• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.14 no.12
• /
• pp.7757-7759
• /
• 2013

Physicians, in order to study the causes of cancer, detect cancer earlier, prevent or determine the effectiveness of treatment, and specify the reasons for the treatment ineffectiveness, need to access accurate, comprehensive, and timely cancer data. The cancer care environment has become more complex because of the need for coordination and communication among health care professionals with different skills in a variety of roles and the existence of large amounts of data with various formats. The goals of health care systems in such a complex environment are correct health data management, providing appropriate information needs of users to enhance the integrity and quality of health care, timely access to accurate information and reducing medical errors. These roles in new systems with use of agents efficiently perform well. Because of the potential capability of agent systems to solve complex and dynamic health problems, health care system, in order to gain full advantage of E- health, steps must be taken to make use of this technology. Multi-agent systems have effective roles in health service quality improvement especially in telemedicine, emergency situations and management of chronic diseases such as cancer. In the design and implementation of agent based systems, planning items such as information confidentiality and privacy, architecture, communication standards, ethical and legal aspects, identification opportunities and barriers should be considered. It should be noted that usage of agent systems only with a technical view is associated with many problems such as lack of user acceptance. The aim of this commentary is to survey applications, opportunities and barriers of this new artificial intelligence tool for cancer care information as an approach to improve cancer care management.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.344-355
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify on the perceptions of family care-givers toward use of physical restraints according to their values, beliefs, and perceptions using Q methodology. Methods: Thirty-three family care-givers classified 41 selected Q-statements into 9 points standard. The obtained data were analyzed by using a pc QUANL program. Results: Principal component analysis identified 4types of the perceptions of family care-givers toward the use of physical restraints. Type I is 'Rational accepted', which means that they perceived the restraints are essential therapeutic devices and had cooperative attitude to use of medical staffs' restraints. Type II is 'Sardonic sensibility', which means that they have a negative and a cynical attitude to use of physical restraints. Type III is 'Ambivalent', which means that they have conflicts between rationality and emotion, and type IV is 'Practical claim of a right', which means they insist that patients and their family members must be provided with a detailed explanation regarding the application of physical restraints. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that perceptions toward the use of physical restraints among family care-givers should be understood for patients' safety and dignity in medical circumstance. Based on the results, this study will be useful in developing the customized nursing intervention for supporting family care-givers' subjectivity considering the Korean context.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.60-68
• /
• 1997

Background : Medical records are used to assess clinical performance of physicians and quality of care. The contents which are written in medical records are considered as the objective evidences to know what the doctors think about the patient's problems. But the problem to use medical records as the assessment tools is the incompleteness of medical recording. The purpose of this study is to know if the completeness of medical recording is correlated to quality of care for inpattients and it can predict physicians's quality of care. Method : 32 clinical physicians reviewed 200 patients' medical records who were selected randomly from the inpatients who were admitted to the university hospital during July, 1995 and June, 1996. The reviewers used the structured evaluation questionnaires which were composed of two part. One part evaluated the completeness of the medical recording and the other evaluating appropriateness of diagnosis and treatment processes. We summated the scores of each items and calculated percentile scores. Results : The mean percentile score of completeness of the medical recording was 67.9% in 1995 and 79.8% in 1996. The mean percentile score of appropriateness was 52.2% in 1995 and 69.5% in 1996. This change between 1995 and 1996 was statistically significant. In non-surgical patients, the percentile scores of the completeness and those of the appropriateness were correlated positively and this correlation was statistically significant(p<0.05). In surgical patients, the positve correlation between the completeness and the appropriateness was also statistically significant(p<0.05). Discussion : In conclusion, the completeness of medical recording is considered as the good predictor of the quality of care for inpatients.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.404-413
• /
• 2016

This study, based on the assumption that self-rated health status affects the use of health care utilization, aims to comprehend self-rated health status, as well as the differences in medical facility use depending on self-rated health status, and analyze according to chronic diseases to use it as the basis of a practical guide development for chronic disease patients' use of medical facilities. Used representative Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing data to analyze 7,486 participants. There is a difference in Chronic disease patients' use of health care utilization depending on self-rated health, and this difference was the most apparent in Oriental healthcare service and dental treatment use. This study was unable to control all confounding variables affecting medical service use, so we want this studied to be used to assist future studies.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.531-540
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study is to reinterpretate the history of nursing and health care from the view-point of post-structuralism. It has been emphasized that the development of modern health care has been due to the progressive efforts of medicine and to medical discoveries. Medicine has dominated the history of health care rather than nursing or other health professions. The present study adopts the post-structural method by Foucault, which tries to unite language and knowledge. Foucault examines "the institutionalization of knowledge and the power exerted thereby, with special reference to the devices of social regulation and their function over the madness, the disease, the crime, and the sexuality. " The concept of power in Foucault's writing is that it is exerted spontaneously in verbal behaviors of individuals through knowledge of everyday life such as definition of body or mind, sexuality and relationship of family. Therefore as to the problem of power, this study tries to understand the meaning of the health care history through an analysis of the formation of medical discourse. In order to have authority in a power relation, the medical professional asserts that medical discourse is the most scientific knowledge. The authority of medical professionals can be reinforced by the fact that male medical professionals outnumber female. Devaluation of nursing care is reinforced by the medicine which has the legitimate authority through use of the political skills.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2023

