Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2004-9 (VOL.55, NO.5)

Special Issue : Electronic Government & Healthcare - Towards New Development of e-Japan -

• Fujitsu's Approaches to New Developments of e-Japan

The e-Japan Strategy was formulated in 2001 with the goal of making Japan the most advanced IT nation in the world by 2005 and since then has been reviewed and adjusted every year. The e-Japan Priority Policy Program-2004 was established as part of this strategy for the approach toward the target year of 2005. With the rapid aging of the population amid an extremely low birthrate, the central and local governments are under pressure to qualitatively and quantitatively improve public services. e-Government and e-Local Government are effective approaches to bridging the gap between idealism and reality in public services. They both aim to achieve a rich and vigorous society through cooperation between the public and private sectors and other mechanisms. Moreover, the society-wide importance of healthcare fields must be recognized so we can build a brighter and more secure society. This paper describes Fujitsu's approaches to e-Government, e-Local Government, healthcare, and IT security to realize the new social infrastructure.

• Managing Local Government through IT and New Public Management

Japanese government is proceeding a revolutionary change, which is called "Sanmi-ittai", to address the national deficit crisis to change the existing administration system through national government and local governments with two policies, the decentralization and the merger.
Now, local governments are focusing on New Public Management and e-Government to challenge this environment and manage themselves.
On this paper, I insist that local governments should manage themselves with both of New Public Management and Information Technology (IT), which are related with each other, and I propose technical steps to achieve.

• Mergers of Municipalities and Electronic Local Government

Recently, many local governments have been exploring merger possibilities in accordance with the Law Concerning the Special Cases of Mergers of Municipalities (Special Mergers Law), which was amended significantly in 1999. Before municipalities can merge, the relevant local governments must safely integrate their information systems. Although the national government encourages merging municipalities to promote systems of electronic local government, they are giving top priority to the integration of their information systems. This paper describes the present trend of municipality mergers, some actual examples of information system integration, possible issues related to the implementation of electronic local government after municipality mergers, and Fujitsu's approaches to municipality mergers and the promotion of electronic local government.

• Approaches to Administrative System Optimization

Approaches to the realization of electronic government and electronic local government have completed the planning stage and entered the system construction stage. In the system construction stage, from the viewpoint of TCO reduction and other aspects, businesses need to optimize their information systems and all of their business activities. Enterprise Architecture (EA) has received a lot of attention as a methodology for realizing these optimizations. EA clarifies the relationship between a business and its system and standardizes a business's procedures and system to achieve total optimization. This paper describes a practical method of business and system optimization through EA and describes the Administrative System Optimization Services, which is a Fujitsu solution based on the concept of EA.

• Solution for Electronic Government Based on Enterprise Architecture

Local authorities are shifting their electronic local government construction programs into high gear. In e-Government and e-Local Government construction programs, constant attention has been focused on Enterprise Architectures (EAs) and common infrastructure systems. They are expected to help improve clerical work efficiency through work restructuring and IT investment and reduce installation and operation costs through sharing and joint development. Fujitsu has been establishing business systems and developing packages for local authorities for the last 30 years. We have also been solving customers' IT-related problems as Japan's largest solution vendor. This paper describes the concept of an EA-based solution developed by Fujitsu for electronic government that can be used safely, reliably, and continuously. It also describes how Fujitsu plans to develop this solution using its many years of experience in e-Government systems.

• Fujitsu's Middleware Products in Support of Enterprise Architecture

In line with the progress being made in such computerization projects as those under the e-Japan Priority Policy Program, enterprise architecture (EA) is attracting attention as an organizational activity to build more efficient corporate systems that reflect managerial requirements. EA is intended to implement a corporate system optimized for the entire organization, with features of interoperability, portability, and scalability. For that purpose, emphasis is being placed on the importance of technical standards. Fujitsu's policy on middleware products is geared toward added value in terms of usability, reliability, performance, and assuring open linkage based on technical standards and specifications. This policy meets the requirements for EA such as standardization and full compatibility regarding open linkage. Thus, Fujitsu's middleware products are fully compatible with systems that are based on EA. This paper describes the framework of EA, reference models, technical reference models, and standard specifications. It also cites examples of Fujitsu middleware products that conform to standard technology, and discusses Fujitsu's involvement in the latest standard technologies.

