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BACKGROUNDS Korea Pharmaceutical Industry has been making the various system and huge efforts to improve the quality of distribution. However, the wholesaler, which is a key party of the pharmaceutical distribution system, didn’t comply the needs of the time due to the difficulties in management and the deterioration of external competitiveness. OBJECTIVE The government has set up measures to strengthen the capacity of drug wholesalers and establish distribution order. As one of the measures, it is necessary to confirm the compulsory items for the systematic education of drug distribution workers. METHODS The survey was conducted among the member companies of the Korea Pharmaceutical Distribution Association. In this study, the needs for the required knowledge and the educational contents for pharmaceutical distributors is analyzed by dividing the pharmaceutical distributors into the logistics managers and the upstream managers. RESULTS As a result of the survey analysis, there was a high need for knowledge of supply management, without any differences by department, position, experience, and product regarding the required knowledge. In education contents, the high demands for the marketing/sales was shown regardless of department, job title, career, and products they handle. CONCLUSION It is necessary to conduct differentiated education based on the comparatively highly recognized essential knowledge, educational contents, and the results of the differences in the educational content needs for each position, career, and handling product.

OBJECTIVE Diabetic retinopathy and macular edema were prevalent and a major cause of blind in developed countries. This study was performed to estimate and evaluate the rate of screening, factors associated with screening, and economic impact of diabetic retinopathy or macular edema on patients with diabetes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). METHODS Retrospective longitudinal cohort study using the Abu Dhabi administrative claims database. A total of 34,629 new diabetic patients were identified and were followed for one-year. The screening and diagnosis rates of diabetic retinopathy and/or macular edema and treatment costs during a follow-up period were measured. The Screening was defined as having any codes related with diagnosis or treatment of diabetic retinopathy or macular edema. Total treatment costs for patients with diabetes were calculated by adding medical service costs and prescription drug costs. Diabetes-related costs were calculated by costs related to diabetes and diabetes-related comorbidities. RESULTS Of eligible patients, 21.7% were screened for diabetic retinopathy or macular edema. Screening was higher in patients aged ≥45 years, women, residents of the Northern Emirates, patients who used insulin at index diagnosis month vs. non-users, and patients with comorbidities (p<0.001). The average total annual treatment costs were significantly different between patients with and without diabetic retinopathy ($4,820 vs. $2,638) and with and without macular edema ($4,045 vs. $2,668). CONCLUSIONS The screening rate for diabetic retinopathy in the UAE was very low and was influenced by demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical characteristics. Diabetic retinopathy and macular edema substantially increased total treatment costs and diabetes-related cost.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the clinical significance and safety of HPV vaccine. This paper also describes the effects of hpv vaccine in men as well as in women. The cost of diseases caused by HPV is a significant burden. Therefore, HPV vaccination is currently being implemented in more than 80 countries as part of the National Immunization Program (NIP). Recently, A 9-valent vaccine was added to prevent the disease of HPV 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58. In terms of safety, the side effects profile was similar to the 9-valent vaccine and the 4-valent vaccine. Consequently, The HPV vaccine can relieve burden for cervical cancer and HPV-related diseases.

BACKGROUND Since the concept of pharmaceutical care was issued by Helper and Strand in 1990, the role and expertise of pharmacist have been discussed, the role has changed dispensing and providing drugs to offering services focused on patients. Also, in South Korea, there are major changes in legal system as well as the field of education. OBJECTIVE This review therefore aimed to identify clinical and economic effects of services that are provided by pharmacists in South Korea and seek a wide range of pharmacists’ role expansion. METHODS A comprehensive searching was performed using Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, Journal of Korean Society of Health-system Pharmacists and three Korean databases. We analyzed studies as intervention type, research status, outcomes of interventions and economic outcomes. RESULTS According to the first standard of classification of this study, 24 of 30 studies performed interventions belong to ‘Ensuring appropriate therapy and outcomes’. As the second standard of classification, 14 of 44 interventions belonged to ‘Patient education program or cognitive service’. 16 of 30 studies performed interventions belong to ‘Ensuring appropriate therapy and outcomes’ and evaluated clinical outcomes. There are several effects of pharmacy service. Most studies reported that pharmacy service has positive effects on errors related to prescription, occurrence of adverse drug reaction, and medication adherence. But interventions performed in studies were limited to certain types, study which evaluated economic effects was few. CONCLUSION Despite increases in the volume of reports on effects of pharmacy service, improvement in variety and quality of research is needed.

BACKGROUNDS Despite the introduction of Social Pharmacy in South Korea since the 1990s, there have been no studies on the status of social pharmacy education and research so far. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate current status of social pharmacy education and research in South Korea. METHODS A questionnaire was mailed to 35 deans (or professors of Social Pharmacy) at colleges of pharmacy in South Korea. All respondents were asked to provide information regarding the status of their faculties, curriculum and graduate school. To present the result of the questionnaire, the frequencies or percentages of all the questions were calculated as all variable were categorical. RESULTS Over two months, a total of 34 professors participated in the study (97% response rate). Among them, 24 colleges answered that they has full-time faculty members in social pharmacy (71%), and 10 colleges answered that they don’t have full-time professors (29%). The 15 respondents reported that their colleges had graduate school of social pharmacy (44%) CONCLUSION The significant difference among the colleges of pharmacy was shown in the status of social pharmacy faculties, mandatory clerkship, and graduate school. To reduce the gap among the colleges of pharmacy, it is necessary to expand the social pharmacy faculty and develop the infrastructure in the field of social pharmacy.

OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the priority setting criteria that the public thinks appropriate for limited health care resources. METHODS Twelve adults who reside in Jinju were recruited for focus group interview. Participants were divided into two groups of six people each, and each discussion was moderated by the same researcher based on the same scenario. RESULTS As a result of the focus group interview in the two groups, we could identify various criteria involved in prioritizing limited health care resources. In general, accessibility to necessary medical services was considered a very important value, and it was important to guarantee access to basic medical care, equity in health care use, and support for socioeconomically vulnerable classes. It was also found that many participants considered protection from financial risks as a very important function of health insurance. However, participants were divided on how to allocate resources under the constraint of a limited budget. Some insisted that it was necessary to support the latest high-priced medical treatments as it is the obligation of the nation to protect the lives and health of people, while others insisted that it needs to be balanced considering both costs and benefits. CONCLUSION Overall, the results found that equity considerations are stronger than the support for the health maximization, which corresponds to the principle of utilitarian distribution. In addition, a big difference of opinions between generations was also discovered. Participants in their 20s, they paid more attention to cost-effectiveness than the other age group.