• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.196-206
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• 2013

On September 24th of 1945, the existing Health Department under the Bureau of Economy and Trade was abolished complying with the Article 1 of the Ordinance of US military occupation "Establishment of Health Bureau". After the establishment of the Health Bureau, one of its first priorities was to select South Korean medical doctors and send them away to the US for training "in order to educate the talents necessary for the Health Bureau to address the public hygiene and health issues of Korea". Under the sponsorship of Rockefeller Foundation, the US Military Government sent 10 Korean medical doctors to three universities. After they came back to Korea from the training in the US, they played significant roles in building and managing the Korean health and medical system under the US Military Government as well as during the post-war of Korea and in the 1960s-1970s. Furthermore, they made a great contribution to expanding and transplanting the 'American-style' health and medical system in heath administration, health research and medical education in Korea. On the one hand, this means the limitation and elimination of an independent, progressive idea in the health and medical field as the influence of the US within the country after the liberation expanded. The lives of 10 doctor represent an important symbol of how the Korean health and medical field has been established under the domestic and overseas political conditions, 'colonization-liberation-military occupation of the Powers', and one part of the concrete history.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.173-181
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• 2017

Purpose: Early sexual intercourse is associated with poor health outcomes in adolescents. It is known that sexual intercourse coincides with other health risk behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and using drugs. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships between sexual intercourse and health risk behaviors among Korean and US adolescents using nationally representative data. Methods: Data were collected from the 2011 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (29,676 students) and 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (10,135 high school students). Logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: In Korea, students who had sexual intercourse accounted for 7.0% in total. Among these, 9.7% were male and 4.2% were female students. In the US, a total of 51.3% students had sexual intercourse, and the proportion of the US male (49.3%) and female (53.4%) students who had sexual intercourse was similar. Korean and US students who experienced sexual intercourse were more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and use drugs. Conclusion: Since the results of this study show the relationships between sexual intercourse and health risk behaviors, it is necessary to develop comprehensive sex education programs with effective strategies to reduce health risk behaviors in adolescents.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-25
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• 2017

This essay investigates how the industrialization of the US food system was closely linked to US foreign policy, gender issues, and the rise of consumerism in the Cold War era. While many scholars in American studies and women's studies over the past few decades have paid increasing attention to the interrelationship of gender politics and the media industry in shaping US domesticity, they have seldom studied how and why reading gender issues in relation to environmental discourse in general and the industrialized US food system in particular can help us better understand the complex relationship between environmental and social problems that we are facing today, both collectively and individually. In this context, this essay shows how US national politics have not only created the ideal of American domesticity that promotes traditional gender roles and consumerism at the expense of gender equality, but also negatively affected women's somatic and mental health writ large. By closely examining the cultural implications of Nixon's and Khrushchev's Kitchen Debate in the 1950s alongside newspapers, photographs, advertisements, and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963), I argue that reading Cold War consumer culture in relation to the US food system leads readers to see the invisible links between gender politics and today's environmental and social problems in comparative and global contexts.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2022

As new types of medical devices are emerging through convergence with advanced technology, innovative technologies are becoming hot issues in health policy because of their disruptiveness. This study analyzed the innovative medical device management systems in the US, China and Korea. Innovative medical devices have been defined differently depending on the country's management system, but in common, they are defined as products that do not exist or have dramatically improved performance compare to existing products by applying innovative technologies. Innovative medical devices have been supported by regulatory authorities during product development and approval processes. While the US and China have more than 300 products designated as innovative medical devices with diverse functions, application fields, and manufacturing countries considering the initial situation of the implementation for the system, Korea has only 16 products, mainly radiology and diagnostic devices and made in Korea only as innovative medical device. In addition, Korea shows the highest market approval rate of innovative medical devices compare to the US and China, and it is necessary to prepare the approval process in consideration of product diversity.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.27-35
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• 2020

Purpose: A solid system in the process of establishing guidelines can increase social acceptance and utilization. The paper aims to comparatively analyze the system in which guidelines for health care facilities in the US, Australia, and the UK and suggest implications for Korea. Method: It conducted literature analysis of the system in the framework of composition, governance, and procedure for the Facility Guidelines Institute's Guideline for US, Australia's Australasian Health Facility Guidelines for Australia, and Health Building Notes for UK. Results and Implications: First, in terms of composition, the guidelines for health care facilities can be divided into composition by space and composition by issue. It is proposed to establish a system that space and issues are clearly separated, such as Australia's AusHGF, and complete it step by step. Second, in terms of governance, despite the fact that the medical supply is privately oriented, the medical system is controlled by the government in Korea. Therefore, it is suggested to form a separate organization in the public sector that establishes, researches, and revises the guideline that will serve as a focal point for experts in various fields to participate. Third, in terms of procedure, it is suggested to establish a guideline that reflects the experiences and demands of consumers by clearly organizing procedures including collecting opinions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.396-412
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• 2014

