The City of Yokohama has been actively working on utilizing big data to improve outcomes in healthcare and medicine. The initiative is part of the city’s commitment to promote evidence-based policymaking to improve the health and wellbeing of its residents. The city believes that big data will play a crucial role in shaping the future of Yokohama’s healthcare as rapid aging of the city’s population is projected to put further pressure on the city’s medical institutions in the coming years.

On November 20, the city’s Medical Care Bureau announced the publication of a report that analyzes data on cancer patients and practices of cancer treatment conducted in the city’s medical institutions. The data for this report (http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/iryo/bigdata/, Japanese only) came from the National Database of Health Insurance Claims and Specific Health Checkups of Japan (NDB) and analysis was conducted in collaboration with Yokohama City University (YCU).

The city also owns and utilizes its very own medical database: the Yokohama Original Medical Database (YoMDB). YoMDB includes data of city residents covered by three major insurance types (National Health Insurance, Medical Care System for Older Senior Treatment, Public Assistance) and includes data for almost 100% of residents who are 75 years or older, making it a highly reliable data source for conducting senior healthcare-related data analysis. Recently, an academic paper based on analysis of YoMDB data was published on Geriatrics & Gerontology International, a respected international journal in geriatrics, an important step in furthering evidence-based medicine in the city. The authors of the paper estimated that the demand for home-based medical care in the city will continue to increase, doubling current levels in the next 20 years.

Link to Article: Suzuki, Yukio & Dohmae, Soshi & Ohyama, Kohei & Nishino, Hitoshi & Fujii, Hirohisa & Shuri, Jun. (2018). Demand for home medical care will continue to increase in the next decades: An analysis from the Yokohama Original Medical Database (YoMDB). Geriatrics & Gerontology International. 18. 1578-1579. 10.1111/ggi.13533. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ggi.13533)

Learn more:
Life Science in Yokohama