An impairment is defined as "a loss, loss of use, or derangement of any body part, organ system or organ function". The impairment evaluation should be performed by physicians. To determine permanent impairment associated with medical condition a standard method should be used. It is a general principle that an evaluation of permanent impairment only be performed when the physician considers the person to have reached a state of maximum medical improvement. Maximum medical improvement is considered when the person's condition has been medically stable and is unlikely to change by more than 3% of whole body impairment within the next 12 months. The physician must use the entire clinical skill and judgment to perform the proper impairment evaluation. A report of the evaluation of permanent impairment should be accurate, comprehensive and fair. The physicians are reminded that they have a duty to act in an ethical, professional and considerate manner when examining the person for the purpose of assessing the permanent impairment.
Clinical Competence ; Humans ; Judgment

A cervical radiculopathy is the most common symptom of cervical degenerative disease and its natural course is generally favorable. With a precise diagnosis using appropriate tools, the majority of patients will respond well to conservative treatment. Cervical radiculopathy with persistent radicular pain after conservative treatment and progressive or profound motor weakness may require surgery. Options for surgical management are extensive. Each technique has strengths and weaknesses, so the choice will depend on the patient's clinical profile and the surgeon's judgment.
Humans ; Judgment ; Radiculopathy

A doctor's certificate is a statement from a doctor that attests to the results of a medical examination of a patient. It is based on the professional judgment of a doctor who has examined the state of a patient's healthBiased doctor's certificates, which can vary widely in their nature, would lead to the loss of the public's trust in the medical profession. Although the Korean Medical Association has set guidelines for issuing doctor's certificates, separate guidelines are necessary that address various issues, including, among others, the definition of doctor's certificates, the ethical duties of doctors, the purpose and issuance of doctor's certificates, the doctor-patient relationship, and the responsibilities of doctors and patients. Furthermore, hospitals should be required to conduct a review of the doctor's certificates that have critical importance, such as those that impact court hearings or suspension of sentences, by a committee of doctors, to ensure the accuracy and professional integrity of such doctor's certificates.
Humans ; Judgment ; Social Problems*

Recent scientific findings on the perception of facial attractiveness coupled with technological advances in computer imaging make it possible to measure the facial characteristics that may be associated with specific judgments of facial appearance. These new methods can be used to produce psychometric norms of facial attractiveness which potentially could supplement the conventional population norms or averages used currently in orthodontic treatment planning. It is hypothesized that consideration of psychometric norms will enhance doctor-patient communication and lead to greater patient satisfaction at the completion of orthodontic treatment.
Judgment ; Patient Satisfaction ; Psychometrics

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To confirm the feasibility of using newly developed endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) with Zone sonography(TM) technology (ZST; Fujifilm Corp.). METHODS: Seventy-five patients with pancreatic disorders were enrolled: 45 with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm; 15 with ductal carcinoma; five with neuroendocrine tumors; three with serous cystic neoplasms; and seven with simple cysts. The endoscopes used were EG-530UR2 and EG-530UT2 (Fujifilm Corp.). Two items were evaluated: visualization depth among four frequencies and image quality after automatic adjustment of sound speed (AASS), assessed using a 5-scale Likert scale by two endosonographers blinded to disease status. Because sound speed could be manually controlled, besides AASS, image quality at sound speeds of 1,440 and 1,600 m/sec were also assessed. RESULTS: In all cases, sufficient images were obtained in the range of 3 cm from the EUS probe. Judgments of image quality before AASS were 3.49+/-0.50, 3.65+/-0.48, respectively. After AASS, A and B scored 4.36+/-0.48 and 4.40+/-0.49 (p<0.0001). There were significant differences in the data before and after AASS and plus 60 m/sec, but no significant difference between the datasets were seen after AASS and at sound speeds manually set for minus 100 m/sec. CONCLUSIONS: EUS with ZST was shown to be feasible in this preliminary experiment. Further evaluation of this novel technology is necessary and awaited.
Endoscopes ; Endosonography ; Humans ; Judgment ; Mucins ; Pancreatic Diseases

A press release recently reported a case in which legal decisions, regarding the stay of execution of a criminal sentence, and the extension of this stay, were made based on medical certificates, containing a definitive medical history, prepared and issued by a family doctor. Thereafter, the family doctor who prepared these medical certificates was accused of being guilty of a crime related to the preparation of a number of false medical certificates and has been subject to adjudication for this crime. Under the circumstances, having recognized that a medical certificate would be considered the significant basis for making a decision regarding the determination of damages of a civil nature and the determination of confinement in cases of a criminal nature, as well as of the stay of execution of sentences related to the restriction of physical freedom, a doctor is required to accurately describe a patient's medical status and other general facts when preparing a medical certificate, and if a doctor has cooperated with other specialists during the treatment of a specific disease, the medical certificate is required to honor and reflect such specialists' judgment. Furthermore, information regarding either a patient's previous treatment history or any complications developed in the future is to be included in a medical certificate only when these matters are directly related to the patient's current health status from a clinical perspective.
Crime ; Criminals ; Freedom ; Humans ; Judgment ; Specialization