• Efforts to Realize CRM in Local Governments

Recently, in the United States and Great Britain, the local governments of many cities have been active in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which is a marketing technique used by private enterprises. Now, in Japan, resident-oriented services and collaborations between residents and local governments are becoming indispensable. This is because of changes in Japan's socioeconomic environment (e.g., the diversification of residents' needs, increasing participation in administrative activities, financial difficulties, and local decentralization) and the increasing scrutiny of local governments by residents. Accordingly, local governments are introducing CRM and have started area-specific activities for managing themselves so they can better serve their residents. This paper describes the trends in the CRM activities of local governments and introduces Fujitsu's CRM in local governments solutions for supporting these activities.

• Overview of e-Gov

The Government established the e-Japan Strategy II on July 2, 2003 and set out the e-Government Construction Program as a practical program of the strategy. This plan aims to improve public convenience and services and achieve work restructuring to support the IT society. The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications has substantially expanded and improved its existing e-Government functions and started new e-Government operations on January 5, 2004. e-Government offers easy-to-understand governmental information and comprehensive one-stop services to help people collectively conduct applications and notifications through linkages with national administrative organs 24 hours a day throughout the year. This paper outlines e-Gov as an administrative portal system and describes the e-Government activities that will be developed in the future based on the e-Government Construction Program.

• Computerization of Education and School Educational Solution @SCHOOL

The computerization of education is one of the main pillars of the e-Japan Priority Policy Program. In line with the development of IT environments in local governments, the use of IT has been promoted within schools and public educational facilities, for example, community centers. Now, nearly every school is connected to the Internet and many homes have high-speed Internet connections. The improved cooperation between homes and local communities that IT will bring is expected to create new educational activities. Fujitsu has developed and provided several learning tools for students and teaching tools for teachers to comprehensively promote the computerization of school education and support various types of learning and educational activities. This paper describes the configuration and features of @SCHOOL, which is a solution for supporting the use of IT in school education. It also describes Fujitsu's activities in developing products that meet the special needs of children with disabilities.

• Fujitsu's Approaches to Medical-Care System Reforms (Approaches to Prospective Payment System by Diagnosis Procedure Combination)

In April 2003, a new medical treatment fee payment system was introduced in 82 technologically advanced hospitals (chiefly university hospitals) across the country. This system is referred to as the "Prospective Payment System by Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC)." It completely differs from the existing payment system, which is based on the cost of treatment, and will have a central role in future medical-system reforms. Moreover, DPC, which forms the basis of the system, is expected to become a means of standardizing various types of medical information. Fujitsu has actively participated in a trial introduction of the system from the beginning of the trial and has become a top vender in the facilities that have introduced this system installed a hospital information system. This paper outlines the Prospective Payment System by DPC and describes Fujitsu's hospital information system, focusing on approaches to developing hospital management systems.

• Web-Based Electronic Medical Record System

Since the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced its "Ground Design towards Information-Oriented Health Medical Fields," the introduction of electronic medical record (EMR) systems in hospitals and clinics has become even more active. Also, with the advancement of the broadband network infrastructure, more and more medical institutions want to share information between these types of computerized facilities. Fujitsu has been developing EMR systems since the 1990s. Based on the experience we have gained in this field, we have now created a prototype Web-based EMR system by using new tools such as Java/CORBA and Servlet/JSP (which are Web-based open architectures) and a framework of Fujitsu middleware. Furthermore, we made a series of benchmark tests in a production environment to verify that the numerous interfaces required for medical business purposes are usable and high-speed responses can be achieved. This paper presents the concepts of Fujitsu's Web-based EMR system.

• Electronic Medical Record System That Keeps Growing -Medical One-Stop Solution-

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has been subsidizing hospitals since 2002 to promote the integration of technologies in the medical field, with focus on the electronic medical record system. However, this electronic system has been introduced to only 3% of all hospitals in Japan. In June 2003, Fujitsu unveiled its "Medical One-Stop Solution," which is conceptually based on a "Medical records system that can be set up quickly, is easy to operate, relatively inexpensive, and which keeps on growing." This product provides a packaged system with standard functions, thus making it possible to shorten construction time and periodically upgrade the system. This paper introduces the expandable "One-Stop Solution" system and describes its construction.

• Introduction of Electronic Medical Record System to Yame General Hospital

In December 2003, Yame General Hospital became the first to introduce Fujitsu's Medical One-Stop-Solution EMRS (Electronic Medical Record System). Many hospitals hesitate to introduce an EMRS because of today's severe management situation and also because they are unsure of their merit. However, Yame General Hospital has not only introduced our EMRS in a very short time (only six months), but has also succeeded in improving its management situation. This example indicates that an EMRS can improve a hospital's business management. In this paper, we consider the introduction process of Medical One-Stop-Solution from several viewpoints: the hospital's basic strategy planning, system selection, non-customized system introduction, control of system operation skills before the start of actual operation, continuous improvements made after the start, and management results.

