Published papers

Aim: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) is an evolving resuscitative method for refractory cardiopulmonary arrests. However, considering the substantial healthcare costs and resources involved, there is an urgent need for a full economic evaluation. We therefore assessed the cost-effectiveness of ECPR for refractory ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/pVT). Methods: We developed a decision model to estimate lifetime costs and outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients with VF/pVT who received either ECPR or conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) was used as the main outcome measure. This model was a combination of a decision tree model for the acute phase based on a prospective observational study (SAVE-J study), together with a Markov model for long-term follow-up periods extrapolated from published data. To evaluate the robustness of this model, we conducted a comprehensive deterministic sensitivity analysis (DSA) and a probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA). Results: ECPR was cost-effective, with an incremental cost of ¥3,521,189 (Є30,227), an incremental effectiveness of 1.34 QALY, and an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of ¥2,619,692 (Є22,489) per QALY gained. DSA revealed that the present model was most sensitive to probability of Cerebral Performance Category 1 after ECPR (¥2,153,977/QALY to ¥3,186,475/QALY), patient age (¥2,170,112/QALY to ¥3,334,252/QALY), and long-term medical cost for modified Rankin Scale 0 (¥2,280,352/QALY to ¥2,855,330/QALY). PSA indicated ECPR to be cost-effective and below the willingness-to-pay threshold of ¥5,000,000 with an 86.7 % possibility. Conclusions: ECPR was an economically acceptable resuscitative strategy, and the results of the present study were robust even when considering the uncertainty of all parameters.

Aims: This article aimed to examine the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban in comparison to warfarin for stroke prevention in Japanese patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF), from a public healthcare payer’s perspective. Materials and methods: Baseline event risks were obtained from the J-ROCKET AF trial and the treatment effect data were taken from a network meta-analysis. The other model inputs were extracted from the literature and official Japanese sources. The outcomes included the number of ischaemic strokes, myocardial infarctions, systemic embolisms and bleedings avoided, life-years, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), incremental costs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The scenario analysis considered treatment effect data from the same network meta-analysis. Results: In comparison with warfarin, rivaroxaban was estimated to avoid 0.284 ischaemic strokes per patient, to increase the number of QALYs by 0.535 per patient and to decrease the total costs by ¥118,892 (€1,011.11) per patient (1 JPY = 0.00850638 EUR; XE.com, 7 October 2019). Consequently, rivaroxaban treatment was found to be dominant compared to warfarin. In the scenario analysis, the ICER of rivaroxaban versus warfarin was ¥2,873,499 (€24,446.42) per QALY. Limitations: The various sources of data used resulted in the heterogeneity of the cost-effectiveness analysis results. Although, rivaroxaban was cost-effective in the majority of cases. Conclusion: Rivaroxaban is cost-effective against warfarin for stroke prevention in Japanese patients with NVAF, giving the payer WTP of 5,000,000 JPY.

Aims: Various drugs have recently been launched for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). This increase in the number of treatment options has potentially changed treatment patterns and medical costs for patients with MM. Japanese public health insurance claims were analyzed to examine the change in the treatment patterns of MM drugs and medical costs per patient. Materials and methods: A claims database provided by Medical Data Vision was used, which includes data from ∼20 million patients from >300 acute care hospitals across Japan. The type of MM drugs prescribed and medical costs for patients with MM between April 2008 and December 2016 were examined using monthly cross-sectional analyses. Patients with an International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) diagnosis code of C90.0 were classified as having MM. MM drugs were defined by generic names. Results: In total, 19,137 patients with MM (average age at first diagnosis: 69.6 years; percentage of women: 47.9%) were identified from the database. The percentage of patients prescribed each MM drug changed substantially as novel drugs were launched. Total medical costs increased until 2010, then stabilized. MM drug costs increased from approximately 2010, but costs for other care decreased, particularly for hospitalization (including surgery). Limitations: The database contained data from large, acute care hospitals, which may have caused bias in terms of patients’ clinical history and disease severity. Conclusions: Total medical costs for MM have remained stable since 2010. MM drug costs increased, but costs for other care decreased after the launch of lenalidomide in 2010 and other drugs in 2015 and later. More detailed research is required to confirm whether the launch of novel drugs caused the changes in medical costs.

