Estimation of Supply and Demand for Cardiologists in Korea.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to estimate the supply and demand for cardiologists in Korea and provide evidence for healthcare policy to ensure a stable and adequate workforce for optimal cardiovascular disease management. METHODS: Past trends of inflow and outflow of cardiologists were used to make crude projections, which were then adjusted based on demands of services to obtain final projections. Inflow of cardiologists was estimated using second-order polynomial regression and demand for cardiology care was estimated using linear regression. RESULTS: There were 1,139 active cardiologists who were under the age of 65 in clinical practice in Korea. The estimated number of cardiologists from 2022 to 2040 showed that the number of cardiologists would peak at 1,344 in 2032 and gradually decrease thereafter. We also estimated an increase of 947,811 cases of heart-related procedures annually from 2023 to 2032. The number of heart-related procedures per cardiologist would increase 1.4 times from 12,964 in 2023 to 17,862 in 2032. The estimated number of emergency patients per cardiologist under 50 years old would almost double from 544 in 2022 to 987 in 2032. CONCLUSIONS: We expect significant shortage of cardiologists in Korea within the next 10 years. The number of emergency patients per cardiologist will increase by nearly 50%, leading to high individual workload for cardiologists. To prevent this imbalance between supply and demand, an organized and collective approach by the specialty of cardiology is imperative to produce a balanced workforce.

Implementation of National Health Policy for the Prevention and Control of Cardiovascular Disease in South Korea: Regional-Local Cardio-Cerebrovascular Center and Nationwide Registry.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity, mortality, and health care costs in South Korea. The prevalence of preventable and treatable risk factors for CVD such as obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking has continued to increase, despite improvements management of hypertension. Active leadership, participation, and support of professional organizations and medical institutions in national cardiovascular registries and regional treatment network have proven to be effective models to reduce the global burden of CVD in the Europe and North America. Regional treatment network systems for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction have established to coordinate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) treatment centers, non-PCI treatment centers, and emergency centers especially across the Europe. The Act on the Prevention and Management of Cardio-cerebrovascular Disease was enacted in South Korea in 2017 to establish the legal frameworks and a comprehensive plan for the prevention and management CVD and risk factors. To fully achieve the goal of a National Health Plan for Cardiovascular Disease, it is necessary to embark on a nationwide registry project and to promote the regional acute treatment accessibility which can therefore play a key role in achieving the objectives of the 2017 Act. In this regard, the Korean Society of Cardiology advocates a national project for health promotion and cardiovascular prevention to improve cardiovascular outcomes, which includes the expansion and establishment of regional cardio-cerebrovascular centers (CCVCs) and new local CCVCs.

Global Dieting Trends and Seasonality: Social Big-Data Analysis May Be a Useful Tool.

We explored online search interest in dieting and weight loss using big-data analysis with a view to its potential utility in global obesity prevention efforts. We applied big-data analysis to the global dieting trends collected from Google and Naver search engines from January 2004 to January 2018 using the search term "diet," in selected six Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries; five Arab and Muslim countries grouped as conservative, semi-conservative, and liberal; and South Korea. Using cosinor analysis to evaluate the periodic flow of time series data, there was seasonality for global search interest in dieting and weight loss (amplitude = 6.94, CI = 5.33~8.56, p < 0.000) with highest in January and the lowest in December for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries. Seasonal dieting trend in the Arab and Muslim countries was present, but less remarkable (monthly seasonal seasonality, amplitude = 4.07, CI = 2.20~5.95, p < 0.000). For South Korea, seasonality was noted on Naver (amplitude = 11.84, CI = 7.62~16.05, p < 0.000). Our findings suggest that big-data analysis of social media can be an adjunct in tackling important public health issues like dieting, weight loss, obesity, and food fads, including the optimal timing of interventions.