Search

PURPOSE Although there have been studies emphasizing the re-education of North Korean (NK) doctors for post-unification of the Korean Peninsula, study on the content and scope of such re-education has yet to be conducted. Researchers intended to set the content and scope of re-education by a comparative analysis for the scores of the preliminary examination, which is comparable to the Korean Medical Licensing Examination (KMLE). METHODS The scores of the first and second preliminary exams were analyzed by subject using the Wilcoxon signed rank test. The passing status of the group of NK doctors for KMLE in recent 3 years were investigated. The multiple-choice-question (MCQ) items of which difficulty indexes of NK doctors were lower than those of South Korean (SK) medical students by two times of the standard deviation of the scores of SK medical students were selected to investigate the relevant reasons. RESULTS The average scores of nearly all subjects were improved in the second exam compared with the first exam. The passing rate of the group of NK doctors was 75%. The number of MCQ items of which difficulty indexes of NK doctors were lower than those of SK medical students was 51 (6.38%). NK doctors' lack of understandings for Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures, Therapeutics, Prenatal Care, and Managed Care Programs was suggested as the possible reason. CONCLUSION The education of integrated courses focusing on Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures and Therapeutics, and apprenticeship-style training for clinical practice of core subjects are needed. Special lectures on the Preventive Medicine are likely to be required also.

Korean society frenzy about ubiquitous computing is in a rapid change into so called `Nomadic` information environment. In many previous studies, a number of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors were empirically found to affect users` continuance to use mobile hand-held devices. However, the role of device attachment, a new intrinsic motivation factor with which users are known to care about their own mobile devices personally, in determining users` post-adoption behavior was not explored yet to the full scale. To fill the research void like this, this study proposes a new research model in which device attachment as well as perceived value are positively linked to satisfaction and continuance to use. The statistical results obtained by applying PLS to the valid 137 questionnaires showed that the device attachment has stronger positive influence on satisfaction and continuance to use than the perceived value. Therefore, a practical implication is suggested thai the mobile devices need 10 be designed in a way of arousing users` device attachment more strongly.