On Wednesday, December 14, 2022, Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) hosted a meeting titled, “Reexamining Issues and Sharing Opinions on Health Policy in Japan.” This was the second meeting in its Media Seminar and Workshop for Promoting Healthcare Reform series.

This series will include three meetings where opinion exchange sessions with experts and representatives of the media will be held with the objective of helping the public gain a correct understanding of the nature of Japan’s health and social security systems today looking to the digitalization of healthcare in the future. At our first meeting, we hosted Professor Shuhei Nomura (Project Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University) and Mrs. Jacqueline Hoogendam (Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, The Netherlands) for presentations on the current circumstances surrounding the digital transformation (DX) of healthcare in Japan and the Netherlands.

At this, our second media seminar and workshop, Professor Keita Nishiyama (Visiting Professor, Institute for Future Initiative, the University of Tokyo; former Director-General, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)) gave a lecture titled “The Viewpoints Needed to Envision Health System Reform and the Involvement of DX” during which he talked about the importance of coordinating policies at each stage with a view of the health system in the context of its industrial structure. Then, continuing from the our session, Professor Shuhei Nomura (Project Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University) gave a lecture titled “The Future of Japan’s Healthcare System: Transitioning to More Tailor-Made Health Services for More Engagement and Better Health.” During his lecture, Professor Nomura discussed linking individual health information which is currently fragmented to enhance interoperability and make the healthcare system more well-suited to meeting the needs of individuals.

During the Q&A session and workshop following the lectures, the attendees and speakers held a lively discussion on various topics including specific methods of promoting DX in real-world healthcare settings, factors that are hindering such efforts, the future direction of healthcare and the role of healthcare DX, and issues related to the types of health and medical data that will be coupled under the revised Act on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Medical Care for Patients with Infectious Diseases.

We plan to crystallize points that emerged during the discussion at this event and compile them into reference materials to be presented at a later date.

 

[Event overview]

• Date & time: Wednesday, December 14, 2022; 16:30-18:00
• Language: Japanese

[Program] (Titles omitted)

Moderator: Ryoji Noritake (CEO, Board Member, HGPI)

16:30-16:35 Explanatory introduction
Ryoji Noritake (CEO, Board Member, HGPI)

16:35-17:20 Presentations
(1) The Viewpoints Needed to Envision Health System Reform and the Involvement of DX
Keita Nishiyama (Visiting Professor, Institute for Future Initiative, University of Tokyo)

(2) The Future of Japan’s Healthcare System: Transitioning to More Tailor-Made Health Services for More Engagement and Better Health
Shuhei Nomura (Project Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University)

17:20-17:55 Workshop (Q&A session and opinion exchange)

17:55-18:00 Closing remarks

 

■ Speaker Profiles

Keita Nishiyama (Visiting Professor, Institute for Future Initiative, University of Tokyo)
After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law, Professor Keita Nishiyama joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Later, he completed the University of Oxford’s Philosophy, Politics and Economics Course. His previous roles include Executive Officer, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan; Deputy Director-General, Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI); Director, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.; and Director-General, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, METI. After his activities at the forefront of domestic economic and industrial systems, he retired from METI in 2020. He currently serves as Senior Executive Fellow of Industrial Growth Platform, Inc. and as Advisor to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Limited. He is the author of The DX Way of Thinking (Bungeishunjū Ltd.).

Shuhei Nomura (Project Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University)
Professor Shuhei Nomura was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1988. In 2011, he graduated from the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Tokyo, where he then earned a Master of International Health degree in 2013. After completing internships at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tajikistan office and the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in epidemiology and biostatistics at the Imperial College London School of Public Health in 2016. Later that year, he was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Global Health Policy of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, where he has served as Part-time Assistant Professor since 2019. In 2019, he was also appointed Project Associate Professor of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Keio University School of Medicine. He is currently collaborating with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in the Global Burden of Disease study, with Japan as a focal point. He has served as a consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Japan office since 2018 and a consultant for SEEK Development, a consulting group on international health policy based in Germany, since 2019. In 2021, he was appointed to the expert panel of the Global Nutrition Report, which conducts follow-ups and assessments of Nutrition for Growth Summit commitments. In 2022, he was appointed to the G7 Global Health Task Force, which will examine the international health agenda for the G7 Summit Hiroshima, which Japan will host in 2023. His areas of expertise are international health policy and diplomacy, burden of disease, disaster and health risk management, and nutrition science.

 

■ Related contents

[Event Report] Future of the Healthcare System Project Symposium- Creating a Health System to Withstand Future Crises: Next Steps Toward Enhancing Sustainability and Resilience (May 17, 2022)

[Event Report] Future of the Healthcare System Project – The First Media Seminar and Workshop for Promoting Healthcare Reform: Understanding Circumstances and Issues in the Domestic Health Sector Today (October 31, 2022)