BACKGROUND/AIMS: With the enormous increase in the amount of data, the concept of big data has emerged and this allows us to gain new insights and appreciate its value. However, analysis related to gastrointestinal diseases in the viewpoint of the big data has not been performed yet in Korea. This study analyzed the data of the blog's visitors as a set of big data to investigate questions they did not mention in the clinical situation. METHODS: We analyzed the blog of a professor whose subspecialty is gastroenterology at Gangnam Severance Hospital. We assessed the changes in the number of visitors, access path of visitors, and the queries from January 2011 to December 2013. RESULTS: A total of 50,084 visitors gained accessed to the blog. An average of 1,535.3 people visited the blog per month and 49.5 people per day. The number of visitors and the cumulative number of registered posts showed a positive correlation. The most utilized access path of visitors to the website was blog.iseverance.com (42.2%), followed by Google (32.8%) and Daum (6.6%). The most searched term by the visitors in the blog was intestinal metaplasia (16.6%), followed by dizziness (8.3%) and gastric submucosal tumor (7.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Personal blog can function as a communication route for patients with digestive diseases. The most frequently searched word necessitating explanation and education was 'intestinal metaplasia'. Identifying and analyzing even unstructured data as a set of big data is expected to provide meaningful information.
Blogging/*statistics & numerical data ; Databases, Factual ; Dizziness/prevention & control ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/*prevention & control ; Humans ; Internet ; Metaplasia/prevention & control ; Stomach Neoplasms/prevention & control ; User-Computer Interface

BACKGROUND/AIMS: With the enormous increase in the amount of data, the concept of big data has emerged and this allows us to gain new insights and appreciate its value. However, analysis related to gastrointestinal diseases in the viewpoint of the big data has not been performed yet in Korea. This study analyzed the data of the blog's visitors as a set of big data to investigate questions they did not mention in the clinical situation. METHODS: We analyzed the blog of a professor whose subspecialty is gastroenterology at Gangnam Severance Hospital. We assessed the changes in the number of visitors, access path of visitors, and the queries from January 2011 to December 2013. RESULTS: A total of 50,084 visitors gained accessed to the blog. An average of 1,535.3 people visited the blog per month and 49.5 people per day. The number of visitors and the cumulative number of registered posts showed a positive correlation. The most utilized access path of visitors to the website was blog.iseverance.com (42.2%), followed by Google (32.8%) and Daum (6.6%). The most searched term by the visitors in the blog was intestinal metaplasia (16.6%), followed by dizziness (8.3%) and gastric submucosal tumor (7.0%). CONCLUSIONS: Personal blog can function as a communication route for patients with digestive diseases. The most frequently searched word necessitating explanation and education was 'intestinal metaplasia'. Identifying and analyzing even unstructured data as a set of big data is expected to provide meaningful information.
Blogging/*statistics & numerical data ; Databases, Factual ; Dizziness/prevention & control ; Gastrointestinal Diseases/*prevention & control ; Humans ; Internet ; Metaplasia/prevention & control ; Stomach Neoplasms/prevention & control ; User-Computer Interface

Thanks to the introduction of immumomodulators and biologics, therapeutic approaches in Crohn's disease have changed significantly during the past decade. Although new biologic therapy has dramatically improved the treatment of Crohn's disease, a substantial number of patients are refractory to these therapies or lose their initial response. Methotrexate (MTX) is a structural analogue of folic acid that can competitively inhibit the binding of dihydrofolic acid to the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase and has been widely used as immunomodulator in rheumatology area for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Although MTX has also been shown to be an effective agent for remission induction and maintenance of remission in Crohn's disease, the use of MTX in Crohn's disease has not yet been reported in Korea. Herein, we report a case of Crohn's disease patient who was successfully treated with MTX after treatment failure with thiopurine and anti-tumor necrosis factor.
Adult ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/therapeutic use ; Colonoscopy ; Crohn Disease/diagnosis/*drug therapy ; Humans ; Immunosuppressive Agents/*therapeutic use ; Infliximab/therapeutic use ; Male ; Methotrexate/*therapeutic use ; Remission Induction ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/immunology

BACKGROUND: Careful consideration should be given administering a blood transfusion according to the transfusion criteria because blood components may cause various adverse reactions. In the future, a shortage of blood is inevitable due to strengthening the criteria of donor deferral and the increasing population of aged people, and this will cause a significant dearth of the blood supply. Therefore, we have developed a computerized blood auditing program for reducing the amount of blood transfused by changing the transfusion practices of clinicians. METHODS: The blood audit program was developed to automatically check the clinical information, the pretransfusion laboratory test results, the operation etc of patients who are undergoing transfusion based on the laboratory information system (LIS). The criteria for appropriateness were based on the national transfusion guideline and the transfusion criteria of Severance Hospital. We evaluated the transfusion appropriateness of transfusing red blood cells (RBCs) and fresh frozen plasma (FFP) from April, 2009 to June, 2009 using this audit program. RESULTS: RBCs were transfused to 2,353 patients over 5,652 episodes, and a total of 11,055 units were transfused. FFP was transfused to 574 patients over 1,228 episodes and a total of 4,258 units were transfused. We found that 1,120 (19.9%) RBC transfusion episodes and 377 (30.7%) FFP transfusion episodes were inappropriate. The proportion of inappropriate transfusion was higher in surgical departments than that in medical departments. CONCLUSION: Our computerized audit program evaluated a high number of transfusions in a short time, and we obtained results reflecting the entire past history of transfusions, and we can continuously audit transfusion using this program. We think that feedback to physicians who order transfusions would improve the appropriate use of transfusion.
Aged ; Blood Transfusion ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems ; Erythrocytes ; Humans ; Plasma ; Tissue Donors