Okinawa includes a number of isolated islands and remote areas. The best security for people living on these islands and in these areas are the availability of doctors in their neighborhoods whom they can visit whenever they are sick or injured. Therefore, we, the prefectural government, are doing our best to secure optimum medical care for the people living in isolated islands by establishing prefectural and municipal clinics in these areas and sending doctors and medical staff there from prefectural hospitals. I would like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation to the heads of the towns and villages on those isolated islands and to all the organizations involved for their conscientious efforts.
Younger doctors are now in charge of medical care services on most of the isolated islands.
Their best efforts to provide secure medical services, however, are sometimes hindered by severe conditions, such as isolation, the limitations of the clinics, long working hours that sometimes stretch for 24 hours, and insufficient medical information. Multimedia technologies should be an effective way of resolving the disparity in information provided to medical care practitioners on these isolated islands. Internet technologies enable those on isolated islands to collect, store, and share information effectively. Furthermore, through such Internet technologies, doctors on remote islands are able to receive support for their work by way of remote medical care counseling, remote image diagnosis, etc. Thus, together with support for lifelong education and consulting, we try to secure and maintain qualified personnel as well as to improve the diagnostic skill of doctors and the quality of remote medical care.