Juntendo University and IBM Japan Ltd. announced on the 4th that they have begun work on the construction and operation of a “Patient Flow Management (PFM) AI matching system” that will support the transfer of hospitalized patients at Juntendo University School of Medicine Juntendo Hospital (hereafter Juntendo Hospital) to the most suitable medical institution after discharge. This will create a system that allows hospitalized patients to transfer to the most suitable medical institution where they can continue living their own way, based on personal information such as their address and disease name.
The system is a mechanism that strengthens cooperation with each medical institution, and is expected to establish a division of roles according to the functions of medical institutions required by the government and promote regional medical cooperation. Regarding the initiative, they explained that the construction of a medical care delivery system in anticipation of the arrival of a super-aging society is accelerating, and a “regional comprehensive care system” that divides roles according to the functions of medical institutions and strengthens cooperation with medical institutions with other functions is required.
In addition, by collecting basic information on patients before hospitalization and adding detailed information during hospitalization, they will be able to start early and transfer them to the appropriate environment at the appropriate time, and the importance of PFM, which provides end-to-end support from before hospitalization to after discharge, is also increasing. Juntendo Hospital has adopted PFM, and the Hospital Admission Support Center and Discharge Support Team work together to provide support for discharge, from collecting basic information before admission to arranging for home care or transfer to a local medical institution. However, the existing discharge support destination search system that searches for potential discharge destinations was not linked to electronic medical records, and some of the potential destinations had not yet been digitized, placing a heavy burden on medical staff in making the adjustments.
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In addition, there was no mechanism for accumulating and utilizing data related to the entire process, such as information on past candidate medical institutions and the final transfer destination. The PFM AI matching system that Juntendo University is developing with the support of IBM Japan links to backup data of electronic medical records securely stored on the cloud and utilizes generation AI to more efficiently search for and present the most suitable transfer destination medical institution for each patient. It is estimated that the introduction of the system will improve the efficiency of discharge adjustment work for patients who agree by more than 20%. The system also has the function of accumulating data on the process of deciding where to support patients when they are discharged, and plans call for accumulating not only facility-related data but also software-related data, in addition to a list of transfer destinations with the same medical history and area, so that AI can suggest candidate facilities, and make comprehensive judgments and improve the accuracy of AI matching. The system is developed to have the following features: the AI matches facilities that meet the conditions, such as the name of the disease and the proximity of the patient’s or family’s address, based on the ID of the patient who has given consent, allowing both medical staff and the patient to decide on a transfer destination that is satisfactory, contributing to improved patient satisfaction; and the route to the medical institution is displayed on a map by means of transportation (train, car, walking), allowing patients to more concretely imagine visits after transfer and support for their families, thereby contributing to improving the quality of medical services.
In addition, by displaying the candidate and selected facilities on a dashboard and recording notes on the facilities, it is possible to share information between nurses and other medical professionals who support discharge, thereby realizing work efficiency. It is also possible to obtain patient and facility information that is not displayed on the system screen through an interactive search using generative AI provided by IBM’s AI development studio, watsonx.ai, aiming to streamline interactions with the receiving facility. In the future, nurses and social workers will be able to view the PFM AI matching system on tablet devices together with patients, and provide information in real time while confirming the needs of each patient, thereby contributing to the realization of efficient and attentive medical services. In order to promote regional medical cooperation on a national scale, Juntendo University and IBM Japan aim to increase the number of medical institutions registered in the PFM AI matching system in the future. They also plan to further develop the system so that it can be compatible with multi-cloud and linked to various electronic medical record systems. In addition, they plan to increase the number of registered rehabilitation facilities and day rehabilitation facilities, and expand services for patients who are recuperating at home.
This will connect patients with medical institutions with appropriate functions, thereby aiming to build and expand an ecosystem in which medical institutions across the country work together, and by discharging patients early to an appropriate environment at the appropriate time, it will lead to a reduction in medical expenses such as hospital fees, and contribute to a reduction in social security costs in the future.
SOURCE: Yahoo
