Current Trends in Medical Economics in the Circulatory Field　― Socioeconomics Background and Research Issue ―

Background: Circulatory diseases now comprise a larger share of medical expenses, accounting for 19.7% (2016) of total national health expenditure. Medical economics is an area of study encompassing medical science and economics that deals with a wide variety of topics and issues related to the medical and health-care field. Methods and Results: In order to discuss the relationship between medical costs and research activities, this article conducted a correlation analysis of the ratio of national health expenditures to gross domestic product (GDP) and the number of medical economics articles in the circulatory field. A comparison of the ratios of national health expenditure and of the number of medical economics articles indicates that the number of articles increased as the ratio of the expenditure increased and vice versa with a slight time lag (r(2)=0.964, P<0.01). Medical economics will explore deeply the subjects related to the clinical and economy in the circulatory field in the future, with due consideration of these diverse backgrounds. Conclusions: Lively and in-depth future-oriented discussions of medical economics topics will facilitate the construction of valuable evidence that will help many personnel engaged in medical sites to gain new insights into clinical services, in addition to promoting the development of the healthcare system.