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OBJECTIVES This study was conducted to examine health care utilization and to investigate barriers of health care utilization for foreigners. METHODS This review was conducted on papers published between 2005 and 2019. Papers include Korean papers, reports, and foreign papers written by Korean. Various combinations of keywords in Korean and English were used and RISS, KISS, Google Scholar, DBpia, KoreaMed, KRpia, NDSL, CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, and Medline were used as search engines. References from the searched literature were used again. The subjects of this study were foreigners residing in Korea, and only the literature including 'Status and barriers of health care utilization was included in this review. The literature type included both qualitative and quantitative studies. RESULTS There are various barriers for foreigners in Korea to use healthcare services, including language barriers, economic burdens, lack of informa-tion, physical accessibilities, and sociocultural factors. Among the barriers, language barriers and economic burdens are the main factors and the lack of information is just as important as those. CONCLUSION In order for foreigners in Korea to receive healthcare services without difficulty, increasing their understanding on Korean healthcare system and promoting all services available. Additionally, policy measures for solving economic burden and communication problems should be con-tinuously developed.

BACKGROUND Korea has reached an aged society, with its population aging rapidly. However, the social policy associated with population aging has limitations of social welfare. Our society has suffered from social problems such as elderly poverty and inequality in old age. Thus, policy to improve these challenges are needed. OBJECTIVE We aimed to provide a basis for healthcare policy decisions by exploring the factors associated with the elderly house-hold facing catastrophic health expenditure. METHOD We examined baseline characteristics of single-living elderly. Moreover, we performed logistic regression analysis to assess the factors associated with the elderly household facing catastrophic health expenditure using the Korea Health Panel Survey data. RESULTS The major factors in the elderly household facing catastrophic health expenditure were elderly poverty, economic activity, severe disease, the share of drug prices, and quality of life. According to the Chi-square results, there was a statistically significant difference between age, sex, insurance type, elderly poverty, economic activity, education level, and presence of chronic or severe disease. CONCLUSION The main factors associated with the elderly household facing catastrophic health expenditure related primarily to economic characteristics. Thus, practical policy decision-making is needed to improve income secu-rity for an aging population.

BACKGROUNDS For efficient new drug development, the importance of open innovation is increasing in the pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to evaluate the quality of innovation by analyzing the source of innovation through case analysis of new drugs developed in Korea, and analyzing the time gap between the first-in-class drugs and domestically developed drugs. METHODS Product patents were identified using the K-Orange Book presented by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for new drugs developed in Korea included in the Drug approval report 2019. The source of innovation was analyzed from a identified product patent, and the quality of innovation was evaluated by comparing the timing of approval between first-in-class drug and domestically developed new drug. RESULTS Among the new drugs developed in Korea, 24 substances for which product patents could be identified were analyzed. Of the total, 67% were In-house developed drugs, 33% were external technology introduction, and half of the external technology were introduced from foreign pharmaceutical companies. Moreover, domestically developed new drugs were released on the market more than 10 years after the approval of first-in-class drugs on average. CONCLUSION As a result of case analysis of new drugs developed in Korea, domestic pharmaceutical companies still have enough room for development in terms of the quality of innovation. This study shows the current status of innovation on new drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. We expect this study to be used as a basis for discussion for policy approaches on the pharmaceutical industry.

BACKGROUND In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, all students in the college of pharmacy have experienced online learning as the way of social distancing during one semester of partially. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to investigate current state of pharmacy education and to measure student satis-faction after COVID-19 outbreak. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted to pharmacy students in South Korea via email or SNS. We used convenience sampling. A structured questionnaire was developed to ask for the online lectures, experiment classes, and pharmacy practice experiences. RESULTS A total of 434 students responded to the sur-vey. The satisfaction level of online lectures, experiment classes, and pharmacy practice experiences were 3.33(n=389), 3.32(n=238), and 3.22(n=97) out of 5, respectively. Students taking online lectures responded that it was difficult to focus on the class, and had to improve the way the class was conducted, technical problems, and the quality of the lecture. The satisfaction level of face-to-face experiment classes was higher than those of other type classes, and 61.2% of the students taking experiment classes preferred to face-to-face experiment classes. Students answered that they did not receive suffi-cient pharmacy practice experiences and protection for COVID-19 in pharmacies and hospitals. CONCLUSION The study has shown that universities and instructors have tried a variety of methods in education to combat COVID-19, and what students think about it. Further research and consideration are needed for the effective implementation of pharmacy educa-tion in the COVID-19 era, which is still ongoing.

OBJECTIVE to assess the attitude of community pharmacists for geriatric pharmacy services. METHODS An on-line based survey was conducted with community pharmacists who are members of a web cafe named as "Pharmacists' Community for Future Pharmacy." A total of 100 pharmacists participated in the survey on a voluntary basis between Sep-tember 3 and 10, 2018. RESULTS Mean score for the necessity of certified geriatric pharmacists was 4.01 on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with a higher score reflecting more positive attitude. About 64% of the respondents preferred that pre-existing pharmacies working in hospitals or community pharmacies provide geriatric pharmacy services instead of recruit-ing new pharmacists separately (16%). Majority of the respondents (77%) preferred to operate a single certificate system for geriatric pharmacists regardless of type or work place (i.e., hospitals of community pharmacies). The highest demand for education area associated with geriatric pharmacy services was 'pharmaceutical therapy and management of medical history (57%),' followed by 'communication skills with the elderly (15%),' 'understanding biological and socioeconomic changes associated with aging (10%),' and 'management of chronic diseases (10%).' Two thirds of the respondents (65%) expressed their willingness to participate in providing geriatric pharmacy services if economic reward was provided, while 15% were unwilling to participate regardless of economic reward. The most preferred type of payment method for geriatric pharmacy services was fee-for-service payment (70%). CONCLUSION We expect that this exploratory study would help to develop geriatric pharmacy specialist system that can induce high acceptance by and active particiation of community pharmacists in Korea.

BACKGROUNDS Community pharmacists contribute to safe and effective drug treatment for patients by per-forming various prescription interventions through simultaneous drug utilization review (DUR) and checking patient medi-cation history. Our study aimed to analyze the interventions on drug-related problems (DRPs) by pharmacist from a community pharmacy. METHODS We obtained data for DRPs and the interventions by pharmacist which was recorded between 2019.7.22 and 2019.8.30 in working hours on weekdays at a community pharmacy located in Nowon-gu. Data was collected using a well-developed form ("Pharmacist Intervention on DRPs"). Data contained patient related factors, charac-teristics of prescription issuing institutions, DRPs, pharmacist interventions, intervention acceptance, and time required for intervention recording. RESULTS Pharmacist' intervention occurred 47 cases (1.04%) among the total 3,831 prescriptions during the study period. Men and women were 50% each, and the average age was 58.3 (±20.6, SD) years. The most com-mon types of DRPs were 'duplication (same drug)' of 53.2% (25 cases), and as for the pharmacist intervention, 'discon-tinue medication' was done most frequently as 48.9% (23 cases). In the drug efficacy groups, the musculoskeletal drugs were the most common with 33.3% (16 cases), followed by the alimentary tract and metabolism drugs with 16.7% (8 cases). The average time spent on intervention recording was 4.1 minutes (±4.0). CONCLUSION The current status of DRP and pharmacist interventions was identified through data from one community pharmacy collected through a system-atic record format. Intervention by community pharmacists plays an important role in the safe and effective utilization of treatment.