Digital Garage and Welby Launch a Proof of Concept Project for PHR Lifestyle Disease Prevention Program in Fukuoka City to Build a Personal Health Record Platform

Digital Garage, Inc. (TSE first section: 4819; HQ: Tokyo; Representative Director, President Executive Officer and Group CEO: Kaoru Hayashi; DG) and its capital and business partner Welby, Inc. (TSE Mothers: 4438; HQ: Tokyo; CEO: Takeru Hiki; Welby) started a proof of concept project for PHR Lifestyle Disease Prevention Program in Fukuoka City in April 2019 to build a platform for health and medical care information (Personal Health Record [PHR]) possessed by individuals.

The program was chosen as the effect authentication project for FY2018 by Fukuoka Health Lab, the initiative led by Fukuoka City and Fukuoka Directive Council.

Under the project, DG and Welby will provide a PHR service to lifestyle disease patients and others through collaboration with 2 medical institutions in Fukuoka City. Working with DG Lab, artificial intelligence (AI) technology will be used to analyze the participants’ nutritional balance and other healthcare information from images of the meals they eat. This will help medical personnels provide dietary guidance and other services to promote health-related awareness and actions. After the project ends, its effects will be validated via PHR usage records (amount of meal images input, input rate, etc.), patient surveys, and other methods.

【Partner Medical Institutions】
– Maeda Clinic (Kashiiteriha, Higashi Ward, Fukuoka City)
– Ohashi Cardiovascular Hospital (Ohashidanchi, Minami Ward, Fukuoka City)
*The program will continue soliciting cooperating medical institutions in Fukuoka City.

DG and Welby with its capital and business alliance from the past, have developed projects through DG Lab’s BioHealth team and the Biomedical Project Office related to each field. As one facet of the alliance, Joi Ito (DG Board of Directors Member and Co-Founder) serves as a Welby advisor. Through joint development with Welby, DG builds a PHR platform involving preventative medicine and health points with implementation of DG Lab’s blockchain and AI technologies. In the future, PHR will be linked with local governments, national and health insurance, medical institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and health-related business operators to build a person-centered health and medical data platform.

DG will also build services and infrastructure for not only medical care and caregiving, but also chronic diseases and preventative medicine with the aim of making biotechnology and healthcare-related businesses into new leading businesses initiated by the capital and business alliance with Welby.

【About PHR】
Short for “Personal Health Record.” A set of personal health and medical information managed electronically by individuals.

【About Welby, Inc.】https://welby.jp/en/
Welby is a leading company that launched its personal health record (PHR) platform services in 2011. It provides PHR platform services for “support for continuation of treatment” and “facilitation of self-management” for patients with various chronic diseases. Welby My Karte, one of its PHR platform services, is a smartphone app to help patients of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and potential patients of the lifestyle-related disease manage their information including blood sugar level and blood pressure. It also jointly plans many PHR platform services that are operated by Welby with leading pharmaceutical companies. Welby provides PHR platform services in a wide range of fields including lifestyle diseases, oncology, central nervous system, autoimmune disorders, and rare diseases. With its vision to “Empower the Patients,” Welby will keep leading Japanese PHR platform services for patient-focused medical care.

【DG Lab】https://www.dglab.com/en/
An open innovation R&D organization jointly operated by DG, Kakaku.com, Inc. (TSE first section: 2371; HQ: Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Shonosuke Hata), Credit Saison Co., Ltd. (TSE first section: 8253; HQ: Tokyo; Chairman and CEO: Hiroshi Rinno) and KDDI CORPORATION (TSE first section: 9433; HQ: Tokyo; President, Representative Director: Makoto Takahashi).

【Fukuoka Health Lab】https://f-healthlab.jp/
One part of Fukuoka 100, a project aimed for creating a sustainable city at the era when people’s life expectancy reaches 100 years. The initiative ran with citizen cooperation to validate the effects of products and other offerings that encourage people to naturally become healthy while enjoying everyday lifestyle.