Objectives: Living donor kidney transplant relieves the disease burden of patients with end-stage renal disease but may shorten donor life expectancy; however, their quality of life (QOL) is preserved. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the net gain of this procedure is unknown. We evaluated the QOL of both donors and recipients concurrently and calculated the net utility gain. Methods: We recruited 210 subjects who visited the kidney transplantation clinic of a university hospital. Subjects were asked to complete the 5-level EQ-5D-based questionnaire, and patient characteristics were extracted from their medical records. We performed multivariate tobit models analysis to evaluate the QOL change caused by transplant surgery and subsequently ran computational simulations to determine the net utility gains of donors and recipients. We also performed sensitivity analyses. Results: After excluding 16 answers with missing data, we analyzed 203 answers in total. After the transplant surgery, recipients gained 0.07 in utility value while donors lost 0.04. In the net utility analysis, we found that the quality-adjusted life years gained ranged from 7.2 to 7.8 in the most favorable case observed in the combination of middle-aged recipients and elderly donors. Assuming no utility discount, the most favorable combination was that with older donors and younger recipients. Conclusions: These findings indicated that the QOL improvement in recipients was larger than the loss among donors. When calculating the net utilities, a combination of middle-aged recipients and elderly donors yielded the largest net utility, but this was likely derived from assumption in the discount of QOL.

Background: Renal transplantation improves the quality of life (QOL) of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with renal failure. However, it remains unclear which renal disease-specific QOL aspects determine general health-related QOL of ESRD patients. This study aimed to identify these QOL items by examining the QOL of ESRD patients using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life-Short Form (KDQOL-SF), version 1.3, and EuroQoL-5 dimension-5 levels (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaires. Methods: We conducted QOL surveys with 67 renal transplant recipients at our hospital. EQ-5D-5L, which evaluates general health-related QOL, was the response variable, and KDQOL-SF, which includes the renal disease-specific instrument and general health-related QOL SF-36 instrument, was the explanatory variable. We analyzed the effects of each KDQOL-SF domain on EQ-5D-5L using Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: Regarding the general health-related QOL assessed by SF-36, physical health aspects, such as physical functioning (R = 0.749) and daily functioning physical (R = 0.603), showed a strong correlation with EQ-5D-5L, and the domains related to the psychological and social aspects of QOL showed a limited correlation. Regarding kidney disease-specific scales, symptoms/problems related to physical function showed a good correlation (R = 0.691) with EQ-5D-5L, whereas other scales, including burden of kidney disease (R = 0.168), quality of social interaction (R = 0.284), and those related to the mental and social aspects of QOL showed a low correlation with EQ-5D-5L. Conclusion: Among kidney transplant recipients, the physical health aspects of QOL, such as symptoms/problems, were the major factors influencing overall QOL as assessed by EQ-5D-5L.

Reports on the expenditure of cancer treatments per patient using comprehensive data remain unavailable in Japan. This study aimed to use Japan’s cancer registry data and health service utilization data for evaluating the disease-specific, per-patient costs of five major cancers—stomach, lung, colorectal, liver, and breast cancers. We used a database linking the 2017 data from a hospital-based cancer registry and the health service utilization data from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination survey. All patients who started their first treatment course at each hospital were included. The costs were calculated using the total volume of the health services provided and the unit fee information included in the data. We analyzed 304,698 patients. Lung cancer had the highest healthcare cost per-patient for the first year of diagnosis and the longest median hospitalization duration. Conversely, breast cancer showed the lowest cost and the shortest median hospitalization duration. However, in the first month after diagnosis, colorectal cancer showed the highest cost. Subsequently, the gaps between the costs of the five common cancers drastically diminished. The cancer type having the longest hospitalization duration had the highest overall healthcare resource utilization costs. This information is essential for care planning and research studies.

Background: Taiwan, one of the fastest-aging countries in the world, started implementing version 1.0 of its long-term care (LTC) plan in 2008. In 2017, LTC Plan 2.0 began a new era with its goal to integrate Taiwan's fragmented LTC service system. LTC Plan 2.0 also aims to establish an integrated community-based LTC system incorporating both health care and disability prevention. This three-tier model consists of the following: two LTC services with a day-care center as their base and case management (Tier A), a day-care center and a single LTC service (Tier B), and LTC stations that provide primary prevention services and respite services for frail community-dwelling older adults to prevent further disabilities (Tier C). A defined cluster of agencies in a local area works together as a Tier ABC team. LTC Plan 2.0 is a new policy for Taiwan, and hence it is important to understand the agencies' initial difficulties with implementation and identify future challenges to help further policy development. Methods: This preliminary study explored the challenges to implementing LTC 2.0 through in-depth interviews based on Evashwick's integration mechanisms with representatives from three service teams. We interviewed three chief executive officers and three case managers. Results: We found that the LTC Plan 2.0 mechanisms for service integration have been insufficiently implemented. Recommendations include (1) Build up the trust between agencies and government, avoid duplication of LTC services within Tier ABC team, and encourage agencies within a team to create a shared administrative system with the same mission and vision. (2) Clarify the roles and responsibilities of government care managers and agency case managers. (3) Provide an integrated information system and create an official platform for sharing client records across different agencies and caregivers. (4) Establish a tool and platform to track the budget and payment across different levels of service as soon as possible. Conclusion: There is an increased demand for LTC services in Taiwan because of its rapidly aging population. Our findings shed some light on the challenges to developing integrated LTC services and thus may help both policymakers and service providers find ways to overcome these challenges.

