The utilization of big data in Japan’s healthcare and medical system is lagging behind other developed countries due to legal requirements and systems that use different coding methods, among other reasons. This has made the efficient utilization of medical data a challenge given technological barriers, high development costs, and the difficulty of linking relevant data sources.
In other developed countries such as the United States, however, progress is being made. A common standard for exchanging medical information called Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) is gaining ground, and other countries are actively working on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to promote standardized data utilization in the medical field.
Providing a foundation for medical data that can be linked
Seeing an opportunity to address this issue in Japan, The University of Tokyo, SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) KIS, Inc., and others established HEMILLIONS on April 7, 2023.
HEMILLIONS began as a project at the Institute for AI and Beyond (BAI), a collaborative initiative launched by the University of Tokyo and SoftBank first announced in December 2019. HEMILLIONS was later converted to a joint venture company through the Collaborative Innovation Partnership (CIP) system.
HEMILLIONS will promote health and medical data standardization and its dissemination in Japan by utilizing the Health Level Seven (HL7®) FHIR standard. HEMILLIONS’ aim is to make it possible to utilize health and medical data safely and securely by developing and providing software platforms based on the HL7 FHIR standard.
As the first commercialized and incorporated company to originate from BAI, HEMILLIONS will work to promote the reduction of medical expenses in Japan and foster innovation in its healthcare and medical industries.
(Posted on June 1, 2023)
by SoftBank News Editors
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HL7® and FHIR® are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International in the United States and other countries.
