International Medical News

No.517ISSN 0535-1405

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL NEWSInternational Medical Society of Japan
Since 1925
May 30, 2023
Published by International Medical Society of Japan,Chairman,Board of Directors:Kenichi Ishibashi, MD, PhD
Editors: K. Ito, MD, PhD, T. Kondo, MD, PhD,
K. Ichihashi, MD, PhD, T.Murakami, PhD,R.Nagai, MD, PhD,I.Taniguchi, MD, PhD,andT.Yamazaki, MD,PhD

1-11-9-3F Kamiuma,Setagaya-ku,
Tokyo154-0011,Japan.
TEL03(5486)0601 FAX03(5486)0599 E-mail:imsj@imsj.or.jp https://www.imsj.or.jp/

The 458th International Symposium on TherapyThe 458th International Symposium on Therapy was held by the Zoom Webinar onMarch 16, 2023. Dr. Hirohisa Murakami, Director of the International Medical Society ofJapan (IMSJ), presided over the meeting.

Prospects for Pharmaceutical Policy in Japan
Introductory Message from the Chair
Takahisa Murakami, MD, PhD
Director, IMSJInternational Medical News

【Discourse】
International Medical Society of Japan Lecture: “Japanese Red
Cross’s Aid for Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey and Syria andCOVID-19 Response”
Hiroki Tomita
President
Japanese Red Cross Academy
More than fifty thousand people in Turkey and Syria have perished since a 7.8-magnitude
earthquake struck southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border on February 6. Roughly 16
million people have been affected by the earthquake in Turkey alone, including 9.1
million directly affected by the disaster. Countermeasures against the extreme winterconditions are urgently needed. At the government’s request, the Turkish Red CrescentSociety has taken on a leading role in the national nutrition and food sector inmaintaining the nutrition of people affected by the earthquake. There have been over
five thousand Turkish Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers providing food incompliance with food distribution standards to people affected by the earthquake
round the clock since day one of the disaster. Eight hundred and eighty-two vehicles,
mostly mobile kitchens, are being used to deliver 3.8 million meals and emergency
supplies to 500 locations every day. As of late February, the Turkish Red Crescent Society
had distributed 65 million hot meals and other kinds of relief. In addition, it provided largescale aid across a range of fields, including emergency relief activities, provision ofevacuation centers, medical care, mental health support, and subsistence support.
Meanwhile, Syria has suffered from similar damage to Turkey. The social infrastructure in
the affected region in northwestern Syria is fragile due to long-term conflict andeconomic sanctions, yet the Syrian Arab Red Crescent initiated emergency relief
activities immediately after the quake. Economic sanctions have caused a scarcity offuel, materials and equipment for generators and vehicles required for emergency relief
activities and heavy machinery for clearing debris. Emergency response activities of theInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) include the distribution of food andwater, emergency supplies, cash assistance, subsistence aid, medical care, mental
health support, sanitation and access to safe water, and protection for women andchildren. The Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) decided to provide financial support
worth 230 million yen in total as emergency aid. It donated 110 million yen each to theInternational Medical News

Turkish Red Crescent Society and Syrian Arab Red Crescent and 10 million yen to thePalestine Red Crescent Society. On February 9, it began accepting donations foroverseas emergency relief. Responders have been dispatched to Damascus, the capitalof Syria, and Ankara, the capital of Turkey, as coordinators and are responding torequests from the Turkish Red Crescent Society for material aid, visits to affected persons,and medical care (figures and accomplishments are as of February 27).
It has already been a year since the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine began following anoffensive by Russia in February 2022, and it immediately multiplied. Prospects for paths topeace continue to be elusive while the humanitarian crisis lingers on. The IFRC isleveraging all of its resources to continue providing emergency relief. According to thismove, the JRCS has been providing assistance to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society andthe Red Cross Societies of neighboring countries since the early stages of the conflict,based mainly on its long-standing cooperative relationship with the Ukrainian Red Cross
Society (long-term emergency relief activities related to the Chernobyl nuclearaccident).
While the number of internally and externally displaced persons still fluctuates, 13 million
people in total, about a third of Ukraine’s population, have still been driven from theirhomes due to the impact of the armed conflict. In early March last year, the JRCS started
accepting donations for overseas emergency relief. As of February 1, 2023, it hadreceived 8,256.58 million yen in donations from the general public and businesses.
Along with the local Ukrainian Red Cross Society, the ICRC is primarily conducting
emergency relief activities in conflict zones to meet the needs for humanitarian aid to
Ukraine and neighboring countries. In non-conflict zones, moreover, the IFRC mainlycooperates with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and the Red Cross Societies ofneighboring countries to provide assistance.
In response to IFRC agencies’ appeals for emergency relief, the JRCS has so far provided
financial support equivalent to five billion yen in total, including 2.5 billion yen to the ICRC
for emergency relief activities in conflict areas and 2.5 billion yen to the IFRC for
emergency relief activities in evacuation areas.
In summary, over a ten-month period following the escalation of the armed conflict onFebruary 24, 2022, through December 2022, the contribution of the IFRC as a whole hasbeen:

Distributing safe water to 10.6 million people.

Assisting in the evacuation and relocation of 805 thousand people.

Assisting 1.19 million people with medical care.

International Medical News

Protection activities for 245 thousand people, including protecting women andchildren, visiting POW facilities, and support for separated families.

Assisting 1.89 million people with housing.

Providing 14.55 million people with material aid, such as food and daily necessities.

Providing cash assistance to 1.2 million people for their individual needs.

