PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a daily life-based physical activity enhancement program performed by middle-aged women at risk for cardiovascular disease. METHODS: This study used a randomized control group pretest-posttest design. Middle-aged women aged 45 to 64 were recruited from two outpatient cardiology departments, and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=28) and a control group (n=30). For the experimental group, after providing one-on-one counseling and education, we provided customized text messages to motivate them in daily life. To monitor the practice of physical activity, they also used an exercise diary and mobile pedometer for 12 weeks. Subjects' physical activities (MET-min/week) were measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Their physiological data were obtained by blood tests using a portable analyzer, and the data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0/WIN program. RESULTS: There were significant differences in exercise self-efficacy, health behavior, IPAQ score, body fat, body muscle, and fasting blood sugar between the two groups. However, there were no significant differences in total cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and waist-to-hip ratio. CONCLUSION: Strengthening physical activity in daily life without being limited by cost burden and time and space constraints. Therefore, it is essential to motivate middle-aged women at risk for cardiovascular disease to practice activities that are easily performed in their daily lives.
Adipose Tissue ; Blood Glucose ; Cardiology ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Counseling ; Education ; Fasting ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Hematologic Tests ; Humans ; Lipoproteins ; Motor Activity ; Outpatients ; Patient Education as Topic ; Self Efficacy ; Text Messaging ; Waist-Hip Ratio

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine illness perception, knowledge about the disease and health promoting behaviors, and to identify factors influencing health promoting behaviors among Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) patients. METHODS: The participants were 128 PAD patients who had been treated as an outpatient or an inpatient at the department of cardiology in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. Data were collected from October to December 2014, regarding general characteristics, disease related characteristics, illness perception and knowledge on PAD, health promoting behaviors by using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS: The number of subjects who had an awareness of PAD diagnosis was 70 (54.7%) among 128. In this study, knowledge on PAD was significantly correlated with health promoting behaviors (r=0.205, P=0.020). Especially, knowledge on PAD had a significant correlation with health responsibility (r=0.353, P<0.001) and exercise (r=0.230, P=0.009). In the regression analysis, knowledge on PAD was a factor that influences the health promoting behavior in this study subjects (R2=0.212, P=0.032). CONCLUSIONS: We could determine the degree of perception, knowledge, and health promoting behaviors among participants and the influence of PAD-related knowledge on health promoting behaviors. Conclusively, the results of this study support the development of education intervention to ameliorate disease perception and PAD related knowledge in order to improve health promoting behaviors among PAD patients.
Cardiology ; Diagnosis ; Education ; Health Behavior ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Outpatients ; Peripheral Arterial Disease* ; Seoul ; Tertiary Care Centers

INTRODUCTIONThis study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the use of a cardiopulmonary patient simulator in the teaching of second-year medical students. Effectiveness was measured in terms of the extent of knowledge retention and students' ability to apply the skills learned in subsequent real-life patient contact.

METHODSIn this study, ten third-year medical students who had previously undergone simulator training as part of their second-year curriculum underwent an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and a multiple-choice question (MCQ) test to assess their ability to apply the knowledge gained during the simulator training when dealing with real patients. The performance of this group of students was compared with that of a group of ten fourth-year medical students who did not undergo simulation training.

RESULTSAlthough the third-year medical students performed well in the OSCE, they were outperformed by the group of fourth-year medical students, who had an extra year of clinical exposure. The MCQ scores of the two groups of students were similar. Post-simulation training survey revealed that students were generally in favour of incorporating cardiopulmonary simulator training in the preclinical curriculum.

CONCLUSIONCardiopulmonary simulator training is a useful tool for the education of preclinical medical students. It aids the translation of preclinical knowledge into real-life clinical skills.

