Application of radiological technology to medical device advancements in Japan

Yanagisawa, Kazuaki; Inoue, Tomio*; Hayakawa, Kazushige*; Shiotari, Harutaka*; Nakamura, Yoshihide*; Matsuyama, Kazuya*; Nagasawa, Kiyoshi*

Our economic study performed in 1997 revealed that the use of radiological technology in medicine was tended to spread. A reimbursement of medicine was about 10 billion dollars corresponding to about 4% of the national health expenditures (240 billion dollars) or to an average expenditure of 1,900 dollars a year for the Japanese. In 2005 it was about 13 billion dollars. An increasing rate was 17%. One of main cause of this increase is a significant advancement of medical devices represented by digital-X ray, multi-slice CT, PET and PET-CT.