Comparative Research for the Healthcare Budget and Burden of Disease in Perspective Resource Allocation

Park, So-Youn; Yoon, Seok-Jun; Park, Hyesook; Jo, Min-Woo; Oh, In-Hwan

We noted that R&D funds for health research in Korea are skewed toward programs addressing technology and industrial development. As noted earlier, even in the case of the R&D budget for communicable diseases, the large part of the budget was for the "development of response technology for infectious disease crises" and "vaccine development." These skewness was similar in 2017. For example, the cutting edge medical technology development ranked first and occupied 16.7% of total R&D budget in 2017. 10 Comparisons with other leading contributors to population health offer some insight into the allocation of R&D funds. For example, most of the R&D funds were focused on technology enhancement and industrial service development, which were assigned to non-disease specific budgets in Table 1 . When the US allocates federal funds, various factors come into play at multiple levels. These factors can include economic investment models, human judgement, specialized knowledge, experience, and understanding of the R&D processes. 3, 15 In Korea, on the other hand, it appears that national values and circumstances are currently at odds, and there is a need to establish a reasonable long-term strategy for R&D allocations.