Japan’s aging society and low birth rate are straining the social insurance system, with rising non-urgent ambulance calls, overcrowded ERs, and declining QOL for medical professionals. Healthcare disparities are widening, even in prosperous Japan.
How can we secure universal access to timely medical care? We seek to answer this by leveraging technology to enhance the quality, experience, and efficiency of healthcare.
Our Vision for the Future
01
Medical access can be challenging due to various reasons such as region and time, while Japan’s unique “free access to medical care” causes problems in medical settings.
Fast Doctor offers various medical services on its platform, providing an online gateway for various symptoms and for anyone to connect to medical care at any time. By reducing the disparity in medical access and guiding appropriate medical resources, we aim to ensure necessary medical care can be available according to the situation.
02
Japan’s world-renowned medical care is supported by the dedicated hard work of healthcare professionals. However, with the implementation of the “Physicians’ Work Hour Reform” starting in 2024, there are concerns about the challenges in maintaining the medical provision system due to restricted work hours. Additionally, the aging population increases the demand for a 24-hour home care system.
Fast Doctor centralizes the resources and functions necessary for medical care provision on its platform, achieving efficiency and redistribution (sharing) according to needs. We are exploring new solutions to the labor-intensive nature of medical care provision.
03
Healthcare, a public service, has long been distanced from productivity discussions. However, with the significant imbalance between the supply and demand of medical and nursing care, improving productivity is the key to making healthcare sustainable.
Fast Doctor dramatically improves the efficiency of operations within its platform by leveraging digital transformation (DX), thereby enhancing the quality and experience of healthcare. Moving forward, we will introduce AI for diagnostic support and quality control, showcasing a technology-optimized model of healthcare.
04
Fast Doctor is tackling the challenges of “strengthening primary care functions” and “reducing unnecessary emergency use.” These are interconnected issues, as gaps in the “primary care” function during nights and weekends prevent patients from seeking appropriate care, resulting in reliance on secondary and tertiary emergency services even for minor conditions.
Despite overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply and demand issue remains. Due to the aging population, medical needs are increasing while the strengthening of primary care functions is not keeping pace. Fast Doctor believes that strengthening functions through collaboration and division of labor will make Japan’s healthcare system more sustainable.
Fast Doctor: Japan’s Largest Primary Care Platform
Fast Doctor, with its extensive physician resources, offers services such as emergency house calls, online consultations, home healthcare support, and municipal support. It proposes solutions to medical issues for a wide range of stakeholders, including individuals, medical and nursing care facilities, municipalities, public research institutions, and the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.
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As of December, 2023