With the growth of aging population in Korea, a better care of chronic and other degenerative illnesses is urgently needed. Evidences suggest that this can be achieved through incorporating a wide range of care options, expanding beyond medical interventions. The aim of this study is to analyze the distribution of publically funded research to understand if the Korean research and development funding system matches various approaches and purposes to successfully tackle the chronic care needs of an aging society. We complied the list of funded projects to be analyzed by searching the National Technical Information Service database with key words such as aging society/senescence, chronic diseases, disability, and health promotion. Most projects were based on the biomedical approach with the purpose of establishing the etiology and clinical (treatment) interventions. Health promotion projects showed a distinctive distribution with more percentage of projects based on psycho-behavioral approaches while research on chronic diseases predominantly biomedical. It would be necessary to diversify publically-funded research projects to develop effective and efficient care technologies for the future.
Aging ; Chronic Disease ; Financial Management ; Health Promotion ; Information Services* ; Korea

BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic automatic boundary detection(ABD) is a new on-line technique which automatically outlines the left atrial endocardial border and instantly calculates the left atrial area and volume from two dimensional echocardiographic images. To determine if left atrial volume can be derived using the ABD method, 70 patients with various etiology of heart disease(mean age 51) underwent complete echocardiographic examination with both the ABD method and conventional two-dimensional echocardiographic measurement. METHODS: End-systolic left atrial volume was obtained on-line from the apical four chamber view using ABD(ABD LAVOL). Left atrial length was also measured from an apical view. Left atrial volume was calculated using ellipsoid model(2D LAVOL) and method of disc(MANUAL LAVOL) by two-dimensional echocardiography. RESULTS: The end-systolic left atrial volume by ellipsoid model, method of disc and ABD were 87+/-31ml, 57+/-25 and 60+/-28ml, respectively. I.inear regression analysis revealed that the ABD LAVOL is closely correlated with 2D LAVOL and MANUAL LAVOL(ABD LAVOL vs 2D LAVOL, SEE=22ml, r=0.65, p<0.001; ABD LAVOL vs MANUAL LAVOL, SEE=6ml, r=0.97, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: ABD echocar-diography is a new on-line technique which may be used to accurately calculate left atrial volume in patients with various heart diseases.
Echocardiography* ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Humans