Ginza in February | Toru Takebayashi, Dean of the Graduate School of Health Management
2020.02.18
On a warm Saturday afternoon, typical for this winter, an audience of over 250 people gathered at the Jiji Press Hall in Ginza. It was a forum to commemorate the establishment of the Program for Human Resource Development in Health Technology Assessment , which will officially launch this April. The theme was "The Future of Medical Technology and Healthcare Systems: Considering Cost-Effectiveness," a major policy issue that has gained social attention, triggered by the problem of high-cost drugs resulting from the emergence of several anticancer agents.
Healthcare, which is directly linked to life, has an extremely high public nature, and innovations in pharmaceuticals and medical devices are constantly emerging. On the other hand, Japan's public finances are already stretched beyond their limits. In this situation, what methods should be used for evaluation, and how should policies be developed based on them? The need for multifaceted and diverse discussions was presented, ranging from scientific and technical debates on the validity of cost-effectiveness as an evaluation method to policy debates involving value judgments on how to sustainably remodel Japan's proud universal health insurance system in a super-aging society with a declining population.
Following discussions on the Social Determinants of Health, the widening problem of health disparities is being felt on the ground. That is why global health and medical policies are moving toward SDG Goal 3, "Good Health and Well-Being." Japan is no exception. In 2015, the average life expectancy for men by municipality ranged from a high of 83.3 years to a low of 73.5 years. We face a major issue of resource allocation in this situation. The role of the university lies precisely in engaging in such controversial discussions.
In the Program for Human Resource Development in Health Technology Assessment, led by Rei Goto of the Graduate School of Business Administration, who also serves as a committee member of the Graduate School of Health Management, we have established a Certificate course in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) at the Graduate School of Health Management, consisting of 11 subjects and 20 credits. We have also launched the cross-Juku "Center for Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment," initiating activities that integrate education, research, and practice. This program is open to all graduate students. We look forward to the participation of motivated students.
A recording of this forum is scheduled to be released at a later date. The discussions were truly interesting, so we highly encourage you to watch it.