IIJ Electronic contact/communication Note Service Allows 35 Municipalities in Aichi Prefecture to Share Healthcare Information

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TOKYO-May 13, 2020-Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (TSE1: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced that the 35 municipalities in Aichi Prefecture currently using the IIJ Electronic contact/communication Note Service (Electronic Note Service(*1))-a platform for sharing information necessary to providing home-based nursing care-have entered into the Wide-Area Cooperation Agreement for Electronic Note Service on April 1, 2020. This agreement will permit the sharing of information with specialists outside the secondary medical areas (*2) in order to provide the necessary medical and nursing care services accurately and speedily to residence in those areas.

• (*1)IIJ Electronic contact/communication Note Service: This is a cloud-based information sharing service among local healthcare practitioners. Based on the Electronic @Contact Book which was developed by Nagoya University Hospital's Center for Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research, the Electric Note Service is commercialized through joint research between IIJ and the Center. It is developed by Nagoya University Hospital's Center for Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research, and IIJ.
• (*2)Secondary medical area: One of the administrative areas set by prefectures based on the national health care plan. According its requirement, the comprehensive health care system is organized such as to require the number of beds and secure the number of health care professionals. The area covers multiple municipalities for the centralized management of general medical services, including emergency care.

Since April 2017, IIJ has been providing the Electronic Note Service as an ICT platform for professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, care givers, care managers, etc.) to collaborate when delivering home health care. Each local government that has introduced the Electronic Note Service has set up a council for promoting the Community-based Integrated Care Systems, and IIJ has participated in each council (about 50) to support their efforts.
In Aichi Prefecture, where 46 municipalities have introduced the Electronic Note Service, they have been promoting wide-area coordination in secondary medical areas to form a professional network that can extend the healthy life span of local residents and thus reduce the need for nursing care overall. Currently, regional cooperation agreements have been concluded in nine secondary medical areas within the prefecture, and the Electronic Note Service is being used to support the delivery of home health care services in those areas.

There have also been many requests for wider collaboration using the Electronic Note Service in areas outside the secondary medical areas. For example, the small number of pediatric medical facilities makes difficult for collaboration on hospital admissions and discharges when the patient cuts across the secondary medical areas.

In addition, as a countermeasure against the novel coronavirus, there is a need for specialists to coordinate more closely and over a wider area by using the Electronic Note Service. The Electronic Note Service can be used to share the operational status of medical and nursing care welfare services in different secondary medical areas, or to share information between hospitals and care managers who are not allowed to visit their patients in the hospital due to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In response to these needs and regional issues, IIJ worked with Dr. Masaharu Noda, Director of the Aichi Prefectural Medical Association, to call on Aichi Prefecture's governments to conclude a wide-area cooperation agreement on the Electronic Note Service that would enable a wider range of cooperation on medical and nursing care welfare services beyond the scope of secondary medical areas. The plan is for 11 more municipalities to participate and 46 to ratify the wide-area cooperation agreement by October.

IIJ will do its utmost to support the regional councils for comprehensive care system promotion and to make the Electronic Note Service the "network infrastructure for our daily lives" that can help resolve community health care issues. This community ICT infrastructure also has the potential to go beyond home medical care to help coordinate disaster prevention efforts and emergency response efforts.

IIJ will continue to contribute to the creation of new communities and to the promotion of regional comprehensive care systems by connecting people and systems so that they can live with peace of mind in their communities.

The following is a list of municipalities that are participating in wide-area collaboration as of April 1, 2020.
Tsushima City, Aisai City, Yatomi City, Ama City, Oharu Town, Kanie Town, Tobishima Village, Kiyosu City, Kitanagoya City, Toyoyama Town, Kasugai City, Komaki City, Iwakura City, Seto City, Owariasahi City, Toyoake City, Nisshin City, Nagakute City, Togo Town, Toyota City, Miyoshi City, Hekinan City, Kariya City, Chiryu City, Takahama City, Okazaki City, Kota Town, Shinshiro City, Shitara Town, Toei Town, Toyone Village, Toyohashi City, Toyokawa City, Gamagori City, Tahara City

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results.

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• +81-3-5205-6377
• press@iij.ad.jp

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