IT Applications for Medical Services in Japan
The Information Technology (IT) application for medical services has developed in line with two major national level factors. One was the “E-Japan Project” which was proposed and implemented to revitalise the Japanese economy by introducing IT to a wide range of industries and sectors of the society and by promoting establishment of so-called IT infrastructure. The other was serious concern over the fast rising healthcare expenses in the country in the face of the coming aging society. First, the major efforts were, therefore, made for productivity improvement and const reduction in the health insurance bill claiming procedure and other related fields. These initiatives were followed by construction of medical information sharing and processing system first, and then developed further for regional collaborations among medical institutions. Other examples of the IT applications in the medical services can be found telemedicine to cope with the serious shortage of medical doctors.