Background: As a reform plan of health care system, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has became an object of attention in the United States after Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted. ACO is a group of various health care providers and provide coordinated care to its assigned beneficiaries. If ACOs improve the quality level and reduce the cost of care, they can get financial incentives. Under the discussion for a quite long time and demonstration projects, ACO has been established. We aimed to analysis and discuss the history, policy mechanism, contents, status and outcomes of ACO. Also, we intended to suggest political implication Korean health care system with regard to ACO. Methods: We searched the articles related ACO in PubMed and selected several available papers about ACO. Total 56 studies were reviewed and categorized three parts; demonstration projects for formation of ACO, policy mechanism and agenda, empirical results of ACO performance. Results: As a result, establishment of ACO was successful partly in the US. It seems to be due to various project and pilot test for verification in the long time. The empirical effect of ACO was also identified in a few study but it needs more evidences to judge its positive effect. Conclusion: In Korea, there are arguments for the application of ACO. However it is difficult to implement a ACO by different political conditions between Korean and US. Nevertheless ACO proposed us the necessity of paradigm shift in our health policy and could be significant to national policy orientation in the future.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.241-251
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore preserved belief system supporting Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices and influencing factors while they observe the tradition within US sociocultural context. Methods: Leininger's exploratory focused ethnographic approach was used. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with purposive sample of sixteen Korean immigrant women who gave birth in the US within last 6 months. Researcher's observation and reflective field notes were also integrated into the interview data. Leininger and McFarland's four phases of ethnographic analysis guided data analysis process. Results: The perceived belief system supporting Taekyo practices included Taekyo as an enculturated Korean tradition, connecting parents with fetus, and positive impacts on fetal development. And Korean immigrant women's Taekyo practices were influenced by resources of information, woman's orientation toward Taekyo, pressure from local Korean community, and child order. Conclusion: The findings from this research would serve as an important knowledge base to expand US health care providers' understanding of Korean traditional Taekyo practices observed by Korean immigrant women's as important prenatal self-care practices. The findings could also aid in providing more patient-centered and culturally-tailored prenatal care plan to Korean immigrant by including Korean traditional belief system supporting Taekyo practices.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2002

Pest control is required for protecting the food supply and for controlling disease vectors. Unfortunately, there is no perfectly safe form of pest control. Pesticides are commonly used for pest control. Pesticides are defined under the US Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act(FIFRA) as any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate pests, and any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or dessicant(40 CFR Part 152). Currently in the United States, there are 890 active ingredients registered as pesticides. Approximately one billion pounds of active ingredient are used in the US per year. Unlike most chemicals(anti-neoplastic and anti-micobial medications are the principal exceptions), pesticides are specifically designed to kill and cause harm. Because society allows these chemicals to be disseminated into the environment, it is important to monitor the health effects associated with these releases. This represents an important justification for establishing and maintaining surveillance systems for acute pesticide-related illness and injury. A comprehensive, national surveillance system for acute pesticide-related illness and injury does not currently exist in the US. Although the United States has several surveillance systems for this condition, none provide a complete understanding of the problem of acute pesticide-related illness and injury. The Toxic Exposure Surveillance System(TESS) and Bureau of Labor Statisitics(BLS) are useful for assessing magnitude and trends. The state-based surveillance systems are more useful for timely identification of outbreaks and emerging problems. Efforts are underway to increase the number of states that conduct surveillance, and to broaden the use of the standardized case definition to facilitate aggregation of data across states. Through such efforts, a comprehensive, national surveillance system may be attainable.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.48-65
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• 2003

Detailed analyses of total health expenditure and its sub­categories are essential for the evidence­based health policy(EBHP). These analyses, again, should be based on timely and reliable data that are comparable across countries. The System of Health Accounts (SHA), published by the OECD in 2000, provides an integrated system of comprehensive and internationally comparable accounts. The author has implemented the SHA manual into Korean situation, and examined overall expenditure estimate and its basic functional breakdown following the manual. This study explains how pharmaceutical expenditure is estimated. The results are, then, analyzed particularly from the international perspective. Both administrative data in Statistical Yearbooks (National Health Insurance, Medical Aid, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance) and survey data on Health and Nutrition are used for the estimation. Per capita pharmaceutical expenditure in Korea (183 US$ PPPs) was far less than the OECD average (308 US$ PPPs) in 2001, but pharmaceutical expenditure share in total health expenditure (20.3％) was higher than the average (16.7％). This can be explained by the fact that there is a statistically significant correlation between pharmaceutical expenditure share and per capita GDP of each country. Korean people follow the tendency of relatively low­income countries to spend less than OECD average for health care, but follow again their tendency to spend more on drugs than on other health care services. In consideration of results and analysis as above, per capita pharmaceutical expenditure in Korea is expected to grow in the future, but the growth rate of the pharmaceutical expenditure is expected to be less than that of overall health expenditure.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.100-112
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• 2022

Purpose: This study is a qualitative analysis of Korean-American (K-A) women's cancer prevention in the US. Methods: Qualitative research was conducted. Fifteen K-A women in four states were interviewed. Content theme analysis was used to analyze verbatim transcriptions of interviews. Results: Participants experienced difficulties in utilizing cancer screening programs. Factors include unfamiliarity with the US health care system, high health care costs or lack of health insurance, language barriers, and irregular and sporadic cancer screening participation. Participants also actively pursued non-institutional approaches to cancer prevention. They engaged in word-of-mouth informational exchanges in K-A communities, sought cancer screening in hospitals in Korea, conducted internet searches, autonomously decided on their health issues, and adopted healthy practices including better diets, physical exercise, and spiritual practices. Conclusion: It is necessary to implement measures to increase K-A women's utilization of the US cancer screening services and to encourage their active engagement in hands-on cancer prevention practices. K-A women should be empowered through increased familiarity with US cancer screening services and through the establishment of improved K-A community social services.