• How to Establish Safety and Security in Hospitals

Errors in medical care can lead to life-threatening situations. Recently, many mistakes, for example, misidentification of patients and medication errors, have been reported. It is said that the big mistakes we hear about in the media are the result of an average of about 300 small mistakes that have gone unnoticed. Analyses show that most of these mistakes are due to human error. It is therefore important to prevent human error to avoid big mistakes. Fujitsu considers that IT can be used effectively to help patients find safe and secure medical treatment and help doctors, nurses, and other medical staff provide medical care while preventing human error. This paper describes how Fujitsu uses IT in its electronic chart system to help prevent medical mistakes. It also describes the introduction of bedside systems to improve amenity for inpatients at the National Center for Child Health and Development.

• Measures for Hospital Management Solutions

The business environment surrounding medical institutions is changing rapidly, as typified by the introduction of the "Prospective Payment System by Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC)." Fujitsu has established the hospital management support system as a key product to promote its hospital management solution, which is gaining the attention of many medical institutions. These days, to ensure survival and growth, even nonprofit hospitals need to make quick decisions by conducting cost and management analyses and using human resource strategies based on quantitative data. On the other hand, national university hospitals have been turned into independent administrative corporations and a complicated medical insurance system has been introduced, thereby adding new management-support needs. This paper outlines a hospital management solution and describes Fujitsu's previous measures and future outlook for hospital management solutions.

• Fujitsu's Approach to Nursing Care Systems

The public nursing care insurance system enacted in April 2000 provides welfare and medical services to senior citizens who need nursing care and is funded by the national and local governments and national insurance contributions. To support this system, Fujitsu has marketed three new products: a nursing care service provider support system called "WINCARE", a nursing care service provider support network system called "WINCARE/X," and a system called "CareJoin" that provides health facilities for recuperation. In addition to maintaining these products, Fujitsu is also developing next-generation products with the aim of providing further solutions to customers and users. This paper describes the background and outline of the nursing care insurance system. It also describes Fujitsu's approaches and future outlook for this system.

• Protein Measurement Using Nano-Biotechnology

Nano-biotechnology is attracting attention as an important field of nanotechnology. We have used biomaterials to create artificial structures to develop unprecedented technologies such as a modified aptamer method and a nano-wire probe method for protein quantification. The modified aptamer method uses DNA monomers having side chains that resemble those of amino acids. This method has the potential to overcome the disadvantages of the monoclonal antibodies that are conventionally used to recognize proteins and makes it possible to apply molecular recognition to a wide variety of proteins. The nano-wire probe method focuses on molecular motion and diffusion in a solution to monitor the formation of an antibody-protein complex. This method has the potential to determine the quantity of a protein 100 times faster and with 100 times the sensitivity compared to the conventional methods used in clinical testing. This paper introduces the recent developments in these technologies, focusing on the nano-wire probe method.

• Security for Public Infrastructure

The ongoing digitization of information in such public fields as administration, medical treatment, and health care has allowed information to be exchanged and reused more efficiently, while improving the level of service to end users. Conversely, the disclosure of personal information in today's digitized society is becoming a serious problem. For example, unauthorized disclosure may result in immediate distribution and widespread damage. This paper introduces the measures being taken by Fujitsu to raise the level of security in public fields. In particular, it describes a policy for developing secure application programs for the field of administration. This paper also gives an example of using health care PKI (HPKI) in the medical treatment and health care fields to access medical-examination information from remote locations, and introduces a trial measure for environmental attestation to prevent the unauthorized access of information from personal computers.

• e-Japan Showroom: netCommunity

The Japanese Government is promoting national IT development for an e-Society in many fields under its "e-Japan Strategy". To realize the e-Society that the e-Japan Strategy aims to establish, it is important to use IT effectively. Fujitsu provides prospective customers with concepts and images of the future e-Society by introducing various solutions, advanced technologies, and other products at its "netCommunity" showroom in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. Fujitsu clarifies a variety of problems from the legal, social, and organizational points of view and also shows how IT can be used to achieve highly convenient services. This paper introduces the basic concepts, contents, and future plans of the netCommunity.