R esults: O f the total of 99,025 malignancies, 55,398 (55.9% ) cases were males and 43,627 (44.1% ) were fem ales. M ore than one third of cases were from the elderly (65 years old and more). The six leading primary cancer sites in the order of their relative frequency, were stomach (24.0% ), followed by the lung (16.0% ), the liver (15.4% ), the colorectum (11.6% ), the bladder (3.2% ), and the prostate (3.0% ) among males. In females, the breast (16.8% ) was the common cancer site, followed by the stomach (15.3% ), the colorectum (10.7% ), the thyroid gland (9.5% ), the cervix uteri (9.1% ), and the lung (6.6% ).C onclusion: W ith the continued increase in cancer cases especially prostate cancer among males and thyroid cancer among females, the total number of registered cancer cases in Korea continues to rapidly increase.
Ionizing radiation is one of the most extensively studied carcinogens. In contrast to the detrimental effects of high‐dose radiation in carcinogenesis, the biological effects of low‐dose radiation remains poorly understood. In this study, we introduced adult wts/ + heterozygotes of Drosophila melanogaster as transgenic model organisms to determine the tumorigenic activity of low‐dose radiation. The warts (wts) gene is a tumor suppressor gene in mice and humans that is directly involved in cell cycle regulation. Fruit flies at the first larval stage were subjected to ionizing radiation, and then tumorigenic activity was evaluated as the frequency of observed warts tumorous mosaic clones in adult flies. Low‐dose irradiation alone did not cause tumorigenesis in our system. In combined treatment with a chemical carcinogen, chronic irradiation at 0.2 Gy decreased the frequency of tumorous clones induced by cisplatin. These results suggest that low‐dose radiation alone is not deleterious but beneficial in tumorigenesis induced by a chemical carcinogen.
Objective:To supplement a previous study on the management of medical records with a view to preparing a system capable of ensuring basic patient rights regarding the protection of confidential medical information. The study objectives are to provide detailed guidelines to regulate the access and protection of medical information by analyzing patients' understanding and views regarding the dissemination of medical records. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was administered to 781 patients who visited five University hospitals located in Seoul, Busan, Gyeonggi, Chungnam and Jeonnam from July to September, 2008 and asked for copies of medical records to be issued. Data were analyzed by using the statistical program SPSS 13.0. Results: More than 70% of respondents wanted to access their medical records after confirming the required documents. The highest distribution in the range of persons able to receive copies of medical records without the individual patient's consent or required documents was 'only personally' in each variable. Copies of medical records were issued mostly within 1 hour, while the appropriate time of issuing the copies was within one day. Half of respondents approved of a subscription system that did not require a doctor consultation. The results regarding changes in the ways to request/issue copies of medical records to improve the convenience for applicants differed significantly according to age. Conclusion:Considering the sensitivity of personal health information, medical records should only be issued with the patient's consent and by confirming the identity of the designated person with required documents. Furthermore, people should be aware of the importance of protecting personal health information, and medical institutes should inform the requirements for bringing the relevant documents. Medical institutes play an important role in protecting personal records, which necessitates generalized guidelines. (Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics 15-3, [285][286][287][288][289][290][291][292] 2009)
ObjectivesAs a baseline study to aid in the development of proper policy, we investigated the current condition of unpreparedness of documents required when issuing copies of medical records and related factors.MethodsThe study was comprised of 7,203 cases in which copies of medical records were issued from July 1st, 2007 through June 30th, 2008 to 5 tertiary referral hospitals. Data from these hospitals was collected using their established electronic databases and included study variables such as unpreparedness of the required documents as a dependent variable and putative covariates.ResultsThe rate of unpreparedness of required documents was 14.9%. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed the following factors as being related to the high rate of unpreparedness: patient age (older patients had a higher rate), issuance channels (on admission > via out-patient clinic), type of applicant (others such as family members > for oneself > insurers), type of original medical record (utilization records on admission > other records), issuance purpose (for providing insurer > medical use), residential area of applicant (Seoul > Honam province and Jeju), and number of copied documents (more documents gave a lower rate). The rate of unpreparedness differed significantly among the hospitals; suggesting that they may have followed their own conventional protocols rather than legal procedures in some cases.ConclusionsThe study results showed that the level of compliance to the required legal procedure was high, but that problems occurred in assuring the safety of the medical information. A proper legislative approach is therefore required to balance the security of and access to medical information.
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