Face-to-Face vs. "Face-to-Face" | Ikuo Kaneko (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)

2009.08.06

For the past two years, I have been working on a "dream" research project with a cross-disciplinary team from faculties and graduate schools including the Faculty of Science and Technology, SFC, the Faculty of Letters, and the Faculty of Economics. The goal is to create what we call a "co-mobility society" in ten years—a society with rich human connections, safety and security, and a low environmental impact. The key is the fusion of technological innovation and social innovation. Within this project, I am engaged in a demonstration experiment of telemedicine.

While the "collapse" of community healthcare is a topic of discussion, it is said that behind this lies a "vicious cycle" where mutual distrust between healthcare providers and recipients exacerbates mutual anxiety. Our approach is to increase opportunities for people to interact, thereby promoting a sense of security, while at the same time improving the productivity of preventive care and medical examinations by introducing a telemedicine system that utilizes cutting-edge technology.

Last fiscal year, we conducted a joint experiment with the town of Okutama in Nishitama District, Tokyo. It is a depopulated area with an elderly population rate of over 30%, a mountainous region where accessing medical facilities is extremely difficult, and its residents have the shortest average life expectancy among neighboring municipalities. Health is the town's top policy priority. In this experiment, we installed video phone terminals in five of the town's marginal settlements and other locations, connecting them to a clinic in central Tokyo. For six months, we provided remote preventive medical consultations over the internet to about 80 participants, mainly elderly individuals. We conducted measurements and blood tests before and after the experiment to observe changes in values such as weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and neutral fat. The results showed improvements in these figures that were surprising to the participating physicians.

As an average for all participants, statistically significant improvements were observed in 8 out of 19 measured items. Only one item worsened. When compared with a group of outpatients of the same age who did not use the remote system, the outpatient group showed almost no improvement. According to the participating physicians, there is no doubt that the remote system was effective. However, they also suggest that a major contributing factor may have been the changes in lifestyle, such as lively conversations that sparked when the elderly gathered at community centers for remote sessions, leading them to invite each other for walks and alter their dietary habits.

Another interesting finding emerged. In a post-experiment survey, the vast majority of people answered that "remote consultations are better than meeting a doctor in person at the hospital." This means that the "face-to-face" interaction via video phone over the internet provided a greater sense of security than the "face-to-face" interaction in an examination room.

(Date of publication: 2009/08/06)