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. Khatoun A, Sasaki N, Kunisawa S, Fushimi K, Imanaka Y. Benchmarking broad-spectrum antibiotic use in older adult pneumonia inpatients: A risk-adjusted smoothed observed-to-expected ratio approach. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology 2025 Jan (accepted)
2. Egashira S, Kunisawa S, Koga M, Ihara M, Tsuruta W, Uesaka Y, Fushimi K, Toda T, Imanaka Y. Safety and outcomes of intravenous thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke with intracranial artery dissection. International Journal of Stroke 2025 Jan 20; (accepted) ; DOI: 10.1177/17474930251317326
3. Itoshima H, Shin J, Sasaki N, Goto E, Kunisawa S, Imanaka Y. Regional variations in primary percutaneous coronary intervention for acute myocardial infarction patients: A trajectory analysis using the national claims database in Japan. PLOS ONE 2024 Oct 22; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312248
4. Kishimoto K, Kunisawa S, Fushimi K, Imanaka Y. Effects of rotavirus vaccine coverage among infants on hospital admission for gastroenteritis across all age groups in Japan in 2011–2019. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2024 Sep; 30(9):1895-1902. ; DOI: doi.org/10.3201/eid3009.240259
5. Honda Y, Shin J, Kunisawa S, Fushimi K, Imanaka Y. Impact of a financial incentive on early rehabilitation and outcomes in ICU patients: a retrospective database study in Japan. BMJ Quality and Safety 2024 Aug 22; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017081

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
Assistant Professor:Hisashi Itoshima

Tel: +81-75-753-4454
Fax: +81-75-753-4455
URL:
http://med-econ.umin.ac.jp/int/