ArticleJournal of robotic surgery2026
Diffusion and geographic variation in robot-assisted colon resection after reimbursement in Japan: a nationwide billing-based analysis, 2022-2024.
Article in Journal of robotic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This study aimed to quantify how rapidly robot-assisted colon resection billing diffused after reimbursement in Japan and whether geographic variation narrowed as uptake expanded. We analyzed National Database (NDB) Open Data for fiscal years (FYs) 2022-2024. The primary outcome was the robot-assisted share of two laparoscopic billing categories for malignant colon tumor resection (robot-assisted and conventional). Variation across treating-institution prefectures was summarized using the interquartile range (IQR) for absolute spread and the coefficient of variation (CV) and Gini coefficient for relative dispersion. Longitudinal analyses included prefectures with unmasked values in all relevant years; FY2024 permitted a complete 47-prefecture cross-section. The national robot-assisted share rose from 3.38% in FY2022 to 11.40% in FY2023 and 19.55% in FY2024. In the common 33-prefecture panel, the IQR widened from 5.73 to 6.61 and 11.79 percentage points, whereas the CV fell from 1.086 to 0.630 and 0.482 and the Gini coefficient from 0.565 to 0.347 and 0.269. Across all 47 prefectures in FY2024, shares ranged from 0.00% to 41.47%; the complete cross-section was more heterogeneous than the restricted longitudinal panel, and the 14 prefectures excluded because of earlier masking had a lower median share (6.83% versus 18.05%). Rapid national growth did not translate into geographically uniform billing-based uptake. Relative dispersion decreased while absolute percentage-point spread widened, so apparent geographic convergence depended on the scale used. Post-reimbursement surveillance should report both dimensions and account for selection introduced by disclosure-related masking.
Indexed as
Identifiers
42860502What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.