The Comprehensive Unit for Health Economic Evidence Review and Decision Support (CHEERS)

JAPANESE

　The Comprehensive Unit for Health Economic Evidence Review and Decision Support (CHEERS) was established in April 2019 and was recognized by the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) as the first academic technology assessment review group in Japan under the cost-effectiveness evaluation system for medicines and medical devices.

　As developed countries such as Japan are facing an increase in national health expenditures due to technological innovation and the aging of the population, the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has drawn strong interest domestically and internationally. The HTA aims to clarify the societal values of medicines and medical devices and reflect these values in health policies through health economic assessments such as cost-effectiveness analysis. In some countries in Europe, Australia, and Asia, the HTA has already been actively applied to health policy-making to achieve efficient and equitable health care. In Japan, following a trial period of several years, the cost-effectiveness evaluation system that led to the formal HTA system was newly introduced in the 2019 fiscal year.

　The role of CHEERS is to review and reanalyze data provided by the manufacturers of medicines and medical devices in cooperation with the Center for Outcomes Research and Economic Evaluation for Health (C2H) and report those results to the Expert Committee on Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation in the Central Social Insurance Medical Council in Japan. Additionally, we will develop new comprehensive evaluation methods based on multiple perspectives to clarify the societal values of medicines and medical devices and develop expert human resources. As a result, we will play a role as one of the research centers in this field in Japan and maximize life expectancy under limited medical resources.

What we do

1. Academic technology assessment review of medicines and medical devices under the cost-effectiveness evaluation system
2. Education and research in the field of HTA