who live in the regions. A significant reason of declining the ratios should be the population decline, but the most of population hierarchy shows the groups of elderly people over 60. This result appears to be limited to visit the public health centers. According to the result of population hierarchy, a branch office of public health center has been re-established as a complex welfare facility which can be fulfilled in the functions of basic medical supports and cultural supports. This research is focused on collecting the meaningful information of the status of physical facilities and utilization with 15branch offices of public health care centers in the rural regions near the city of Ik-San city. In addition, this research has a purpose of getting fundamental data for future architectural plans of the branch offices in rural regions with the results about the status of facility operation systems and users' needs.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.30 no.4 s.59
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• pp.870-883
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• 1997

The health center has to play an important role in promoting community health and satisfying a variety of community health needs and demands in the decentralized Korea. The nearly enacted Community Health Act compels every health center to make its own health plans which intend to deal with local health problems and plan its future health care. This obligation is obviously a big burden to most health centers. They do not have experiences in and abilities of making local health care plans. In order to establish a systematic community health plan, health centers have to concentrate their efforts on enhancing the ability of making health care plan through gathering and analysing the local health informations. However, it is very difficult in reality. This is simply because it will take long time to accomplish these activities. It seems natural that various professionals and researchers participate in carrying out the process of making community health plan in the initial stage. No standardized methodology and analysing framework exist even in the health professional society. Nonetheless, it is common to introduce survey research methodologies in analysing consumer's health care utilization and cost, and in identifying factors influencing health behaviors. Many researchers and professionals have applied social survey methodologies in obtaining information on providers and health policy makers as well. The authors have found that few studies have ever utilized local health data stored at the self-employed medical insurance society as the data source of planning activities. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the usefulness of the data stored at the Sung-Dong Gu Self-employed Medical Insurance Society in establishing the community health plan. The major contents of this study are as follows ; 1. frequency of utilization by age, area, sex, type of medical care institutions, and some major diseases 2. Medical treatment by type of medical care institutions, by classification of 21 diseases, by frequency of three-character categories 3. Medical treatment of major neoplasm and some chronic diseases by age, sex, and area. The conclusion of this study is that it is of great potentiality to find out the local health problems and to use them in blueprinting the community health plan through comparing the frequency of medical utilization analyzed by a variety of variables with NHI health data or the health data from survey research.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.296-306
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• 2016

There is a growing interest in establishing a regional climate change adaptation policy as the climate change impact in the region and local scale increases. This study focused on the analysis of 32 regions on its characteristics of local climate change adaptation plans. First, statistic program R was used for conducting cluster analysis based on the frequency and budgets of adaptation plan. Further, we analyzed damage frequency from newspapers regarding climate change impacts in eight categories which were caused by extreme weather events on 2,565 cases for 24 years. Lastly, the characteristics of climate change adaptation plan was compared with damage frequency patterns for evaluating the adequacy of climate change adaptation plan on each cluster. Four different clusters were created by cluster analysis. Most clusters clearly have their own characteristics on certain sectors. There was a high frequency of damage in 'disaster' and 'health' sectors. Climate change adaptation plan and budget also invested a lot on those sectors. However, when comparing the relative rate among regional governments, there was a difference between types of damage and climate change adaptation plan. We assumed that the difference could come from that each region established their adaptation plans based on not only the frequency of damage, but vulnerability assessment, and expert opinions as well. The result of study could contribute to policy making of climate change adaptation plan.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.478-484
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• 2018

Objective : Cerebrovascular disease (CVD) was the third most common cause of death in South Korea in 2014. Evidence from abroad suggests that comprehensive stroke centers play an important role in improving the mortality rate of stroke. However, surgical treatment for CVD is currently slightly neglected by national policy, and there is still regional imbalance in this regard. For this reason, we conducted a survey on the necessity of, and the requirements for, establishing regional comprehensive cerebrovascular surgery centers (CCVSCs). Methods : This investigation was performed using the questionnaire survey method. The questionnaire was consisted with two sections. The first concerned the respondent's opinion regarding the current status of demand and the regional imbalance of cerebrovascular surgery in South Korea. The second section asked about the requirements for establishing regional CCVSCs. We sent the questionnaire to 100 board members of the Korean Society of Cerebrovascular Surgeons. Results : Most experts agreed that cerebrovascular surgery patients were concentrated in large hospitals in the capital area, and 83.6% of respondents agreed that it was necessary to alleviate the regional imbalance of cerebrovascular surgery. With regards to personnel, over 90% of respondents answered that at least two neuro-vascular surgeons and two neuro-interventionists are necessary to establish a CCVSC. Regarding facilities, almost all respondents stated that each CCVSC would require a neuro-intensive care unit and hybrid operating room. The survey asked the respondents about 13 specific neurovascular surgical procedures and whether they were necessary for a regional CCVSC. In the questions about the necessity of cerebrovascular surgical equipment, all seven pieces of equipment were considered essential by all respondents. A further five pieces of equipment were considered necessary on site: computed tomographic angiography, magnetic resonance angiography, conventional angiography, surgical microscope, and surgical navigation. Our results may provide a basis for future policy regarding treatment of cerebrovascular disease, including surgery. Conclusion : Raising the comprehensiveness of treatment at a regional level would lower the national disease burden. Policies should be drafted regarding comprehensive treatment including surgery for cerebrovascular disease, and related support plans should be implemented.