Tomoko Tachibana
National Institute of Public Health, Japan
Title: Towards Improvement of Information Accessibility in a Care-focused mature Society : A proposed “definition of health†for a mature society
Biography
Biography: Tomoko Tachibana
Abstract
The objective was to identify issues arising in information infrastructure development so that the Japanese public, regardless of the presence or absence of disability, can easily obtain and use information necessary for everyone, in a well-integrated society while mutually respecting personality and individuality, and to generate proposals that work towards improving information accessibility. Evidence-based public health policies were compared between cancer and trauma (injuries, damage, and sequelae). Public health policy for cancer follows the Cancer Control Act. Evidence such as survival rates is useful not only for health care providers and policymakers but also for cancer patients in executing the right to self-determination in promoting health. Meanwhile, evidence about long-term outcomes of trauma in Japan is overwhelmingly lacking, although the incidence of trauma is estimated to be comparable to that of neoplasms in the 2014 national patient survey. In recent years, we have assessed the promotion of the disability health and welfare policy, and engaged in research aimed at a “re-evaluation of disability health and welfare policy from the perspective of trauma prognosis.” To realize this review in the community-based integrated care system, we focus on the database of diagnoses, treatments, treatment effects, etc. of patients visiting medical institutions, and intend to develop a disability registry. Developing this registry utilizing clinical effect information is expected to enhance quality as evidence in health and welfare policies for people with disabilities (=PDs). In care-focused mature societies such as Japan, the following concept needs to be included in the definition of health: Taking into consideration the disease burden, and various other “social, physical and psychological problems,” health pertains to maintaining the patient’s quality of life, enabling his/her control over his/her own life, offering things that he/she can do him/herself, and fostering his/her self-actualization.