All medical researches concentrate primarily on advances of medical knowledge and strategies for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. However, since most of the medical researches are being carried out on human subjects, they often pose ethical problems. Clinical investigations from which the human subjects involved may not derive any personal benefits include studies of physiological function in health or disease, investigations of new drugs, and the trial of new procedures. This paper discusses the ethical problems associated with medical researches, especially clinical investigations involving human subjects directly or indirectly. One general principle that has been wildly accepted is that patients or volunteers involved in the clinical investigations should be fully informed about the experiment in which they participate. However, ethical problems in those clinical investigations should be evaluated by the three major biomedical ethical principles, or the principle of autonomy, the principle of beneficence, and the principle of justice. This paper also presents the 'Helsinki Declaration' advocated by the World Medical Association in 1964 and revised thereafter several times as a practical guideline for the ethics of medical research.
Beneficence ; Diagnosis ; Ethics* ; Helsinki Declaration ; Humans ; Social Justice ; Volunteers

No abstract available.
Education, Medical* ; Humans ; Students, Medical*

No abstract available.
Accreditation* ; Schools, Medical*

No abstract available.
Coronary Disease*

No abstract available.
Adult* ; Case-Control Studies* ; Humans ; Risk Factors*

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Humans ; Male* ; Seoul* ; Smoke* ; Smoking*

No abstract available.
Female ; Humans ; Premenstrual Syndrome*

Schools of public health are graduate level higher educational institutions training students who will be engaging in educational, research and service activities in the field of public health after completing the educational programs. To meet this institutional goal, the schools of public health should provide diverse academic and professional courses and programs to the students based on their educational objectives. Educational objectives of schools of public health, of course, should well reflect the working definition of public health : public health is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical health and efficiency through organized community efforts. There are 13 schools of public health in Korea an of 1999 including occupational and environmental schools. However, most of them were opened in 1980s and 90s, and therefore, do not have properly described educational and learning objectives. This paper proposes that Korean schools of public health should review their institutional goals and have clearly stated educational objectives. This also proposes development of standardized learning objectives of core subjects such as epidemiology, statistics, environmental health, health education and public health administration. Important units of these core subjects are also provided.
Environmental Health ; Epidemiology ; Health Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Learning* ; Public Health Administration ; Public Health*

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this paper is to discuss the importance of obtaining informed consent for conducting epidemiological studies and public health activities, based on the Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent. METHODS: The Report of the UNESCO's Working Group on Informed Consent was reviewed and discussed in connection with the ethical considerations of public health activities and epidemiological research. RESULTS: It was at the Nuremberg Trial for the German war criminals of the Second World War that the principle of 'consent' was first stated as a consequence of the medical abuses carried out during the War. As a result of the Trial, the Nuremberg Code came out in 1947. Since then, various international declarations or ethical principles on 'informed consent' have been developed and published. These ethical principles on 'informed consent' have mostly to do with the clinical research that involves human subjects, and not with epidemiological studies and public health activities. However, UNESCO recently issued a comprehensive Report on Informed Consent based on the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights adopted in 2005, and this included detailed guidelines on informed consent in epidemiological studies and public health activities. CONCLUSIONS: Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights emphasizes the principle of autonomy to protect the human rights of the human subjects involved in any public health activities and epidemiological research. As a practical guideline, obtaining informed consent is strongly recommended.
*Bioethics ; Consensus ; Epidemiologic Studies ; *Human Rights ; Humans ; Informed Consent/*ethics/legislation & jurisprudence ; Public Health/*ethics/legislation & jurisprudence ; *United Nations

A total of 181 cases of industrial ocular injuries hospitalized and treated at the St. Mary's Hospital, Seoul during the 5-year period was studied on their epidemiological characteristics. Of there patients 96.7% were males, and 43.6% were in twenties, 49.7% of the cases were injured on left eyes. There were no statistically significant differences in frequencies of study subjects by day of the week and month of the year. Most common injury hour were between 10- < 12 AM(13.6%) and between 2- < 4 PM(20%). Of the total 101 cases, 37.6% were working less than 6 months, and 73.7%, less than 2 years. Of the total, 42.3% were involved in machinery work and 13.9%, in construction work. According to the American National Standard Method of recording basic facts relating to the nature and occurrence of work injuries, 62% among all source of injuries was metal item and the most common accident type was struck by flying objects(76.2%). Among 181 cases, only 2 cases wearing protective equipment when the accidents occurred.
Diptera ; Humans ; Male ; Seoul