Cardiology ; education ; Clinical Clerkship ; Computer Simulation ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical ; organization & administration ; Educational Measurement ; Female ; Humans ; Learning ; Male ; Singapore ; Students, Medical ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Universities

BACKGROUND: Fresh frozen plasmas (FFPs) do not seem to be effectively managed compared to red blood cells and prophylactic transfusions of FFPs still occur in many cases. We evaluated appropriateness of FFP transfusion and analyzed the conditions of FFP usage in a regional hospital. METHODS: The conditions of FFP usage were investigated over one year from January 2012 to December 2012 using computerized medical records and archived documents. Results of coagulation tests before transfusion, appropriateness of FFP usage, and the reason for discarding FFP were investigated, and the assessment of the appropriateness of FFP transfusion was based on the transfusion guidelines published by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RESULTS: During the study period, 2,675 units of FFP were transfused to 364 patients over 752 episodes. FFP transfusions were inappropriate in 33.1% of episodes, and empirically used FFPs without performing pre-transfusion coagulation tests or when the test results were in the reference range occupied 25.7% of inappropriate FFP transfusions. Improper use of FFPs was most common in the Department of Emergency Medicine. During the three-year period, discarding rate of FFPs was 1.3% and the most common cause was the death or worsening condition of patients. Discarding FFPs was greatest in the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Cardiology. CONCLUSION: Many FFPs were inappropriately transfused. This was due to a general lack of understanding of the transfusion guidelines among physicians. Continuous training and education as well as ongoing monitoring of FFP usage are necessary.
Cardiology ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Education ; Emergency Medicine ; Erythrocytes ; Humans ; Korea ; Medical Records Systems, Computerized ; Plasma* ; Reference Values ; Thoracic Surgery

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to develop a smartphone application (app) as an educational learning instrument for coronary artery disease (CAD) patients and to assess the users' level of satisfaction. METHODS: This methodological research involves elicited learning content for CAD patients to develop a learning instrument using the smartphone app. The app was developed according to the steps of Assessment, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation, which is a systematic instructional design model. The levels of satisfaction with the developed smartphone app among 30 outpatients with CAD were assessed via a questionnaire during their visits to a cardiology outpatient department. RESULTS: A smartphone app 'Strong Heart' was developed through reviewing the literature associated with education for CAD patients under professional supervision and searching for medical smartphone apps that are already available. The learning contents include six main sections containing essential learning issues in managing CAD and additional information to attract the user's attention, such as patient cases and quizzes. After modification with feedback from experts, the app was finally developed and evaluated by patients who reported that they were satisfied with the usefulness of the app. CONCLUSIONS: The developed smartphone app is available on both the iPhone App Store and the Android Play Store. Patients with CAD may utilize the app for supporting educational material without limitations of time and space.
Cardiology ; Coronary Artery Disease* ; Education ; Educational Technology ; Humans ; Learning ; Mobile Applications ; Organization and Administration ; Outpatients ; Patient Education as Topic ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Cardiology ; education ; standards ; Echocardiography ; Humans ; Inservice Training

BACKGROUND: A variety of dermatological disorders develop in hospitalized patients and the need for dermatological consultations is on the rise. OBJECTIVE: We analyzed 2 years of dermatological consultation data from a tertiary medical center in Korea and compared dermatological problems among individual departments. METHODS: We reviewed 3,102 dermatological inpatient consultations by performing a retrospective chart review. RESULTS: Contact dermatitis (11.4%), drug eruption (9.6%), tinea pedis (5.5%), xerotic eczema (5.3%), and seborrheic dermatitis (5.2%) were the 5 dermatological disorders that were most commonly referred to dermatologists. Patients in the allergy and pulmonology departments had higher rates of drug eruptions. Endocrinology-admitted patients, especially diabetic patients, frequently complained of foot dermatitis. The cardiology, gastroenterology, and hemato-oncology departments referred many patients with purpuric dermatosis to dermatologists. Patients from the surgical departments consulted more frequently consulted contact dermatitis and drug eruptions. The neurology and rehabilitation medicine departments referred more seborrheic dermatitis patients than other departments. Pediatric patients commonly consulted for atopic dermatitis, viral exanthemata, and seborrheic dermatitis. Regardless of department, patients who suffered from severe illness and underwent major surgery developed herpes zoster and cutaneous fungal infections more frequently than other patients. Personal hygiene was closely related to the development of follicular disorders. CONCLUSION: Dermatologists should be familiar with the diverse dermatological complaints of patients admitted to various departments and be actively involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and education of doctors and patients to improve the quality of inpatient care.
Cardiology ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Atopic ; Dermatitis, Contact ; Dermatitis, Seborrheic ; Diagnosis ; Drug Eruptions ; Eczema ; Education ; Foot ; Gastroenterology ; Herpes Zoster ; Humans ; Hygiene ; Hypersensitivity ; Inpatients* ; Korea ; Neurology ; Pulmonary Medicine ; Referral and Consultation ; Rehabilitation ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin Diseases ; Tinea Pedis

