This study aimed to examine the association between ultra-processed food intake and dyslipidaemia risk and whether this association varied by the polygenic score for dyslipidaemia in the adult Korean population.

Prospective cohort study.

Ultra-processed foods were identified under the NOVA classification. Participants were categorised into < 5, 5 to < 10, 10 to < 15, 15 to < 20 and ≥ 20 %E/d of ultra-processed food intake. The polygenic scores for dyslipidaemia were calculated from 53 950 SNPs. ORs and 95 % CIs were estimated using multivariate logistic regression models.

20 044 Korean adults aged ≥ 40 years in the Health Examinees (HEXA) study, the Cardiovascular Disease Association Study (CAVAS) and the Korea Association Resource (KARE) study.

During median follow-ups of 4·09, 8·67 and 15·67 years in the HEXA, CAVAS and KARE studies, respectively, there were a total of 7331, 786 and 1732 incident dyslipidaemia events. Ultra-processed food intake was not significantly associated with dyslipidaemia risk. Compared with < 5 %E/d, the pooled OR (95 % CI) of ≥ 20 %E/d of ultra-processed food intake for dyslipidaemia incidence was 1·01 (0·90, 1·13; P for trend = 0·83). There was no interaction by dyslipidaemia-related genetic variations; ORs (95 % CIs) were 1·04 (0·89, 1·22; P for trend = 0·91) and 0·98 (0·84, 1·15; P for trend = 0·72) for individuals with high- and low-polygenic scores, respectively (P for interaction = 0·90).

No significant association was observed between ultra-processed food intake and the overall risk of dyslipidaemia, nor in subgroups of polygenic scores for dyslipidaemia among Korean adults with low ultra-processed food intake.

In Korea, there are various medical and industrial researchers who use radiation as part of their research. But radiation can cause extensive long-term damage in case of an accident. Therefore, national-level policy and training for the response workforce have been established for a professional response. Since 2002, the KIRAMS has been providing emergency medical response education based on the five mandatory contents (including legislation, protection measures, and emergency medicine).

The training content can be divided into theoretical and practical courses. Early education included theoretical courses on cases of accidents and their effects on the human body, as well as practical courses on treatment for contaminated patients. The current education program offers group practice using a HPS and mobile learning. As for the future of national radiation emergency education, the paradigm of education will change with the fourth industrial revolution, the advancement of the IT industry, and the advent of the ‘untact’ era. Therefore, research and development on XR technology–based educational content that can overcome reality’s constraints, is being conducted. Simulation-based education courses to increase effectiveness and immersion will be implemented.

Currently, there are approximately 900 radiation emergency medical personnel, and more than 30 new and supplementary education contents are provided each year to improve their proficiency and response abilities. Approximately eight types of content using XR technology will be developed and tested (2021-2023) before being implemented in actual education programs (2024). Advancements in education reflecting special conditions, such as COVID-19, and technological advancements will continue indefinitely.

Efforts are ongoing to improve the educational content and to train excellent radiation emergency medical personnel. With the implementation of XR technologies and new education trends, the future of national Korean radiation emergency medical education is expected to advance and diversify, and further improvements in the educational content can be expected.

The KIRAMS establishes radiological emergency institutions and provides training for emergency medical agents. However, because of the uniqueness of radioactive accidents, the current training program has a limitation in the realistic description. Therefore, training programs based on virtual augmented reality technology that can describe radiological emergencies are required. In this study, the contents of practical training for decontamination of radiation-contaminated patients as a part of radiation disaster prevention personnel training using VR simulator are developed.

Environments and devices required for treating patients with complex radiation damage are made visible using VR simulator to enable practical training of techniques and practices that will be required in actual radiation emergencies or training. The VR decontamination training content uses three Point tracking techniques to calculate the location of the head-mounted display device and the hand to visualize the movements. Additionally, Universal Render Pipeline technology was used to develop realistic visualizations of situations.

In this study, VR decontamination treatment practice content was developed, which allows a single trainee to go through the entire treatment process of treating radiation-contaminated patients. The radiation-exposed patient’s treatment process is composed of nine subprocesses, including wearing personal protective equipment, obtaining samples from openings, taking measurements, cleaning contaminated injuries, and so on. A checklist user interface was used to enable trainees to check their progress. The trainee can practice patient treatment with a controller while using VR decontamination treatment content. Additional functions such as narration, sound effects, animation, and so on were added to high educational effects.

In this study, VR decontamination treatment content was developed using VR training simulator to practice the treatment of radiation-contaminated patients. The results of this study will contribute to fostering the workforce response to radiation through efficient education using a VR training simulator, as well as promoting the use of radiation safety regulations.

This study aimed to explore perceptions of the meaning of life among Korean patients living with advanced cancer.

The study employed a mixed-methods design, and 16 participants were included in the analysis. Qualitative data gathered from in-depth interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Quantitative survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Kruskal–Wallis test, and Spearman's ρ correlation.

Participants experienced both the existence of meaning and the will to find meaning in terms of four categories: “interpersonal relationships based on attachment and cohesion” (three themes — family as the core meaning of one's life, supportive and dependent interconnectedness with significant others, and existential responsibility embedded in familism), “therapeutic relationships based on trust” (one theme — communication and trust between the patient and medical staff), “optimism” (two themes — positivity embodied through past experiences and a positive attitude toward the current situation), and “a sense of purpose with advanced cancer” (two themes — the will to survive and expectations for the near future). The meaning in life questionnaire (MLQ) and the purpose in life scale (PIL) showed a significant positive correlation tendency with the functional assessment of chronic illness therapy-spiritual well-being scale (FACIT-Sp). The patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) showed significant negative correlation tendency with both the MLQ-presence of meaning (MLQ-PM) and PIL-Initiative (PIL-I) questionnaires.

Finding meaning in life helps advanced cancer patients realize their will to live. It also acts as a coping mechanism that palliates negative experiences in the fight against the disease. In particular, among advanced cancer patients in the Korean culture, the dynamics of relationships with family and medical staff was a key axis that instilled optimism and will to live. These results suggest that considering the meaning of life in advanced cancer patients by reflecting Korean culture in the treatment process improves the quality of care.

A number of multiple-casualty incidents during 2014 and 2015 brought changes to Korea’s disaster medical assistance system. We report these changes here.

Reports about these incidents, revisions to laws, and the government’s revised medical disaster response guidelines were reviewed.

The number of DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team) staff members was reduced to 4 from 8, and the mobilization method changed. An emergency response manual was created that contains the main content of the DMAT, and there is now a DMAT training program to educate staff. The government created and launched a national 24-hour Disaster Emergency Medical Service Situation Room, and instead of the traditional wireless communications, mobile instant smart phone messaging has been added as a new means of communication. The number of disaster base hospitals has also been doubled.

Although there are still limitations that need to be remedied, the changes to the current emergency medical assistance system are expected to improve the system’s response capacity. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:526–530)