Shortage in residents of internal medicine and current status of Korean medical system

The shortage of internal medicine residents depict the contradictions and perversions in Korean medical system. Internal medicine is the foundation of medicine and the fact it serves as the most essential medical services for the people adds severe gravity to the issue. The fundamental problem derives from the contradictions in health insurance system. In fact, the poor medical fee and the failure of medical delivery system are the core drawbacks to the current crisis. Unless above matters are addressed to draw a constructive resolution, it is an undeniable fact that this may become a serious threat to the national health system and people's wellbeing.

Evolution logic of integrated medical delivery system in the UK, the USA and Australia and lessons to learn / 中华医院管理杂志

Medical service system integration follows the logic of system innovation and development.Case studies of the UK,the USA and Australia found that medical delivery system integration is the product of a series of mixed factors.Health care financing and payment mechanism reform,physician team building,stair-cased movement to grassroots of healthcare service,shared clinical norms utilization as well as its gradual development constitute the general logic of such an integration.In the evolution process,the check and balance between the government and market,equity and efficiency have been affecting the integration process all the way.In light of these logics,China should speed up its transform of the integration concept,improve the integration elements,and strengthen the guidance of integration principles during its integration of the medical service integration.

Reorganization of the Medical Delivery System: A Cause for the Patients

There is a growing concern regarding the overly biased patient flow toward large hospitals. The seriousness of the current situation is clearly shown by the fact that the top five causes for visitation to such full-sized hospitals include common cold, primary hypertension, and diabetes; as a result, local medical offices does little more than merely referring patients to the large hospitals. n other words, the specific functions of different kinds of medical facilities are unable to be carried out in a definitive fashion. If such trend continues to dominate the medical delivery system, the sustainability of national health insurance might be compromised. In order to prevent destabilization of the national health insurance, the rigid regulation of medical delivery system must be put into practice through reorganization of the various medical providers in terms of their functions.

The Pathology Specialty System in Korea: Past, Present and Future Prospects

The specialist system of hospital pathology in Korea has adopted the American system in its start, and divided its categories into anatomical pathology(AP), clinical pathology(CP), and combind anatomic and clinical pathology(AP +CP). Since 1975 the society eliminated the category of combined AP and CP specialist. The first qualifying examination took place in 1963. It started out as a written examination and later changed to have two parts, written and practical. One year of internship and 4 years of anatomic pathology were required for AP specialist. CP required the same period of training in CP to be eligible for the specialist qualifying examination. The training period was shortened to 3 years from 4 years, 1981~1990 and then returned to 4 years in 1991. There has been considerable confusion during the adoption period of the pathologist specialist system in Korea, mainly because of an incorrect concept of the term "clinical pathology" in the modern hospital. Many people understood "clinical pathology" to mean "hospital pathology" as an opposing concept of "basic or experimental pathology" at medical school. The misconception arose from the fact that Pathology Department in a Hospital has not been realized under Japanese hospital system that prevailed Korean hospital system until 1950. In old Japanese style, the laboratory examinations including some histopathological examination had been conduced in corresponding clinical departments. And Pathology Department in medical school was responsible only for autopsy and not for making diagnosis of biopsy or operative specimen necessarily. Therefore, there has been a conflict between traditional Pathologists(most of them anatomic pathologists) at medical school and so-called "clinical pathologists" in the hospital, as the Korean medical delivery system adopted American system particularly after the Korean war. Now in Korean, in the great majority of hospitals, clinical pathology is clearly defined from anatomic pathology, and the two-services are at work in separate programs. However, there are still a few university hospitals, where histopathological examination and reporting are done in the Clinical Pathology Department. It is hoped that a combined AP and CP program can be started again in near future for the pathologists who work in community hospitals or most smaller general hospitals where the pathologists with adequate knowledge on both AP and CP at work supervising clinical laboratory technicians and technologists. However, it is fully realized the specialists in subspecialty field such as neuropathology, dermatopathology, hematopathology, clinical microbiology, clinical chemistry, etc. are also needed. For future prospect both the Korean Society of Pathologists and Korean Society of Clinical Pathologists should collaborate with each other in full scale in spite of painful past experiences.