Korean hospice care has been greatly developed in a short period of time, thanks to help of foreign specialists and aids from developed countries. With enormous growth in economy, Korea which once received foreign aids now give help to other countries. It is the time for the Korean hospice society to consider ways to make an international contribution. That way, Korea could help terminal patients both in Korea and neighboring countries overcome sufferings, maintain their dignity as human beings until the end of their lives and have a comfortable moment of death. Thus, we need to think about ways to contribute to the international hospice society and make related plans.
Asia ; Developed Countries ; Gift Giving ; Hospice Care ; Hospices ; Humans ; International Cooperation ; Korea ; Palliative Care ; Specialization

On April 28, the National Assembly passed 3 bills revising the Medical Act, Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and Medical Instruments Act which are related to the so-called 'dual punishment system' at its 9th plenary session of the 289th provisional meeting. According to the government timetable, beginning November of this year (2010), doctors will be subject to imprisonment for up to two years or face fines of up to 30 million won when found to have taken financial or non-financial benefits from drug companies. Their license could also be suspended for one year. Interactions between industry and physicians are vital to public health. However, they must be principled partnerships effectively managed to sustain public trust in both partners' commitment to patient welfare and the improvement of health care. Mounting scientific evidence indicates that gifts, favors, and other marketing activities, both explicit and implicit, prejudice independent judgment in unconscious ways. Physicians who receive free gifts from the pharmaceutical industry must consider the ethical dilemmas posed by this practice. These dilemmas are conflict of interest, impairment of objectivity, and the impact of these free gifts on the cost of health care. In order to minimize the likelihood of biased decisions by physicians, pharmaceutical companies should comply with their code of ethics for fair competition, while medical societies should establish an influence-free culture for physicians and optimize the benefits inherent in the principled relationships between medical society and industry.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Codes of Ethics ; Conflict of Interest ; Delivery of Health Care ; Drug Industry ; Gift Giving ; Humans ; Judgment ; Licensure ; Marketing ; Prejudice ; Public Health ; Punishment ; Societies, Medical ; Unconscious (Psychology)

Interleukin-8(IL-8) has been implicates in intraocular inflammation and shown to be a potent chemoattractant for neutrophil, we investigated if IL- 8 has a role in endotoxin induced uveitis(EIU). Mouse monoclonal neutralizing antibody to rabbit recombinant IL-8(gammagammaIL-8)(gammagammaIL-8 and anti IL-8, both generous gifts from Genetech) or mouse IgG2a were given by intravitreal injection to try to modify EIU in New Zealand White rabbits. Antibody to IL-8 tended to reduce aqueous humor cell counts, but the differences were not statistically significant. Anti-IL8 reduced cell counts by 34%(3.8+/-2.9x10(6) cells/ml anti IL-8 treatment vs. 5.4+/-5.5x10 cells/ml IgG2a control, p=0.26 by student t-test). The intravitreal injection of gammagammaIL-8 resulted in a small dose dependent number of infiterating cells in the aqueous and vitreous humor. Taken together, our results cannot exclude a role for IL-8 in acute onset EIU, but the contribution appears to be minor.
Animals ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Aqueous Humor ; Cell Count ; Gift Giving ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-8* ; Intravitreal Injections ; Mice ; Neutrophils ; Rabbits ; Uveitis* ; Vitreous Body

Tissue bank with profer personnels (medical director, tissue bank speciality, and so on), facilities, equipments, standard of procedures (SOP) and quality control (QC) programs should get the permission from Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). All kinds of tissues are donated from live donors, cadavers or brain deaths without any rewards. Permission to acquire tissues shall be obtained through the granting of informed consent by a consenting person in accordance with applicable Korean law and regulations for anatomical gifts. One or two more tissue banks participate in recovery, preservation, quarantine, processing, packaging, storage, and/or distribution. The relationship and responsibilities of each shall be delineated in writing and that documentation shall be maintained at each participating bank or facility. Each tissue bank should keep the safety for all tissues under the strict SOP and QC programs, including donor screening, donor testing and donor exclusion criteria. And also, the final human tissue products should keep in sterile package and transfer to medical facilities for reconstruction of patients' defects under profer temperature within transportation containers. Potential adverse reactions, suspected transmission of disease or complications, directly or indirectly related the allograft, shall be reported to KFDA for the further safety
Brain Death ; Cadaver ; Donor Selection ; Financing, Organized ; Gift Giving ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Product Packaging ; Quality Control ; Quarantine ; Reward ; Social Control, Formal ; Tissue Banks ; Tissue Donors ; Transplantation, Homologous ; Transportation ; United States Food and Drug Administration ; Writing