Fujitsu, Sapporo Medical University launch project to realize data portability in healthcare field

Fujitsu and Sapporo Medical University have announced the launch of a joint project starting in April 2023 to realize data portability for patients' healthcare data including electronic health records (EHRs) and personal health records (PHRs).

As part of the joint project, Fujitsu will develop a mobile app that enables users to view healthcare data on their iPhones and a cloud-based healthcare data platform to manage patients' health data. This project marks the first initiative in Japan to link electronic medical records with Apple's Health app under Apple's support.

EHR data stored on the newly developed external healthcare data platform will be converted to a format in accordance with JP Core (FHIR JP Core Implementation Guide Version 1.1.1), the latest Japanese guideline under the next generation standards framework HL7 FHIR for health information exchange.

By empowering patients to access their medical data from anywhere at any time and play a more active role in managing their own health, the project aims to contribute to the provision of optimal medical care and services tailored to the health conditions of individual patients while simultaneously improving patient engagement.

Sapporo Medical University Hospital, the affiliated hospital of Sapporo Medical University, aims to introduce the system in April 2023.

Background

Japan currently faces increasing demographic pressures as it confronts the challenges posed by one of the oldest populations in the world. In addition to medical services, the usage of medical health data in patients' individual health management represents an important issue both for patients and their families. To enable patients as well as medical providers to more easily manage medical data, many countries world-wide are implementing national standards under the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource) framework designed to enable the rapid exchange of healthcare-related information, including medical records and other patient data. Many of these initiatives also increasingly promote the use of smartphone apps for health management.

In Japan, however, the scope of use of EHRs and other schemes that allow patients to manage health data on mobiles devices remains limited. To this end, in recent years the Japanese government and relevant ministries started to examine measures to implement a framework whereby patients can manage both EHRs issued by medical institutions and their own vital data by themselves.

Fujitsu, which has been working to standardize EHRs and develop secure cloud technologies, and Sapporo Medical University, which has been working to improve the quality of advanced medical care in the Hokkaido area, launched a joint project using healthcare data at Sapporo Medical University Hospital to realize data portability in the healthcare field.

As part of their collaboration, Fujitsu and Sapporo Medical University aim to develop a cloud-based healthcare data platform to manage patient data and a system that enables patients to view their personal health information such as EHRs from anywhere at any time on their smartphones.

By storing patients' EHRs and vital data on the healthcare data platform and providing access to the data, Sapporo Medical University Hospital aims to improve the quality of medical services based on a detailed understanding of patients' health conditions.

Fujitsu will develop a smartphone app to access JP Core-compliant cloud-based EHRs issued by Sapporo Medical University Hospital, as well as a cloud-based healthcare data platform to manage patient data. On the app, patients will be able to choose whether they want to store their data externally and to decide about the scope of usage of their personal and healthcare data. In accordance with patients' consent settings, Fujitsu will store information from patients' EHRs and vital data measured by their iPhones or Apple Watches in a healthcare data base.

Fujitsu will develop the new app using Apple's "HealthKit" framework and will receive Apple's technical support within this initiative.

Using the new system, patients will be able to check past medical information they received from hospitals, including test results and medication prescriptions on the app as part of their individual health management.

© JCN Newswire