Japanese demand for digital hospital tech starting to pick up
Until 2022, Japanese hospitals were slow to adopt digital healthcare solutions such as EMR, likely due to high costs and low digital literacy among older physicians. It is expected that they will adopt more technologies in the coming years with the available budget to meet workforce demand.
Global management consultant LEK Consulting recently surveyed 50 hospital directors in public and private hospitals across Japan as part of its research Annual survey across Asia and the Pacific of hospital administrators to understand their strategic priorities and challenges.
FINDINGS
In addition to preparing for future pandemics and improving staff safety, investments in new IT infrastructure and providing doctors with access to new medical technologies and treatments were in addition to Japanese hospitals' strategic priorities over the next three years.
LEK shared findings from a 2019 survey by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, noting low adoption of digital technologies in hospitals. Digital tools for remote consultation and teleradiology were the most commonly used technologies around that time.
On a per-setting basis, private hospitals in Japan are implementing digital healthcare solutions, especially for initial consultations and patient administration, more than public hospitals. In fact, they readily accepted such emerging technologies as generative AI to supplement their decision-making about diagnoses. “Private hospitals with IT capabilities have been quick to integrate EMR solutions for efficient patient data management,” the report said.
In terms of usage, public hospitals use digital solutions to capture patient information, while private hospitals “use them more to send (personalized) information to patients.”
Private hospitals ranked highly on digital health for its contribution to their transition to value-based care, while public hospitals found it valuable for increasing the quality of care delivery, such as reducing medical errors and increasing healthcare efficiency personnel.
Greater adoption of digital healthcare technologies is only being hampered by patient privacy concerns amid rising data breaches, and by apThere is an increase in administrative burdens and a lack of talent to deal with new technologies.
THE BIG TREND
As of 2021, Japan lagged behind in EMR adoption in primary care at 42%, below the 93% average among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
Since 2020, the government has been promoting the standardization of EMR through funding for small and medium-sized medical institutions. It is also one of the priority areas of the Medical Digital Transformation Headquarters, which was established in June last year.
A focus on investments in hospital IT is a combination of both private and public hospitals in Yespan see a positive short-term financial outlook. Based on the LEK research, almost six in ten directors of public hospitals Respondents expected a budget surplus over the next three years, while 88% of their counterparts in private hospitals said they expected high profit margins.