Special Issue on “COVID-19 from the View of the Experts in Different Fields”
1．COVID-19 and HTA
2021 Volume 26 Issue 1 Pages 56-62
Details
2021 Volume 26 Issue 1 Pages 56-62
“Appropriate/Rational allocation for limited healthcare resources”, which was the fundamental concept of the health economics, had not been widely accepted/disseminated for the general public in Japan. Although vast majority agreed with the existence of healthcare budget constraint, it had not been widely recognized that “physical” healthcare resources, such as healthcare professional and/or healthcare facilities, were also limited and restricted, until current COVID-19 ERA.
The HTA （Health Technology Assessment） concept could be used for COVID-19 related resource allocation issues, such as prioritization of the vaccination. Kohli et al. conducted cost-utility analysis of various treatment strategy for the hypothetical vaccine in the US setting. They proved that vaccination for elderly and stuffs for health care/long term care facilities were cost-effective （dominant and USD 20,000/QALY, respectively）, while we need to take into account relatively low incidence rate of COVID-19 in Japan.
However, current framework of the HTA with narrower perspective, could not capture entire value of the preventive intervention against COVID-19. Appleby et al. argued that broader perspective, under which external impacts, outside of healthcare area, would be incorporated, would be needed for appropriate decision making.
Faced with COVID-19 pandemic, importance of re-defining （or expanding） the value of intervention would be widely recognized and further conceptual research should be warranted.
