Shin SJ, Kim JW, Jeong JC. Evaluation of clinical application of Korean medicine standard clinical pathway in a public hospital. World J Clin Cases 2025; 13(17): 103920 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i17.103920]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ji-Cheon Jeong, PhD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, 27 Dongguk-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 10326, South Korea. 26spirit@daum.net
Research Domain of This Article
Integrative & Complementary Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Jun 16, 2025; 13(17): 103920 Published online Jun 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i17.103920
Evaluation of clinical application of Korean medicine standard clinical pathway in a public hospital
Seung-Jae Shin, Jin-Won Kim, Ji-Cheon Jeong
Seung-Jae Shin, Department of Korean Medicine, The Graduate School, Dongguk University, Gyeonggi-do 10326, South Korea
Jin-Won Kim, Department of Internal Medicine of Korean Medicine, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, South Korea
Ji-Cheon Jeong, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeonggi-do 10326, South Korea
Author contributions: Shin SJ and Kim JW contributed to the analysis; Jeong JC supervised the study; Shin SJ, Kim JW, and Jeong JC designed and conducted the study and wrote the paper; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the National Medical Center Institutional Review Board (approval No. NRC-2023-10-109).
Informed consent statement: This study was a retrospective chart review, and informed consent was not required.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Dataset is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ji-Cheon Jeong, PhD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, 27 Dongguk-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do 10326, South Korea. 26spirit@daum.net
Received: December 5, 2024 Revised: January 4, 2025 Accepted: January 18, 2025 Published online: June 16, 2025 Processing time: 76 Days and 0.2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Clinical pathways (CPs) are structured guidelines introduced to improve healthcare quality and efficiency. In South Korea, CPs for Korean medicine have been developed since 2016 under the 3rd Comprehensive Plan for Korean Medicine Promotion, with limited studies on their clinical application. Neck and shoulder pain are common conditions frequently treated at Korean medicine clinics, often by patients dissatisfied with conventional treatments. The demand for Korean medicine treatments for neck and shoulder pain is on the rise.
AIM
To evaluate the clinical applicability and effectiveness of Korean medicine CPs for neck pain and shoulder pain in public healthcare institutions in South Korea.
METHODS
We collected and analyzed data from patients aged 19 years and older who visited the outpatient clinic of the Department of Korean Medicine at the National Medical Center in Korea from March 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023. CP completion rates, along with patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and economic outcomes between the CP-implemented and non-CP groups were assessed.
RESULTS
The CP completion rates were 93.3% for neck pain and 96.8% for shoulder pain. Patient satisfaction scores showed an improvement of 17.7% for neck pain and 18.0% for shoulder pain in the CP-implemented group compared to the non-CP group. For neck pain, significant improvements were observed in the numerical rating scale (NRS) and the neck disability index, while for shoulder pain, only the University of California-Los Angeles shoulder rating scale showed notable progress, with no substantial change in NRS scores.
CONCLUSION
This study partially confirms the clinical applicability and effectiveness of the Korean medicine CPs for neck pain and shoulder pain. Further research is required to enhance and validate these findings.
Core Tip: Clinical pathways (CPs) are standardized guidelines for medical interventions targeting specific diseases. This study evaluated the clinical applicability and effectiveness of Korean medicine CPs for neck and shoulder pain in South Korean public healthcare institution. Significant improvements were observed in the numerical rating scale and neck disability index for neck pain and in the University of California-Los Angeles shoulder rating scale for shoulder pain after CP implementation. Economic outcomes also showed notable improvements for shoulder pain. These results confirm the clinical applicability and effectiveness of Korean medicine CPs for treating neck and shoulder pain.
