The Korean society is rapidly aging and the health care needs for aged people are increasing. In this context, some physicians claim to establish new medical specialty board (MSB) for geriatric medical experts but also MSB for primary medical care specialists, clinical pharmacologists, and public health experts. In Korea, basic concept for the specialty board system is still under debates and the legal support for the system is poor. At present, doctors with MSBs in private sectors supply 92.4% of primary medical care but the National Health Care System requires more primary care physicians than specialists in Korea. Therefore, the government must invest in the education of doctors more to improve the public health care system. The proposal of the new MSB for geriatric medicine must be gradually developed according to the national long-term health plan, social needs, and national budget for the public benefit. Please stop discussing unprepared new MSBs.
Aging ; Budgets ; Delivery of Health Care ; Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Physicians, Primary Care ; Private Sector ; Public Health ; Specialization ; Specialty Boards*

Compared to Europe and America, the specialization of colorectal and anal surgery in China started a bit late, and so far there has been no standardized residency program and expert-access system. This review introduces different training systems of colorectal and anal surgery residency in the United States, Europe, and Japan, aiming to provide references for the establishment of residency program in China, which is imperative. Firstly, national uniform identification standards for standardization training bases of colorectal and anal surgeons are required. And then based on these standards, colorectal and anal surgery residency training bases are identified by professional Association/Society. Secondly, the training subjects must be limited in graduates from formal medical school who have successfully completed residency program. Thirdly, training course should be set properly with the main purpose of mastering skills of clinical practice, and 2-4 years is a reasonable training period. Lastly, check and evaluation on colorectal and anal surgeons should be placed with great emphasis, and regarded as a prerequisite of engaging colorectal and anal surgery.
Certification ; standards ; China ; Colorectal Surgery ; education ; standards ; trends ; Europe ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; standards ; Japan ; Specialty Boards ; Surgeons ; education ; standards ; United States

This article provides an overview of medical ethics education for practicing doctors in Korea, focusing on its aims, objectives, content, pedagogical methods, educators, and key issues and challenges for future development. Education on medical ethics for practicing doctors in Korea started relatively recently on a small scale, based on the initiative of a few specialty boards. Currently, no formal aims and objectives for medical ethics education for practicing doctors have been proposed, and no formalized curricula have been developed by any specialty boards or by the Korean Medical Association. In the educational programs that currently exist, lectures are the predominant teaching method, and only a few educators who are doctors specializing in medical ethics deliver all those lectures. Thus, there are many issues and challenges in the Korean medical environment that must be thoroughly investigated and overcome. Nevertheless, medical ethics is an integral part of the medical profession and should be taught at all levels of training, including undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Ethics, Medical* ; Ethics, Professional ; Korea ; Lectures ; Specialty Boards ; Teaching

This article provides an overview of medical ethics education for practicing doctors in Korea, focusing on its aims, objectives, content, pedagogical methods, educators, and key issues and challenges for future development. Education on medical ethics for practicing doctors in Korea started relatively recently on a small scale, based on the initiative of a few specialty boards. Currently, no formal aims and objectives for medical ethics education for practicing doctors have been proposed, and no formalized curricula have been developed by any specialty boards or by the Korean Medical Association. In the educational programs that currently exist, lectures are the predominant teaching method, and only a few educators who are doctors specializing in medical ethics deliver all those lectures. Thus, there are many issues and challenges in the Korean medical environment that must be thoroughly investigated and overcome. Nevertheless, medical ethics is an integral part of the medical profession and should be taught at all levels of training, including undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate.
Curriculum ; Education* ; Ethics, Medical* ; Ethics, Professional ; Korea ; Lectures ; Specialty Boards ; Teaching

Certification ; economics ; standards ; Clinical Competence ; economics ; standards ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; economics ; standards ; Humans ; Specialty Boards ; United States

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several factors affecting the severity and outcomes of diverticulitis have been reported, but there is little research on physician specialty related with this disease. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical characteristics and outcomes of diverticulitis depending on physician's specialty. METHODS: Medical records of 239 patients, who had been hospitalized with first-diagnosed acute colonic diverticulitis at Kyung Hee University Hospital in Gang Dong (Seoul, Korea) from June 2006 to December 2012, were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were classified according to whether they had been managed by gastroenterologists or not. Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were compared between two groups. RESULTS: Of these 239 patients, 38 (15.9%) patients were treated by a gastroenterologist and 201 (84.1%) patients by a non-gastroenterologist. Clinical characteristics such as age, gender, body mass index, comorbidity, medication, laboratory results, recurrence and complication were not significantly different between two groups. However, right-sided diverticulitis predominated in the non-gastroenterologist group (79% vs. 91%, P=0.028). From the sub-group analysis of uncomplicated diverticulitis, intravenous antibiotics was used for a shorter period of time by gastroenterologists than non-gastroenterologists (3.3+/-1.9 days vs. 4.4+/-2.8 days, P=0.032). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the 3 day administration of intravenous antibiotics significantly depended on the physician's specialty (odds ratio 7.984, 95% confidence interval 1.990-32.043, P=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the duration of intravenous antibiotics for treating uncomplicated colonic diverticulitis was shortened by gastroenterology specialists without increasing operation or recurrence.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Body Mass Index ; Colon ; Comorbidity ; Diverticulitis ; Diverticulitis, Colonic ; Gastroenterology ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Medical Records ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Specialization ; Specialty Boards ; Treatment Outcome