Due to the spread of COVID-19, many patients with severe respiratory diseases have occurred worldwide, and accordingly, the use of mechanical ventilators has exploded. However, hospitals do not have systematic risk management, and the Medical Device Regulation also provides medical device risk management standards for manufacturers, but does not apply to devices in use. In this paper, we applied the Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) risk analysis technique based on the International Standard ISO 14971 (Medical Devices-Application of risk management to medical devices) for 85 mechanical ventilators of a specific model in use in hospitals. Failure modes and effects of each parts were investigated, and risk priority was derived through multiplication of each score by preparing criteria for severity, occurrence, and detection for each failure mode. As a result, it was confirmed that the microprocessor-based Patient Unit/Monitoring board in charge of monitoring scored the highest score with 36 points, and that reliability management is possible through systematic risk management according to priority.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.204-215
• /
• 2003

Background : ICD-10 Classification, which is used domestically as well as internationally, has limited use in the clinical practice since it is developed for at disease statistics and epidemiology. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to improve the quality of diagnosis by constructing a new disease classification based on the diagnoses doctors currently make in the clinical setting and connecting this classification with OCS and EMR, and to meet the demands of doctors for high quality medical study data in medical research. Methods : The specialists in each ophthalmic subfield collected clinical diagnoses and abbreviations based on the ophthalmology textbooks and confirmed the classifications. Total number of clinical diagnoses collected was totaled 672, for which ideal diagnoses had been selected and a new model of disease classification model in connection with ICD-10 was constructed. The constructed classification of clinical diagnoses consisted of six steps: the first step was the classification by ophthalmic subspecialty field; the second to fifth steps were the detailed classification by each specialty field; the sixth step was the classification by site. Results : After introducing the new disease classification, research on the use and a pre-post comparison was conducted. The result from the research on the use of the clinical diagnoses in inpatient and outpatient care has shown a gradually increasing tendency. From the pre-post comparison of EMR discharge summary diagnoses, the result demonstrated that the diagnosis was stated correctly and in detail. Since the diagnosis was stated correctly, code classification became correct as well, which makes it possible to construct high quality medical DB. Conclusion : This construction of clinical diagnoses provides the medical team with high quality medical information. It is also expected to increase the accuracy and efficiency of service in the department of medical record and department of insurance investigation. In the future, if hospitals wish to construct a classification of clinical diagnosis and a standard proposal of clinical diagnosis is presented by a medical society, the standardization of diagnosis seems to be possible.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.51-60
• /
• 2016

Consumers who use mobile applications for their skin care are increasing due to increasing interest in skin care and smart phone use. A survey was conducted to select popular skin care mobile applications to be installed in the smart phone targeting 1,000 men and women in South Korea who are interested in their skin care. Questioned items included skin care awareness and recognition, skin care type, and the intention of using skin health care mobile services. The respondents thought the best skin as 'Flawless skin (52.3%)'. Also, 'Skin trouble' and 'Skin aging' were their major concerns. 47.1% of the respondents used mobile skin care applications, and 56.6% intended to try new mobile skin care services. The results on interesting field of skin care showed significant difference depending on gender, marital status, and annual average household income. Moreover, the results on effort made for skin care showed significant difference depending on age, gender, and marital status. They wanted the functions such as 'Review on cosmetic products by brand (23.8%)', 'Self skincare method (16.8%)', 'Continuous monitoring service (16.2%)', 'Information on cosmetic products (13.4%)'. The result of this study would be reliable as basic material for skincare mobile service area. Further studies could be focused on developing application in accordance with needs and how it should be applied.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.177-192
• /
• 2011

The arguments exist that private health insurance(PHI) policy holders tend to use the health care services more than non-policy holders due to their little out-of-pocket spending, resulting in the adverse effects on the finances of National Health Insurance. This study aims to increase the objective understanding of the issue and to draw a direction of further research, by reviewing the articles, reports and statistics which examined the effects of purchasing PHI policies on health care utilization. Significant differences in healthcare utilization, except for the very partial increase of utilization in outpatient settings, have been not found. The similar trends of the results have existed in a few previous studies which tried to control the endogeneity of medical use and health insurance with latent variables which affect the decision on medical use and health insurance. However, we can not exclude the potential change of healthcare utilization patterns because the portion of the insured of indemnity PHI is becoming rapidly larger in the market. For further research, we should try to obtain the objective information of subjects' past medical history, health status, health related behavior, and income affecting purchase of PHI and utilization of healthcare services. And the efforts of controlling the endogeneity of medical use and health insurance with latent variables which affect the decision on medical use and health insurance, are very considerable.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.29-34
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to show the differences of medical cost between hospice and non-hospice care for terminally ill patients. This information provides basic data to nationally institutionalize hospice care for decreasing costs and enhancing quality of life for terminally ill patients. Methods: Participants of this study were 114 terminally ill cancer patients who were diagnosed and died with stomach cancer and lung cancer at the K hospital of the C university. The study was a retrospective survey design that analyzed the medical costs for two weeks before they died. The cost analysis was done according to 11 items form the medical cost bill. Results: Patients enrolled in hospice care had significantly lower medical costs (53%) than did non-hospice patients especially in use of TPN, narcotic analgesics, nursing care, radiology tests, and blood tests. Among patients enrolled/admitted in the hospice unit, there was a significant cost difference only in use of analgesics whether the hospice specialized doctor was in charge of care or not. The cost was significantly lower when a hospice specialized doctor was in charge of care although the total medical cost was the same. Conclusion: This study identified lower medical costs for patients cared for in the hospice unit. Thus, we urge institutionalizing hospice care without delay to insure cost benefits as well as quality care.