Coronary artery disease is on the rise over the world. Myocardial perfusion SPECT is a well established technique to detect coronary artery disease and to assess left ventricular function. In addition, it has the unique ability to predict the prognosis of the patients. Moreover, the application of ECG-gated images provided the quantitatve data and improved the accuracy. This approach has been proved to be cost-effective and suitable for the emerging economies as well as developed countries. However, the utilization of nuclear cardiology procedures vary widely considering the different countries and region of the world. Korea exits 2-3 times less utilization than Japan, and 20 times than the United States. Recently, with the emerging of new technology, namely cardiac CT, cardiac MR and stress echocardiography, the clinical usefulness of nuclear cardiology has been called in question and its role has been redefined. For the proper promotion of nuclear cardiology, special educations should be conducted since the nuclear cardiology has the contact points between nuclear medicine and cardiology. Several innovations are in horizon which will impact the diagnostic accuracy as well as imaging time and cost savings. Development of new tracers, gamma camera technology and hybrid systems will open the new avenue in cardiac imaging. The future of nuclear cardiology based on molecular imaging is very exciting. The newly defined biologic targets involving atherosclerosis and vascular vulnerability will allow the answers for the key clinical questions. Hybrid techniques including SPECT/CT indicate the direction in which clinical nuclear cardiology may be headed in the immediate future. To what extent nuclear cardiology will be passively absorbed by other modalities, or will actively incorporate other modalities, is up to the present and next generation of nuclear cardiologists.
Arteries ; Atherosclerosis ; Cardiology ; Chimera ; Coronary Artery Disease ; Cost Savings ; Developed Countries ; Echocardiography, Stress ; Education, Special ; Gamma Cameras ; Head ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Molecular Imaging ; Nuclear Medicine ; Perfusion ; Prognosis ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon ; Ventricular Function, Left

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to develop a PBL program for continuing nurse education and to evaluate the program after its implementation. METHODS: The PBL program was developed in the core cardio-pulmonary nursing concepts through a collaborative approach with a nursing school and a hospital. The PBL packages with simulation on ACLS were implemented to 40 clinical nurses. The entire PBL program consisted of six 3-hour weekly classes and was evaluated by the participants' subjective responses. RESULTS: Two PBL packages in cardio-pulmonary system including clinical cases and tutorial guidelines were developed. The 57.5% of the participants responded positively about the use of PBL as continuing nurse education in terms of self-motivated and cooperative learning, whereas 20.0% of the participants answered that the PBL method was not suitable for clinical nurses. Some modifications were suggested in grouping participants and program contents for PBL. CONCLUSION: The PBL method could be utilized to promote nurses' clinical competencies as well as self-learning abilities. Further research is needed in the implementation strategies of PBL-based continuing education in order to improve its effectiveness.
Adult ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Cardiology/education ; *Clinical Competence ; Computer Simulation ; Curriculum ; Education, Nursing, Continuing/*organization & administration ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Heart Diseases/nursing ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Lung Diseases/nursing ; Manikins ; Middle Aged ; Nursing Education Research ; Nursing Methodology Research ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*education/psychology ; Organizational Objectives ; Pilot Projects ; Problem-Based Learning/*organization & administration ; Program Development ; Program Evaluation ; Pulmonary Medicine/education

Biomedical Research ; history ; trends ; Cardiology ; education ; history ; trends ; Cardiology Service, Hospital ; history ; Coronary Care Units ; history ; Coronary Disease ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Education, Medical, Graduate ; history ; trends ; Forecasting ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Humans ; Singapore