The relationship between geographical accessibility to gambling venues and the prevalence of pathological gambling is still unknown. This study aimed to reveal this relationship in Japan as well as its variation by subpopulation. A cross-sectional study was conducted, based on an original web-based survey to understand the level of pathological gambling depending on accessibility to pachinko parlours. Pathological gamblers were measured using the Japanese version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Accessibility to gambling venues was defined as the number of pachinko parlours within a 1.5 km radius from home. Moreover, the study adopted the instrumental variable approach to solve the potential endogeneity problem. The results showed that the accessibility was not significantly associated with pathological gambling in general, but that the effects of accessibility varied by subpopulation. Accessibility was significantly and positively correlated with pathological gambling for men and people in low-income areas, but this was not so for women and people in high-income areas. The study’s findings show the importance of the neighbourhood environment and could help in implementing more effective interventions for pathological gamblers.

Evidence is limited and mixed as to how improved price transparency affects patients' demand for healthcare. Price transparency usually affects both the supply and the demand side of healthcare. However, in Japan—where healthcare providers cannot compete on prices—we can examine an independent impact of price transparency on patients' demand for healthcare. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of improved price transparency on patients' demand for healthcare. We conducted an experiment by presenting patients with the “price list” of individual healthcare services. We provided the price list for a limited time and compared the healthcare spending and utilization of care between these patients who were provided the price list (patients who visited between the first and third week of January in 2016) versus those who were not (patients who visited during the same period in 2015 or 2017), adjusting for potential confounders. A total of 1053 patients were analyzed (27.5% were provided the price list). We found that improved price transparency was associated with a higher total cost per patient (adjusted difference, +16.1%; 95%CI, +0.6% to +34.0%; p = 0.04). We also found that improved price transparency was associated with higher costs related to laboratory tests and imaging studies, and a larger total number of items of blood tests and urine tests. By conducting an experiment in a real-world setting, we found that improved price transparency paradoxically increased the utilization of healthcare services in Japan. These findings suggest that when prices are relatively low, as is the case in Japan, reduced uncertainty about the prices of healthcare service may make patients comfortable requesting more healthcare services.

Background: Highly-competent patient care is paramount to medicine. Quality training and patient accessibility to physicians with a wide range of specializations is essential. Yet, poor quality of life for physicians cannot be ignored, being detrimental to patient care and leading to personnel leaving the medical profession. In 2004, the Japanese government reformed postgraduate training for medical graduates, adding a 2-year, hands-on rotation through different specialties before the specialization residency was begun. Residents could now choose practice location, but it sparked concerns that physician distribution disparities had been created. Japanese media reported that residents were choosing specialties deemed to offer a higher quality of life, like Ophthalmology or Dermatology, over underserved areas like Obstetrics or Cardiology. To explore the consequences of Japan's policy efforts, through the residency reform in 2004, to improve physician training, analyzing ophthalmologist supply and distribution in the context of providing the best possible patient care and access while maintaining physician quality of life. Methods: Using secondary data, we analyzed changes in ophthalmologist supply at the secondary tier of medical care (STM). We applied ordinary least-squares regression models to ophthalmologist density to reflect community factors such as residential quality and access to further professional development, to serve as predictors of ophthalmologist supply. Coefficient equality tests examined predictor differences before and after 2004. Similar analyses were conducted for all physicians excluding ophthalmologists (other physicians). Ophthalmologist coverage in top and bottom 10% of STMs revealed supply inequalities. Results: Change in ophthalmologist supply was inversely associated with baseline ophthalmologist density before (P <.01) and after (P =.01) 2004. Changes in other physician supply were not associated with baseline other physician density before 2004 (P = 0.5), but positively associated after 2004 (P <.01). Inequalities between top and bottom 10% of ophthalmologist supply in STMs were large, with best-served areas maintaining roughly five times greater coverage than least-served areas. However, inequalities gradually declined between 1998 and 2012. Conclusions: Ophthalmologist supply increased both before and after the 2004 reform, yet contrary to media reports, proceeded at a lesser rate than supply increases for other physicians. After 2004, geographical disparities decreased for ophthalmologists, while increasing for other physicians.