Since the Three Rs of replacement, reduction and refinement was proposed by Russel and Birch in 1959, researchers have a moral duty to minimize harm to animals. Even though animal experiments are performed by the Three Rs concept, animal researches which do not comply with international rules and standards are not accepted as well. As animal welfare has been important global issues, the methods to assess animal welfare compromise and distress have been proposed. Humanity is accepted as the goal of the Three Rs, however, another fourth R, ‘Refusal’ of fruitless protocol or ‘Responsibility’ for the experimental animal and social, scientific status of the animal experiments has been proposed. After establishing goals of animal research in a respective society, reliable knowledge can be obtained while improving laboratory animal welfare.

Visual scale, ODS and SRRC can be generally measured to evaluate dry skin in community pharmacies with moderate degree of reliability. This finding has possible applications for investigating the assessment of the community pharmacists on clinical scoring system of dry skin and moisturizers.

BackgroundAlthough traditional medicine (TM) in South Korea is included in the national health care system, it is considered complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and not mainstream medicine. Therefore, the lack of statistical data regarding the usage and adverse experiences of traditional Korean medicine (TKM) makes difficult to understand the current status of TM. In this study, we aimed to report usage patterns and adverse experiences on TKM targeting consumers in South Korea.MethodsA total of 2000 consumers participated in the survey on usage and adverse experiences in 2008. Among the 2,000 participants, 915 (45.8%) had taken herbal medicine or received traditional medicinal therapies; these individuals were further surveyed on the internet or in an interview.ResultsThe usage rate was higher among women and among patients in their 30s. Of the total TKM usage, acupuncture accounted for 36.7%, and herbal medicine accounted for 13.4%. Regarding the frequency of use of TKM, 73.8% of patients reported using TM less than 5 times in 1 year. Of the 915 respondents, 8.2% of individuals had some type of adverse experience resulting from TKM. Adverse experiences were primarily caused by acupuncture and herbal medicines, and they primarily involved diseases of the digestive system and skin. The incidence of adverse experiences was less than 3.7% for acupuncture and 3.8% for herbal medicine. Overall, the incidence rate of adverse experiences for TKM for the entire population was 0.04 per 10,000 individuals.ConclusionsThe medical usage and occurrence of adverse events on TKM should be surveyed periodically, and the statistical trends should be analysed. The disparity between the survey results for traditional herbal medicines and medical practices, and those for the national pharmacovigilance system or academic reports of adverse experiences should be examined. The national pharmacovigilance system must be improved to compensate for the disparities. Policies and regulations are required to enhance the reporting of adverse experiences not only for herbal medicines but also for traditional medicinal therapies.

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BackgroundThe present study was conducted to examine the reliability and validity of the ‘Korean Standard Pattern Identification for Stroke (K-SPI-Stroke)’, which was developed and evaluated within the context of traditional Korean medicine (TKM).MethodsBetween September 2006 and December 2010, 2,905 patients from 11 Korean medical hospitals were asked to complete the K-SPI-Stroke questionnaire as a part of project ' Fundamental study for the standardization and objectification of pattern identification in traditional Korean medicine for stroke (SOPI-Stroke). Each patient was independently diagnosed by two TKM physicians from the same site according to one of four patterns, as suggested by the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine: 1) a Qi deficiency pattern, 2) a Dampness-phlegm pattern, 3) a Yin deficiency pattern, or 4) a Fire-heat pattern. We estimated the internal consistency using Cronbach’s α coefficient, the discriminant validity using the means score of patterns, and the predictive validity using the classification accuracy of the K-SPI-Stroke questionnaire.ResultsThe K-SPI-Stroke questionnaire had satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.700) and validity, with significant differences in the mean of scores among the four patterns. The overall classification accuracy of this questionnaire was 65.2 %.ConclusionThese results suggest that the K-SPI-Stroke questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for estimating the severity of the four patterns.