Research and Education

Based on “visualization and improvement of healthcare quality, economy, and equity,” we aim to contribute to healthcare/long-term care management, policies, and community with long healthy life expectancy. Our research includes collaboration with medical institutions and long-term care facilities nationwide, survey/participation/human resource development regarding policy-making/management reform/community design, and interdisciplinary units and industry-government-academia consortiums on community design (eg, PEGASAS, Value Creating Design Hub for Super-Ageing Societies). From the Creation Unit, COCN [Council on Competitiveness-Nippon], JST-RISTEX), WHO, IHF, OECD, ASQua, ISQua, US NBER, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare [MHLW], the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, municipalities, National Health Insurance Organizations, Japan Health Insurance Association, etc. Includes designation, consignment, joint research, etc. We build and operate databases related to healthcare and long-term care (eg, DPC data of the QIP/the research group funded by the MHLW, healthcare/long-term care claims data from multiple municipalities, NDB/Long-term Care DB from the MHLW). We are also actively conducting COVID-19-related research using these data.

Figure 1. We build and analyze large-scale databases which include the NDB and the Long-term Care DB provided by MHLW as well as individual-level data from hospitals and municipalities nationwide. Using these databases we evaluate the quality and efficiency of healthcare and utilize them for management and policy designs.

Figure 2. An example of COVID-19 related studies. Acute pediatric infectious diseases have decreased significantly during the school closure. The decrease was more significant in those related to human-to-human contacts, such as respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. We are also conducting research regarding the impact of COVID-19 on multiple medical fields, surgery, and diseases. Through these research activities, we are interacting with hospitals and policymakers to make an ideal healthcare system. Upper left, lower respiratory tract infections; lower left, gastrointestinal infections; upper right, appendicitis; lower right, urinary tract infections.

Recent Publications

1. Morishita T, Takada D, Shin J, Higuchi T, Kunisawa S, Fushimi K, Imanaka Y. Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Heart Failure Hospitalizations in Japan: Volume, Process, and Outcome Insights from Interrupted Time Series Analysis. ESC Heart Failure. 2022 Feb;9(1):31-38. doi: 10.1002/ehf2.13744.
2. Watanabe S, Shin J, Morishita T, Takada D, Kunisawa S, Imanaka Y. Medium-term impact of the epidemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 on the practice of percutaneous coronary interventions in Japan. Journal of Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis. 2021 Dec 18. doi: 10.5551/jat.63194.
3. Kishimoto K, Bun S, Shin J, Takada D, Morishita T, Kunisawa S, Imanaka Y. Early impact of school closure and social distancing for COVID-19 on the number of inpatients with childhood non-COVID-19 acute infections in Japan. Eur J Pediatr. 2021 Mar 31:1–8. doi: 10.1007/s00431-021-04043-w.
4. Okuno T, Takada D, Shin J, Morishita T, Itoshima H, Kunisawa S, Imanaka Y. Impact of the early stage of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on surgical volume in Japan. British Journal of Surgery. 2021 znab028. doi: 10.1093/bjs/znab028.
5. Shin J, Takada D, Kunisawa S, Imanaka Y. Effects of periodontal management for patients with type 2 diabetes on healthcare expenditure, hospitalization and worsening of diabetes: an observational study using medical, dental and pharmacy claims data in Japan. J Clin Periodontol. 2021 Feb 5. doi: 10.1111/jcpe.13441.

Laboratory

Professor: Yuichi Imanaka
Associate Professor: Noriko Sasaki
Associate Professor: Susumu Kunisawa
Senior Lecturer: Jung-ho Shin
Senior Lecturer: Tetsuya Otsubo
Assistant Professor: Etsu Goto

TEL:+81-75-753-4454
FAX:+81-75-753-4455
e-mail:office[at]umin.ac.jp
URL：http://med-econ.umin.ac.jp/
http://super-ageing.kyoto-u.ac.jp/