The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and Nikkei Inc. (President: Tsuneo KITA) will hold the 2nd ICT Medical Forum, "Realization of a Society with Advanced Medical Care through ICT," on Thursday, March 4, 2010.

Purpose of Event

As the rapid aging of society is expected to be accompanied by increasing medical expenses for citizens and major changes in how diseases develop, there is an increasing need for better quality and more efficiency in medical care, to set medical expenses at suitable levels and to take steps against lifestyle-related diseases. Therefore, the opportunities are becoming greater for the construction of a Japanese version of EHR (Electronic Health Records) that would make it possible to provide continuous medical care making use of computerized health information (diagnoses, examinations, etc.) collected over an individual's lifespan, as well as health information at medical, governmental and other institutions. Furthermore, the number of healthcare workers in Japan's medical system is low relative to patients, with each healthcare worker bearing an excessive burden. There is a pressing need for initiatives to support healthcare workers in their duties and to guarantee a high level of safety in medical care. There are high hopes for ubiquitous network technologies such as electronic tags and wireless LAN, and for the utilization of various highly secure broadband networks, etc., to contribute to dealing with these issues. Thus, this forum will be held for discussions on effective use of ubiquitous networks and policies to utilize health information from individuals and medical institutions using networks in Japan's health care sector.

+++++++++++++++
For further information about this press release, please fill in the inquiry form and submit it to MIC on the website
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/contact.html

International Policy Division,
Global ICT Strategy Bureau, MIC
TEL: +81 3 5253 5374 / FAX: +81 3 5253 5924