October 9, 2020
Keio University Hospital
Medical Data Card, Inc.
Since June of this year, Keio University Hospital (Director: Yuko Kitagawa) has been conducting a portion of prenatal checkups for all pregnant patients at its outpatient obstetrics clinic via telemedicine using the MeDaCa app. Now, starting in August of this year, in collaboration with Medical Data Card, Inc. (CEO: Kunihiro Nishimura; hereinafter "Medical Data Card"), the hospital has also transitioned to and begun offering midwife consultations in early pregnancy and two weeks postpartum as remote midwife consultations using the app.
In this initiative, with the consent of patients during pregnancy and the puerperium (immediately after childbirth), questionnaire data is exchanged online via the MeDaCa app before the consultation. Midwives then conduct remote consultations using the video call function while reviewing the questionnaire. In the future, all pregnant individuals visiting the Keio University Hospital outpatient obstetrics clinic and all those who have given birth at the Keio University Hospital Department of Obstetrics will be eligible for these remote midwife consultations.
In 2018, Keio University Hospital was selected in a public call for the "Advanced Diagnostic and Therapeutic Systems through AI Hospital" project, part of the Cabinet Office's Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) aimed at realizing Society 5.0, and has since been promoting the integration of IT and AI within the hospital. This initiative is supported by this AI Hospital Project.
Please see below for the full press release.