Neuroaesthetics is an area of research on the essence of aesthetic experience according to the neurobiological perspective. The purpose of this article is to introduce both the important results from some studies based on neuroaesthetics and some neuroaesthetic reports in specific psychiatric disease. Aesthetic experience is thought to be a series of cognitive and affective processes for pursuing aesthetic judgment and aesthetic emotion. According to the present neuroaesthetic studies, the important domains are reward system, embodiment, aesthetic perspective in contrast with practical perspective, sublime, and so on. The neuroaesthetic approach to specific psychiatric disease is just beginning; however, case studies on the sudden appearance of artistic talents in neuropsychiatric patients have been frequently reported. We expect that neuroaesthetics is likely to continue to contribute new knowledge regarding the ultimate causes of various psychiatric diseases and the creativity of many psychiatric patients.
Aptitude ; Beauty ; Brain ; Creativity ; Humans ; Judgment ; Reward

The medical system is turning into a general health care system recently. The change in the system increases the cooperation between the physicians and the non-physicians in reality. So it is inappropriate to punish every cooperative work between the two for unlicensed medical practice control program anymore. In order to readjust the control over the unlicensed medical practice, critically dismantling and reconstructing the concept of medical treatment must be done. The three elements of the concept of medical treatment can be constructed socially in relation to disease. When this is done under social subsystems, the ideological functions of disease and medical treatment concepts can be explained. There are three aspects to the current unlicensed medical practice control program. There is a large gap between the legal judgment and the medical rationality. Moreover, the government unnecessarily has a full control over all dimensions of the medical treatment concept, and the license system only emphasizes the status, not the essence of the medical treatment itself. The dermatologists and cosmeticians' work must be divided but done cooperatively. A way to legislate this is to draw the cosmeticians into the area of medical skin treatment. Rather than solving the problem by giving cosmeticians another status, it is important for them to cooperate functionally with the dermatologists. The government should control the `cooperative division of work' between the two indirectly, so that the civil society can function on its own disciplinary mechanism.
Delivery of Health Care ; Judgment ; Licensure ; Skin*

OBJECTIVE: We attempted to investigate the relation between naturally occurring hypnotic experiences and hypnotizability. We examined the correlations among hypnotic induction profile scores, natural hypnotic scores, induction scores and MBTI personality types. METHODS: Sixty-three medical students completed NHQ(natural hypnotic questionnaire) developed from a list of naturally occurring hypnotic-like experiences and MBTI(Myers-Briggs Type Inventory), HIF(Hypnotic Induction Profile) was also administered to all the subjects. HIF score and IND(induction score) were obtained. RESULTS: 1) The NHS(natural hypnotic score) was significantly correlated with IND in all the subjects. The IND also showed significant correlation with HIF score. 2) There was no significant correlation between NHS and HIP scores. 3) HIF scores were positively correlated with induction scores in all types of MBTI. 4) Natural hypnotic scores were positively correlated with HIF scores and induction scores in introvert and thinking types. 5) There were positive correlations between natural hypnotic scores and induction scores in intuition and judgment types. CONCLUSION: The natural hypnotic scores were correlated with induction scores. It is suggested that the more the naturally-occurring hypnotic experience is experienced, the better the hypnotic induction is induced In introvert and thinking types of MBTI personality types.
Hip ; Humans ; Intuition ; Judgment ; Students, Medical* ; Thinking

BACKGROUND: Verifying the effect of frailty on health-related quality of life may help us better understand the impact of frailty. The present study explored the relationship between frailty and health-related quality of life in community-dwelling Korean elderly. METHODS: Older adults aged 65 years or older recruited by judgment sampling of the population of Seocho-gu in Seoul were surveyed in 2011. The Korean frailty index measure developed by the Korean Geriatric Society was used as the outcome variable. Proportional odds model was used to evaluate the relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and frailty. RESULTS: We found that, after adjusting for sociodemographic covariates, being prefrail or frail significantly increased the proportional odds for lowering health-related quality of life than being nonfrail. In addition, of the five components of health-related quality of life, the magnitude of the adverse effects of frailty on HRQoL was largest for pain/discomfort, with anxiety/depression being the second largest. CONCLUSION: Compared to persons who are not frail, older Korean individuals identified as frail and prefrail exhibit significantly lower HRQoL scores. This association between Korean frailty measures and the generic measure of the HRQoL may offer new information to better understand frailty within its broader context.
Adult ; Aged ; Humans ; Judgment ; Quality of Life