Responders from the JRCS were deployed to Ukraine and its neighboring countries fromthe early days of the conflict to help manage and coordinate emergency supplies andcreate a support system for the mental health care of displaced individuals.
Given the protracted nature of the armed conflict, the JRCS concluded that the form of
support centered on financial donations to IFRC agencies would be limited to five billion
yen. In August, after six months had passed, the JRCS was prepared for direct support
and cooperation with the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, and started full-fledged intersocietal projects aimed at the whole Ukrainian country between the two Red Cross
Societies with a planned total cost of 3.26 billion yen. Financial assistance has been
provided for generators (550 generators), stoves (three thousand units) and the like tosupport people who would have to go through the winter with a lack of energy sources,
as measures to cope with severe winter conditions. Ten ambulances have been donated.
Financial support has been provided for cash assistance programs and the emergency
relief fund of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. In addition, in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine,
a rehabilitation center supporting wounded soldiers mainly in the medical care field has
been expanded. Also, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society Service Center Support Project
has been implemented. In Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, also in western Ukraine, an aid projectfor mobile medical clinics to maintain the health of large numbers of internally displaced
persons has also been implemented. In Zakarpattia Oblast, in western Ukraine as well, theJRCS has cooperated with the Finnish Red Cross to set up temporary clinics for theUkrainian Red Cross Society and donated portable X-ray devices.
The JRCS is Japan’s largest provider of aid in the private sector and is deeply trusted by
the people of Japan.
In February 2020, at the same time as the news on the death of a medical care providerin Wuhan who was responding to what would become the novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19) pandemic was reported in Japan, the JRCS responded to the Japanese
government’s request to provide medical support on board the Diamond Princess cruisevessel, which had experienced an outbreak of COVID-19. The JRCS deployed a total of
142 responders, including 67 members as a Red Cross Relief Team and 75 members as
the Japan Disaster Medical Assistance Team. To provide medical assistance to thoseInternational Medical News

returning from Wuhan on a chartered plane, 113 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, andadministrators were deployed. These actions were grounded on the Red Cross principles
held by the staff members. Fortunately, no infections resulted from these activities.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 99% (90 hospitals) of the 91 Red Cross hospitals,
which include small hospitals with fewer than 100 beds, in Japan have been admitting
COVID-19 patients. Of these, 70 hospitals have become priority medical facilities at therequests of their respective regions. The cumulative total of inpatients reached 53,318
people as of February 12, 2023. In the early days of the pandemic, reports of large
numbers of deceased people in China, Europe, and the United States were all over thenews. Other hospitals were seldom willing to accept such patients in various regions. Inaddition to a lack of personal protective equipment, attempting to apply treatment
methods was like searching in the dark. Moreover, providers of COVID-19 treatment
encountered prejudice from the general public and provided COVID-19 treatment
under tremendous physical and emotional stress. It remains a struggle to balance normal
clinical practice with continued response to COVID-19. The JRCS has also proactively
provided assistance outside its hospitals, deploying a total of 29,292 responders outside
its hospitals, such as deployments to vaccination sites and the facilities where clusters
occurred, and visiting doctors. In response to the government’s request for widespreaddispatches of nurses, a total of 932 nurses have been deployed from 36 facilities.
Unavoidably, COVID-19 infections among hospital staff occurred and reached 20,121
cases as of February 16, 2023. Although this represents around one-third of all employees,
fortunately, there have been no deaths due, in part, to the effectiveness of its
vaccination program.
The Japanese government plans to downgrade COVID-19 to Category V, COVID-19 isentering a new phase, and the government is preparing its response.

International Medical News

LectureⅠ
Recent trend of Regulatory Administration in JapanYAMAMOTO Fumi
Councillor for Pharmaceuticals Affairs, Minister’s Secretariat
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
It has passed 3 years since all over the world faced COVID-19 pandemic. During theperiod, various medical products such as therapeutics and vaccines, diagnostics against
COVID-19 have been developed speedily in the world and utilized practically. On theother hands, based on the bitter experience from COVID-19 pandemic, Japanesegovernment promptly implements the measures for preparedness towards next
pandemic crisis such as establishment of “Strategic Center of Biomedical Advanced
Vaccine Research and Development and Response” (SCARDA), creation of emergency
approval system, amendment of Infectious Disease Act and so on. With these contexts, I
would like to look back 3 years activities of regulatory efforts under the COVID-19
pandemic.
In addition, I would like to introduce recent regulatory trend in Japan such as (1)problems/ measures for stable supply of drugs and quality matters of generic drugs, and(2) status ofconstruction and start to utilize electronic prescription system as one of themedical DX activities.

International Medical News

LectureⅡ
Prospects of Digital Transformation for Healthcare
Jo Katsufumi
Assistant Vice-Ministerfor Pharmaceutical Industry Promotion and Medical Information Management
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
The Data-based Health Management Initiatives presented a roadmap on June 4, 2021.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare(MHLW) provides a system with an excellent userinterface that allows citizens to view health and medical information through Mynaportal,etc. MHLW is promoting the development of those systems that can be viewed at
medical institutions and nursing care offices.
In addition, in the Concentrated Reform Plan of the Data-based Health Management
Initiatives showed a mechanism that can be confirmed at medical institutions nationwide,
among the above, specified health checkup information, drug information, medical
treatment information, and electronic prescriptions listed in the receipt will be graduallyoperative by FY2022. We are gradually expanding the scope of medical examinations,etc., as part of the expansion of the system that allows the use of one's own health andmedical information.
Furthermore, in the “Basic Policy for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform2022” decided in June 2022, “Establishment of a nationwide medical information
platform,” “Standardization of electronic medical record information, etc.,” and“Medical fee revision DX” The government policy is that the government and relatedindustries will work together to promote these efforts.
We will show the recent measures in data health reform, and describe what is expect.