New Report Sheds Light on Japan’s Digital Healthcare Economy

Commonality between the UK and Japan exist, and a new whitepaper gives insights into the areas of data, digitisation and collaboration.

London, the United Kingdom (30 September 2019) – HIMSS today announced that it has published a report titled “Capitalising on Japan’s Digital Healthcare Economy during this Era of Ageing Societies,” authored by Professor Sudhesh Kumar, Dean of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick.

The report is about Japan’s recent efforts to transform its healthcare system by incorporating data and digital technology, suggesting partnership in this field by the two countries harnesses unprecedented potential to resolve some of big problems of today and leads a new digital healthcare economy during this era of ageing societies.

Key highlights include:

• Japan shares some common traits with the UK in healthcare and society. They provide universal health care and, being mature, developed economies, face an aging demographic trend. 28.1% of the total Japanese population is aged 65 and over; 13.9% of the total population was 65 – 74, 14.2% was 75-year-old and over.
• Japanese healthcare market is characterised by an abundance of data, generated from the citizens of more than 126 million which its healthcare system covers. Japan has recently started harnessing those data and digital technology to create its Next Generation Healthcare System. Key initiatives include introducing a new law to make the data more useful to research institutions and private-sector companies for the purpose of advanced research, innovative drug discovery, and new business creation.
• Japan is emerging as the global test bed for digital healthcare to address the challenges of an ageing society as other countries follow the demographic trend. The UK’s joint research programme with Japan announced by the government this January to help ageing populations live independently for longer and to develop new treatments for chronic conditions would be a precursor.

For the full report, please visit the HIMSS Report page.

About the author:
Professor Sudhesh Kumar is Dean of the Warwick Medical School and Director of the Institute of Digital Healthcare at University of Warwick. He is a clinical endocrinologist by background with 22 years experience as a Consultant Physician in the NHS. His research interest is obesity and its complications, particularly Type 2 diabetes. His interests include developing novel approaches to managing obesity and diabetes that has helped to transform and improve patient care and treatment. He has published over 240 papers and 6 books on these subjects.

About HIMSS
HIMSS is a global advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology. As a mission driven non-profit, HIMSS offers a unique depth and breadth of expertise in health innovation, public policy, workforce development, research and analytics to advise global leaders, stakeholders and influencers on best practices in health information and technology. Through our innovation engine, HIMSS delivers key insights, education and engaging events to healthcare providers, governments and market suppliers, ensuring they have the right information at the point of decision. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, HIMSS serves the global health information and technology communities with focused operations across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Our members include more than 80,000 individuals, 475 provider organizations and 650 health services organizations.

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