The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, established in 1993, is the only statutory body in Hong Kong to train, assess and accredit medical and dental specialists. According to the law in Hong Kong, a doctor or dentist who wishes to have his name included in the Specialist Register of Medical Council or Dental Council must either be a Fellow of the Academy or be assessed and certified by the Academy to have qualifications and training comparable to that required of an Academy Fellow. Once a doctor or dentist is on the Specialist Register, he must fulfil the continuing medical education requirements as determined by the Academy to maintain his specialist status. The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong has implemented the Doctor Work Reform (DWR) since 2006 which involves reduction of doctors' work hours and may affect training. The long-term strategy of the Academy with regards to the issue of DWR is to modernise postgraduate medical education and closely monitor the process to ensure that the quality of training would not be affected.
Clinical Competence ; standards ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; standards ; Health Care Reform ; standards ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Hong Kong ; Humans ; Medicine ; standards ; Quality of Health Care ; standards ; Schools, Medical ; standards ; Specialty Boards ; standards

While there is an ethical obligation to improve clinical outcomes by developing better therapies, surgical innovation has largely progressed without the strict regulations required of novel pharmaceutical products. We explore the reasons why new surgical techniques are frequently introduced without the benefit of randomised controlled trials, and present an approach to the ethical evaluation of novel surgical procedures.
Biomedical Research ; ethics ; Clinical Competence ; Diffusion of Innovation ; Ethics, Medical ; General Surgery ; ethics ; methods ; standards ; Humans ; Informed Consent ; Medical Audit ; Medicine ; Singapore ; Specialty Boards

Subspecialty board certification is a post-graduate program in which clinicians can acquire the qualifications for special areas or techniques, after they have received a board certification in a specialty in clinical medicine. Considering the trend of increasingly sub-classified and professionalized medicine and the higher demand on specialized medical services, introduction of subspecialty board certification is inevitable. However, given the characteristics of the medical environment in Korea, such as the medical payment system, a possibility of undesirable outcomes should not be overlooked. An imprudent administration of the specialty board system would cause conflict and split within communities of medical professionals and also produce confusion among medical consumers. Accordingly, the establishment of subspecialty board system should proceed based on academic communications as well as organic collaboration with the parent academic society and/or the relevant academic societies. Individuals can submit an application for a subspecialty board qualification under the agreement of specialized academic societies which have already been authorized, but the authorization of the societies is determined following a rigorous assessment by the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (KAMS). An active intervention by KAMS is essential for maintaining the quality of specialty board system and preventing imprudent administration. KAMS will make the best effort to prevent distribution of unauthorized certificates and to rectify rational implementation of the subspecialty board certification system.
Accreditation ; Certification ; Clinical Medicine ; Cooperative Behavior ; Humans ; Korea ; Parents ; Specialty Boards

When considering the establishment of the Korean Society of Critical Care Medicine (KSCCM) in 1980, the beginning of intensive care in Korea was not behind the time. However, the level of our intensive care quality lags behind that of advanced countries. The unreasonable reimbursement system in Korea for required critical care costs staggers critical care development, along with the full time intensivist shortage problem in intensive care units (ICUs). Currently, the reimbursement rates are estimated to support around 30~50% of the cost. Due to our odd critical care reimbursement system, the more financial losses for intensive care occur, the better critical care is conducted by enhancing critical care delivery system, such as the nurse-to-bed ratio. This inappropriate critical care delivery system results in poor outcomes for our critically ill patients. Critically ill patients present many diagnostic and therapeutic problems. The need to cope with those complicated patients' problems has evolved over the last four decades into a critical care subspecialty in Western countries. The KSCCM has been the only organization in Korea that represents all professional components for critical care. After the 6 year long discussion with other related medical societies, the KSCCM launched the critical care subspecialty board under the auspice of the Korean Academy of Medical Societies on April 15th, 2008. After reviewing the applicants' carriers in critical care and their research achievements, 1,040 critical care subspecialties were born this February. Their primary specialties include Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, Surgery, and Thoracic Surgery. 91.7% of them are university hospital faculty members and they should renew their critical care subspecialty in every 5 years. The required items for the renewal are not easily fulfilled without working as a critical care physician. The structured critical care training program began in designated training hospitals on March 1st, 2009. Over the past few decades, the activities of intensive care units have considerably changed. Recent advances in critical care technology facilitate early detection of patients' problems. Much clinical information derived through research has been evolved as bundles of clinical managements for the indicated patients. The evidences of clinical researches show that the right application of the recommended management bundles at the right time improves patient outcomes. Therefore, the meaning of the critical care subspecialty is to perform the right care at the right time for critically ill patients. We think that the implementation of the critical care specialty and of core critical care education and training system can significantly enhance quality of critical care and patient outcomes. In order to achieve these goals, the critical care delivery system should be urgently enhanced. The enhancement includes the right compensation of critical care cost and the correction of the absurd medical law, ruling on our ICU care. The KSCCM will continuously offer a variety of activities that promote excellence in patient care, education, critical care delivery system, research, and collaboration with other countries' critical care societies. It is our hope that all critically ill patients should receive professional and humane care in Korean ICUs and the inappropriately designed health care system should not jeopardize patients' health.
Achievement ; Anesthesiology ; Compensation and Redress ; Cooperative Behavior ; Critical Care ; Critical Illness ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergency Medicine ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Internal Medicine ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Neurology ; Neurosurgery ; Patient Care ; Pediatrics ; Phosphatidylethanolamines ; Societies, Medical ; Specialty Boards ; Thoracic Surgery