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Series: Digital Heathcare Vol. 2

Contributing to Sustainable Community Healthcare through Digital Technology

- Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration Enhancing Patients’ Innate Strength -

Patients want to live authentic and fulfilling lives in familiar surroundings, even while managing illnesses. To fulfill this wish, strengthening collaboration among various healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s healthcare journey—including acute care, recovery, chronic care, and home care—has become increasingly important. In this article, Seiki Okada, President of D’PULA Medical Solutions (hereinafter “D’PULA”), a Group company of Sysmex, will share how his company is striving to achieve sustainable community-based healthcare through digital technology that enhances collaboration between hospitals and communities.

Contributing to Sustainable Community Healthcare through Digital Technology

Why Focus on Collaboration between Hospital and Visiting Nurses?

Okada, who is promoting a platform business supporting collaboration between hospitals and visiting nursing at D’PULA, had the following to say about the issues in collaboration between core hospitals and home care:
Seiki Okada, President of D’PULA Medical Solutions

“When you think of a patient being discharged from a hospital, you might picture them being sent off with a bouquet and a smile. However, for patients with chronic illnesses, discharge marks the beginning of a new stage of living with their condition after overcoming the acute phase. The future of healthcare hinges on how seamlessly we can relay care from hospitals to the community, and I believe that the key to solving this challenge lies in collaboration between hospital nurses and visiting nurses.”


“Nurses play a crucial role in holistic care1 by working alongside doctors to understand the patient’s treatment status and physical condition while also being attuned to the wishes of the patient and their family. However, hospital nurses often have a limited view of the home care situation after discharge, making it challenging to provide care that aligns with the patient’s post-discharge wishes. On the other hand, visiting nurses working in the community offer care that respects the living conditions and values of the patient and their family, but due to insufficient collaboration with specialized hospitals, they face difficulties in providing advanced care.”

Okada explains that he first felt the importance of collaboration after witnessing the care provided both in a hospital and at home for a patient with a stoma (a surgically created opening used to remove bodily waste).
Healthcare Journey for Chronic Diseases
“Stoma care requires a high level of expertise, yet many nurses certified in skin and continence care work in acute care hospitals, leading to a shortage in the community. After discharge, visiting nurses often reach out to the hospital with technical questions about home care, but there is currently no efficient system for this collaboration. Additionally, changes in the patient’s body and lifestyle can lead to home-specific issues, highlighting the need for hospitals to consider care that anticipates the post-discharge environment. Only when hospitals and communities understand each other’s environments and strengths can we effectively bridge the gap between hospital treatment and home convalescence, allowing patients to return home with peace of mind. This experience has made me acutely aware of the importance of collaboration between hospital and community care.”
1   Holistic Care: Refers to healthcare that comprehensively addresses not only the physical health of patients but also psychological and social aspects. It involves understanding the whole person and providing integrated treatment and care tailored to the individual needs of each patient.

Patient-Centered Care Supported by Digital Technology

DX in healthcare is a new social system expected to address issues such as the sharing of medical information and strengthening collaboration among healthcare professionals. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan defines its purpose as “Changing the shape of society and life so that patients can receive higher-quality treatment and care.” Okada is passionate about exploring what “higher-quality treatment and care” truly entails.

“During my time in the R&D department at Sysmex, I had the opportunity to engage with diabetes patients and the nurses caring for them, which led me to reconsider the significance of testing. For diabetes patients, maintaining blood sugar levels within a normal range and reducing the risk of complications is certainly important. However, they do not live solely for treatment. Patients seek ways to live authentically while managing their illness, and nurses strive to provide care that aligns with the patients’ hopes. As a member of a company involved in people’s health, I have come to strongly feel the need to pursue value that transcends the framework of testing and encompasses an understanding of the entire healthcare journey of the patient.”

Contributing to a better healthcare journey beyond the framework of Sysmex’s core business of testing and diagnostics—this aspiration drives Okada.

A Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration App to Support Patients’ Healthcare Journey as a Community

D’PULA has developed the kaleido TOUCH app, which supports smooth remote communication between nurses at core hospitals and visiting nurses in the community.
“With the advancement and differentiation of functions, kaleido TOUCH supports smooth information processing and sharing to meet the needs of busy and complex hospital operations. Furthermore, it’s important that the app provides a solution where the entire community can collaboratively design and support the patient’s healthcare journey. For example, should a dialysis patient receive hemodialysis at a clinic or peritoneal dialysis at home?2 If the latter is chosen, the patient will need to be hospitalized beforehand to receive necessary procedures and learn self-care. Without a system that appropriately manages and supports this series of treatments, it cannot guide patients to the care they desire. Therefore, while the app focuses on supporting outpatients after discharge, there are plans to develop it to facilitate collaboration during hospitalization and even prior to admission in the future.”
Okada also mentions that he wants to leverage synergies with Sysmex, whose core business is testing and diagnostics.
 
“Portable ultrasound devices, remote-capable stethoscopes, and electrocardiograms are examples of tests that have traditionally been conducted in medical institutions but are now beginning to be provided in home care settings by nurses. As healthcare shifts from hospitals to the community, I believe the role of testing in home care will continue to grow. I want to combine D’PULA’s nursing collaboration platform with Sysmex’s testing assets to further expand the range of tests that can be conducted at home.”
 

2   Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis: Both are treatment methods used when kidney function declines and is unable to remove waste products and excess fluid from the body. Hemodialysis involves using a specialized machine to extract blood from the body, remove waste and excess fluid, and then return the cleaned blood back to the body. This procedure is typically performed in hospitals or dialysis centers. Peritoneal dialysis, on the other hand, utilizes the peritoneum in the abdomen. A dialysis solution is injected into the abdominal cavity, and after a few hours, the fluid is drained out, removing unwanted substances from the body. This method can be performed by the patient at home, allowing for greater freedom in daily life.

Empowering Nurses to Enhance Patients’ Innate Strength and Designing New Community Healthcare Models Together

Okada notes that while developing the concept for the kaleido TOUCH pilot project, a remark from a visiting nurse left a lasting impression on him.
 
“The visiting nurse said: ‘For instance, a patient with impaired swallowing function may not recover well on the prescribed hospital diet, but if they can eat what they want in a familiar home environment, they may improve naturally. The most important role of a nurse is to harness the innate strength that patients inherently possess.’”
 
“If our nursing collaboration app can maximize nurses’ ability to enhance this innate strength, then patients who wish to return home will be able to do so. D’PULA aims to create a system through nursing collaboration that provides the best possible healthcare for patients and expand this system nationwide within the framework of public insurance. Visiting nurses are the healthcare professionals who understand patients best. We hope our digital technology will help them become more prominent partners in coordinating the healthcare journey.”
The name “D’PULA” in “D’PULA Medical Solutions” combines the Greek word for “bridge” (γέφυρα) with “D” for digital. The company aims to be a bridge connecting hospitals and communities through advanced digital technology. Moving forward, they will continue taking on the challenge of creating a new, community-based healthcare journey and system to be passed on to future generations.
Empowering Nurses to Enhance Patients’ Innate Strength and Designing New Community Healthcare Models Together

Series: Digital Heathcare

What is Community-Based Healthcare through Decentralized Medical Functions and Enhanced Professional Collaboration?

In Vol. 1 of the “Digital Healthcare” series, we introduce the ongoing efforts in Japan to establish a community-based healthcare system in response to the aging population, as well as the growing importance of regional healthcare collaboration amid the decentralization of medical functions.

Contributing to Sustainable Community Healthcare through Digital Technology
- Nurse-to-Nurse Collaboration Enhancing Patients’ Innate Strength -

In Vol. 2 of the “Digital Healthcare” series, Seiki Okada, President of D’PULA Medical Solutions, a Group company of Sysmex, introduces D’PULA’s current efforts to realize sustainable community-based healthcare through collaboration systems between hospitals and communities.

  • Sysmex promotes the concept of a “healthcare journey.” We view the various healthcare-related events a person experiences throughout their lives (life stages), along with the corresponding processes these involve (such as treatment at healthcare institutions), as a “journey.” Through various collaborations, we aim to offer new value, to make each individual’s healthcare journey better, and to grow as an essential presence in society. ”Healthcare journey” is a trademark of Sysmex Corporation, registered in Japan. ▶Short movie "About Healthcare Journey" (Sysmex Corporation’s Official YouTube Channel)
  • Information contained in the stories is current as of the date of the announcement,
    but may be subject to change without prior notice.

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