The Department of Health Policy and Technology Assessment is involved in the scientific assessment of policies and technologies, analysis of research trends, and advanced applications of statistical methods to study health services (including preventive ones), environmental health, and welfare. Examples of our research topics are listed below. Besides them, we offer a set of training courses in biostatistics: a course for biostatistics specialists (post-graduate program), and another more specifically targeting the clinicians who engage in clinical trials.

Development of the statistical methods for clinical trials (CT)
As part of our eff orts to develop a variety of statistical methods to help solve public health issues, we are developing new methodologies applicable to a wide range of medical research (clinical trials), including statistical tests, modeling and inference, and sample size calculations. As professional biostatisticians, we also participate in many clinical trials, conducting joint research with clinicians.

Management of a portal web site for information on clinical research (trials)
We maintain a portal site where clinical trials can be cross-referenced. The site plays a pivotal role in the worldwide transmission of clinical research (trial) data registered to the WHO Primary Registry for Japan. We also conduct research on the trends of such research.

Analyses of the geographical clustering of health incidents
FleXScan is a Windows-based statistical analysis software to explore the clustering of health-related events (e.g., to determine where in a targeted area a disease is clustered). Joint research is being conducted with the New York City Department of Health, and with local governments in Japan, etc., to investigate its practical utilities as an eff ective tool to study the data from syndromic surveillance.