Creative Cures
Twelve innovators share their solutions at the ACCJ’s Healthcare x Digital Pitch Day Event.
Healthy Momentum
As Lilly marks its sesquicentennial, the ACCJ President’s Circle member focuses on what comes next for Japan.
Sharpening the Story
The ACCJ Healthcare x Digital (HxD) initiative reached a new milestone on December 2 with its first-ever exclusive mentorship event for healthcare startups at Nakanoshima Qross in Osaka.
Peace of Mind
Falling ill far from home can feel unsettling, even in a world-class metropolis such as Tokyo. Tokyo Medical Concierge offers clear, compassionate care in English.
Driven by Innovation
Lilly Japan’s Simone Thomsen reflects on six years of leading with purpose and ACCJ collaboration.
Transforming Treatment
The annual HxD Pitch Day brought together five innovative start-ups that are bringing healthcare innovation to a changing world.
Clinic Concierge
Finding a doctor and overcoming the language barrier can be a challenge. ROAM Medical helps you get the care you need wherever you need it.
Losing the Lag
Rob Claar, CEO and founder of healthcare investment, development, and commercialization platform HekaBio joins us to discuss how overseas healthcare companies can gain regulatory approval in Japan and put their innovations in the hands of Japanese doctors and patients.
Healthy Makeover
ChatGPT may be all the buzz right now, but it's just one of the digital tools transforming virtually all industries, including healthcare. ACCJ leaders share their views on how digital transformation can benefit patients as well as those charged with caring for them.
Healthy Ideas
The 2022 HxD event was modeled on the concept of ideathons, or workshop-like gatherings of groups tasked with challenges for which they are to propose solutions. Through this model, a total of 86 ideators, facilitators, and mentors worked together through a cyclic ideation process to identify root causes and develop the next big project in healthcare.
Digitizing Women’s Health
In recent years, Japan has seen a boost in femtech. The portmanteau of female and technology refers to services using tech and products that help improve women’s health. Government support and media coverage have enabled femtech business offerings to move from niche to mainstream. But how soon might the fledgling industry take off as it has in the United States and Europe? The ACCJ Journal spoke with experts to explore prospects for femtech in Japan.
State of Mind
For millions of people around the world who were already struggling with mental health issues, the past two-and-a-half years of the coronavirus pandemic have been a further trial. Isolation, a sudden shortage of opportunities to interact with friends or family in person, additional stresses in the workplace or the home, new financial worries, and difficulty in accessing appropriate mental healthcare have taken their toll, experts in the field told The ACCJ Journal.
HxD Winners
As we enter the third year of the coronavirus pandemic, two societal needs have become crystal clear: healthcare and digitalization. The combination of the two could bring some of the most impactful changes to Japan and the world by improving the quality of life, reducing the cost of care, and allowing society to better cope with future crises. Bringing them together is exactly what the ACCJ has done with its Healthcare x Digital (HxD) initiative, which began in 2020 and reached new heights in its second year.
Leveraging Lessons Learned
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the biopharmaceutical industry has come together in unprecedented ways to attack the virus, and we have achieved incredible progress in just two years. The industry was able to develop vaccines in just 12 to 18 months, and almost 11 billion doses have been administered worldwide. To put this success in perspective, it typically takes eight to 10 years to develop a vaccine, and the overall success rate is only 5 to 10 percent. But our work is far from over.
The Case of the Missing Startups
University and government venture funds play a much larger role in Japan than they do in Western countries. Yet we see fewer biotechnology startups here compared with, say, the United States, which is home to eight of the top 10 highest-funded ventures. Why?
D&I Hiring in Healthcare
It has been two decades since the Japanese government set its target of having women in 30 percent of management positions by 2020. The country has fallen far short of that goal, which the government has pushed off to 2030. Titan Consulting K.K. Business Development Manager Sophia Plessier certainly noticed the imbalance on her arrival in Japan. Coming from San Francisco, where discussion of diversity and inclusion (D&I) and support for women in business are a part of everyday life, she found it striking how few Japanese companies were promoting these important issues.
Innovation Destination
As a super-aging society with a population of more than 100 million, Japan has the potential to become a destination for healthcare innovation. Its citizens have easy and equal access to quality healthcare services, with pharmaceuticals and medical devices playing important roles in improving quality of life. But there are technological obstacles to overcome. The US medical device industry is leading the effort to develop a data platform in Japan which will enable traceability in healthcare.
Unsung Hero: Dr. Tatsuya Kondo
One year ago, we featured Dr. Tatsuya Kondo on the cover of The ACCJ Journal. The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) had recognized him for his contributions to the healthcare industry with the 2020 ACCJ Outstanding Achievement Award. Dr. Kondo played a key role in Japan’s healthcare efforts as chief executive of the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) from 2008 to 2019. Sadly, he passed away on September 26 after a battle with prostate cancer. ACCJ members shared thoughts and memories with The ACCJ Journal about what Dr. Kondo meant to them and the industry.
The Power to Innovate
The Japanese public is concerned that domestic pharmaceutical companies have yet to launch a single Covid-19 vaccine. Some may argue that this is due to a low rate of vaccine confidence, as is seen in the national tendency to avoid the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which has, in turn, caused a problem for vaccine development.
HxD 2021
Healthcare x Digital 2021 will carry forth the goal of forging new partnerships and creating new solutions to solve Japan’s most critical community healthcare and individual patient challenges by focusing on three key areas tied to the digital transformation of society and which can help Japan continue to take care of—and provide even better care for—all its citizens.