Evaluating the effectiveness of online Continuing medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objectives: The study determined the effects of online continuing medical education (CME) on the clinical competency, performance, and patient outcomes of physicians and other healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the topics of COVID-19 and back pain.

Methods: Survey studies on six online CME activities were conducted from April 2020 to February 2021 at a South Korean hospital. Surveys were conducted immediately after and three months after the CME activity to measure the effectiveness of the CME activity regarding professional competence and performance, as well as patient outcomes.

Effects of Acupuncture on Cardiac Remodeling in Patients with Persistent Atrial Fibrillation: Results of a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Patient- and Assessor-Blinded Pilot Trial and Its Implications for Future Research.

In this study, we attempted to determine the effects of acupuncture on cardiac remodeling and atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence rates in patients with AF after electrical cardioversion (EC). We randomly assigned 44 patients with persistent AF to an acupuncture group or a sham acupuncture group. An electroacupuncture treatment session was administered once weekly for 12 weeks at four acupuncture points (left PC5, PC6, ST36, and ST37).

Impact of gender on the career development of female traditional Korean medicine doctors: a qualitative study.

Objective: This study aims to examine the impact of gender and expected gender roles on the career development of young female traditional Korean medicine (KM) doctors.

Design: We conducted semistructured interviews to examine the experiences of study subjects regarding early career choices, employment, job performance and career moves, as well as future career aspirations, from the perspective of gender. The transcription was analysed using the Strauss and Corbin constant comparative analysis method.

Efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture in acute decompensated heart failure: a study protocol for a randomized, patient- and assessor-blinded, sham controlled trial.

Background: The purpose of this trial is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of electroacupuncture in the treatment of acute decompensated heart failure compared with sham electroacupuncture.

Methods: This protocol is for a randomized, sham controlled, patient- and assessor-blinded, parallel group, single center clinical trial that can overcome the limitations of previous trials examining acupuncture and heart failure. Forty-four acute decompensated heart failure patients admitted to the cardiology ward will be randomly assigned into the electroacupuncture treatment group (n = 22) or the sham electroacupuncture control group (n = 22).

Electroacupuncture prevents endothelial dysfunction induced by ischemia-reperfusion injury via a cyclooxygenase-2-dependent mechanism: A randomized controlled crossover trial.

Objective: Exploring clinically effective methods to reduce ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury in humans is critical. Several drugs have shown protective effects, but studies using other interventions have been rare. Electroacupuncture (EA) has induced similar protection in several animal studies but no study has investigated how the effects could be translated and reproduced in humans.

Brain correlates to facial motor imagery and its somatotopy in the primary motor cortex.

Motor imagery (MI) has attracted increased interest for motor rehabilitation as many studies have shown that MI shares the same neural networks as motor execution (ME). Nevertheless, MI in terms of facial movement has not been studied extensively; thus, in the present study, we investigated shared neural networks between facial motor imagery (FMI) and facial motor execution (FME). In addition, FMI somatotopy within-face was investigated between the forehead and the mouth.

Close look at the experiences of patients enrolled in a clinical trial of acupuncture treatment for atrial fibrillation in Korea: a qualitative study nested within a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To explore the experiences of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in the context of a prospective, two-parallel-armed, participant-blinded and assessor-blinded sham-controlled randomised trial.

Design: A nested qualitative study within an ongoing randomised controlled trial to explore acupuncture's antiarrhythmic effects on drug refractory acupuncture in persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) (ACU-AF trial).

Participants: Participants were recruited using purposeful sampling and a maximum variation strategy with regard to treatment allocation (treatment or control) and protocol completion (completion or non-completion).

A close look at an integrative treatment package for Bell's palsy in Korea.

Objective: To provide an overview of the integrative treatment package for Bell's palsy provided at Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital (KHU KMH).

Summary: The Facial Palsy Center at KHU KMH has been providing integrative treatment for Bell's palsy patients during the past three decades. Within 72 h of symptom onset, corticosteroids are recommended but complementary treatment including acupuncture and herbal medicine can be used to help suppress inflammation and nerve degeneration.

Additional Effects of Back-Shu Electroacupuncture and Moxibustion in Cardioprotection of Rat Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Many preclinical studies show that electroacupuncture (EA) on PC6 and ST36 can reduce infarct size after ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury. Yet studies to enhance the treatment effect size are limited. The purpose of this study was to explore whether EA has additional myocardial protective effects on an ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury rat model when back-shu EA and moxibustion are added.