徳島県立海部病院における医療格差是正と医師働き方改革のための遠隔医療 : 遠隔救急診療と5G遠隔診療

For local government hospitals in sparsely populated areas, access to emergency and specialized medical care is essential for the wellbeing of local residents. However, Tokushima Prefectural Kaifu Hospital has grappled with numerous crises in the past, stemming from a chronic shortage of doctors. Due to the inherent challenges and constraints associated with traditional face-to-face medical treatment, where doctors directly provide medical care, it becomes challenging to ensure the sustainability of emergency and specialized medical care with limited staffing. To address this issue, we are opting for a paradigm shift in medical care driven by digital technology, often referred to as Digital Transformation（DX）. At our hospital, we introduced a remote emergency medical treatment system for emergency medical care in 2013 and for remote outpatient treatment in 2018 as part of medical DX. The former is a system that transmits medical images taken at a hospital to a smartphone or tablet to support on-call doctors and foster collaboration between hospitals. Under remote outpatient treatment, specialists from remote medical institutions deliver medical care to patients visiting our hospital; this service has been harnessing 5G connectivity in recent years. By embracing medical DX, we not only ensured the quality of medical care but also reduced the mental and physical strain on doctors and patients. This enabled medical institutions in depopulated areas to provide sustainable emergency and specialized medical care. If implemented, these measures may contribute toward rectifying the medical disparities between urban and depopulated areas.