On November 25, Shimadzu Corporation began providing ExpertTWIN (hereinafter this system) in Japan. This system is an infectious disease management support system that connects the medical institution*1 of an attending physician (hereinafter the attending physician) who has a patient with an infectious disease, with an infectious disease specialist via the internet. It lessens the burden at medical care facilities by enabling consultations on a patient-by-patient basis between specialists and attending physicians concerned about the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. This is the first system in Japan to offer a means of providing web services and subscription plans for enhance the efficiency of consultations, contract signing, and payment arrangements, which can be cumbersome for both parties.
Typically, when attending physicians who are not specialists in infectious diseases find it difficult to decide on diagnoses and treatment plans related to infectious diseases, they seek the advice of specialists. However, the number of infectious disease specialists is only about half of what is required at medical care facilities, and accommodating inquiries from outside their hospitals in addition to their regular workload can be a burden. Furthermore, conventional telephone and email-based consultations make it difficult to assess the amount of work done by the specialists and their degree of contribution. This system lessens the burden on site by enabling direct consultations between both parties on a patient-by-patient basis. In addition, by reducing medical expenses through the suitable use of antibacterial agents and by enabling continuous interventions even in difficult cases, shorter hospital stays for patients can be expected.
Shimadzu completed this system based on approximately 30 experimental studies using a prototype of the infectious disease management support system, through research for product development, starting in 2018 with collaborative needs assessment research together with a research group consisting of the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System*2, the Department of Infectious Diseases at Nagoya University Hospital, Nagoya University Innovative Research Center for Preventive Medical Engineering, and the endowed chair faculty at the Department of Infection Control, Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University. (Research representative: Professor Tetsuya Yagi, Department of Infectious Diseases, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University). In future, further functional enhancement and overseas deployment will be considered. The development of this system is part of the construction of a diagnostic workflow, a med-tech project that is part of the medium-term management plan. Shimadzu is committed to resolving issues that arise at medical care facilities, by heightening diagnostic efficiency.
