The government will launch a new system by 2020 to gather such medical information as electronic records from medical organizations nationwide and utilized in some local networks, but this would be the first attempt to use the records on a nationwide scale.
Hoping that the new system contribute to the development of new medications and treatments for intractable diseases by research institutions and private firms, as well as to improved efficiency and in treatment measures, the government plan to include the new system in its growth strategy to be compiled this summer.
In the new system, a new body to be launched by the government will at first gather data from medical institutions across the nation and process them into a form in which it is not possible to identify individuals by eliminating certain information. Then the processed data will be provided to medical institutions, research bodies such as universities, and private firms such as drug makers.
As electronic medical records carry such information as medication records, results to pathological examinations and recovery processes, utilizing those records as big data may contribute to confirming whether expensive drugs have statistically significant links to a successful treatment for diseases and to analyzing the cost efficiency of those drugs. This is expected to eventually identify the most way to treat a disease.
When medical institutions begin to provide cost-effective treatments based on those data, it is expected to cut medical expenses.
With a wide variety of information provided a new body, companies can utilize it to develop drugs for diseases which do not have a large number of cases or new insurance products. Those moves support the policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration that places the health and medical field as a pillar of its growth strategy.
Protection of personal information will be very important in the handling electronic medical records. Therefore, agreements between medical institutions and patients will be required before the institutions provide records to the new body. The government is also considering approving a private business experienced in handling of personal information and putting it in place as a part of the new body. It reportedly aims at nurturing a private company that can handle value added information too