Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) ’s Healthcare DX Project held two online Expert Panel meetings, the first on October 26 and the second on November 21, 2023.

The need to build data infrastructure and promote healthcare DX has become a global discussion. In Japan, the spread of COVID-19 has triggered a national concern about delays in the construction of data infrastructure that can be operated in an integrated manner, including appropriate measures against chronic diseases both during normal times, and in the promotion of healthcare DX. Based on the proposal of “Healthcare DX Reiwa Vision 2030”, the “Headquarters for Medical Digital Transformation (DX) Promotion” was established in October 2022, headed by Prime Minister Kishida. Currently, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Digital Agency and other related ministries are collaborating to establish a nationwide platform for sharing health information.

Healthcare DX is not just a goal, but a means to build a healthcare system that can be trusted by citizens and patients alike. In order to realize this aim, HGPI is seeking the ideal system that meets the expectations of citizens and patients, and considering how to realize this ideal through healthcare DX.

HGPI discusses the promotion of healthcare DX from a global perspective, with industry, government, academia, and the private sector working in unison to establish a trusted and sustainable healthcare system. This process also proposes future steps to be taken regarding the role of healthcare DX and implementation of future strategies.

In the HGPI Special Seminar “Reinforcing Public Trust in the Health System through Healthcare DX,” discussion highlighted the unclear benefits of healthcare DX for citizens and patients alongside concerns about data utilization. During this recent round of Expert Panel meetings, the vision and goals to be achieved in a successful healthcare DX policy, issues and barriers faced to date, and concrete measures to overcome these issues from the following perspectives were discussed:

• Organization of data infrastructure building for the promotion of healthcare DX
• Challenges and expectations for secondary use of data
• Fundamentals of healthcare DX from the perspective of citizens and patients
• Appropriate measures to be taken and their order of priority

[VISION]
“We aim for a healthcare DX where the increasing use of personal data in society will benefit individuals and the population as a whole.”

In healthcare DX, the digitization of society is the foundation, and the greatest strength is that all information can be converted into electronic data and shared via the cloud. In order to utilise these strengths in the healthcare sector, it is first necessary to develop an environment for the collection of citizen and patient health and medical data. However, in order to promote the accumulation of data on the basis of sharing, it is assumed that safety is guaranteed because public cooperation will not be forthcoming unless there is a benefit in terms of a perceived improvement in convenience in the individual’s lived experience. In addition to public benefits as currently articulated, it is also important to articulate initiatives that enable individuals to directly experience benefits in their own healthcare behavior, and it is desirable to aim for a healthcare DX that benefits both the individual and the public.

[THREE GOALS FOR ACHIEVING THE VISION]
Goal 1: Facilitate citizens’ proactive self-determination on health issues

The consolidation of personal health and medical data through healthcare DX will enable citizens and patients to check their own health and medical data at anytime, anywhere. The use of AI technology will enable not only the proactive selection of solutions to one’s own health challenges, but also the visualization and selection of a personalized patient journey.

Goal 2: Establish a sustainable healthcare system in which every citizen and patient can enjoy the benefits and be satisfied

In a healthcare system made possible by healthcare DX, services that are acceptable to a greater number of citizens are concretely presented and multifaceted efforts are made to realize them.

Goal 3: Realization of a data utilization system that promotes innovation and ensures appropriate responses to issues such as discrimination

It is important to further innovation through the use of health and medical data in combination with the improvement of the world through the use of data and appropriate responses to issues that may arise from the release of such data (e.g. unfair discrimination and other uses which are detrimental to the person concerned).

Based on the Expert Panel discussions, the panelists addressed the goal of achieving the vision of “healthcare DX that benefits individuals and the nation as a whole through increased use of personal data in society”. The panelists also covered the changes that healthcare DX will enable in people’s lives, and the points that the government, legislature, media, private companies, academia, the medical community, and citizens/patients should address.

[Expert Panel Members] (titles omitted; in no particular order)

Makoto Aoki (Fellow, Health and Global Policy Institute)
Jun Sasaki (Chief Executive Officer and Director at Yushoukai Medical Corporation)
Naomi Sakurai (CEO, Cancer Solutions)
Mamoru Ichikawa (President, General Incorporated Association of Medical Journalism, Japan)
Takafumi Ochiai (Head of Policy Research Institution, Senior Partner (Affiliated with the Daini Tokyo Bar Association), Atsumi & Sakai)
Yoichiro Itakura (Lawyer, Hikari Sogoh Law Offices)
Tomohiro Kuroda (CIO, University Hospital, Director, Center of Digital Transformation of Healthcare/ Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Graduate School of Informatics Kyoto University)

[Department of Healthcare DX Policy research Members] (titles omitted; in no particular order)

Yusuke Tsugawa (Board Member, HGPI; Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Associate Professor, Health Policy and Management, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA)
Takanori Fujita (Research Fellow, HGPI; Project Associate Professor, School of Health Innovation, Kanagawa University of Human Services; Project Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine, Keio University)