Sapporo Medical University and Fujitsu are rolling out in April 2023 a joint project to realise data portability for patients’ healthcare data including electronic health records (EHRs) and personal health records (PHRs).
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.
Sapporo Medical University Hospital, the affiliated hospital of Sapporo Medical University, aims to introduce the system in April 2023.
Moving forward, Fujitsu and Sapporo Medical University will examine additional ways to further use healthcare data and realise data portability, and plan to draw on data from multiple medical institutions to build a framework for advanced regional medical cooperation with medical institutions in Hokkaido in Japan.
Sapporo Medical University Hospital will promote the development of an environment for the use of healthcare data in clinical practice. As a core hospital for regional medical care in Hokkaido, it will further expand data collaboration among hospitals in Hokkaido and promote the provision of advanced medical care tailored to each patient based on more detailed PHRs.
Further, Sapporo Medical University plans to use individual patients’ healthcare data in R&D of AI technology for diabetes treatment at its facilities and AI research previously conducted using EHRs.
Also, Sapporo Medical University anticipates that patients’ healthcare data (collected with patients’ consensus) can in future be used as useful information for selecting appropriate health treatments.
