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Hitachi Systems and A&D to Cooperate in the Healthcare Field

Plan to Test “Cloud-based Lifestyle Improvement Support Service” with Thousands of Hitachi Group Employees

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August 6, 2013
Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
A&D Company, Limited

Tokyo, August 6, 2013 - Hitachi Systems, Ltd. (hereafter ‘Hitachi Systems’), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), and A&D Company, Limited (hereafter ‘A&D’) today announced that the two companies have begun working together in the field of healthcare. Hitachi Systems and A&D will utilize life logs to automatically record, aggregate and numerically convert data on people's daily movements, sleeping patterns and other lifestyle aspects in order to develop and provide new healthcare services geared toward preventing lifestyle diseases and promoting better health. As the first initiative of this new cooperative relationship, the two companies in the fall of 2013 plan to test the “cloud-based lifestyle improvement support service” with several thousand employees of the Hitachi Group, as a metabolic syndrome support program. The service will automatically convert daily activities into numbers for users so they can visualize their daily lives as a way of supporting improved lifestyles.

Through the cooperation announced today, Hitachi Systems will promote the development and sale of healthcare services using life logs as an initiative in the Hitachi Group's Social Innovation Business and as a kind of Big Data utilization business. For its part, A&D will use its eight overseas sales bases to globally develop life log-based systems, and at the same time aims to expand sales of the medical equipment, health equipment and other products it handles.
By developing and supplying unique services that help prevent illness and improve health, the two companies aim to contribute to a truly prosperous society.

Background

The maintenance and management of people's health has become a hot social topic, amid major changes in the medical and healthcare fields, such as population aging, increased incidences of lifestyle diseases and rising national healthcare expenditures. In order for people to lead better lives amid this change, there need to be initiatives that seek to prevent illness and promote better health.
Above anything else, a change in individual mindset is said to be one of the most effective means of preventing lifestyle diseases and promoting better health. For this, life logs are attracting attention as a means for recording, collecting and utilizing scientifically based lifestyle data of people and rendering it in a visual form to raise individual awareness, support the early detection of problems, and improve and maintain daily lifestyles. However, while the visualization of daily activity data should help users gain a new awareness, leading to improved lifestyles, the management of such private information creates security concerns and some psychological resistance that cannot easily be dispelled.

Details of Cooperation

Against this backdrop, Hitachi Systems and A&D have decided to cooperate in the healthcare field using life logs to visually render people's lifestyles. The two companies decided to work together based on A&D's strengths in the development, manufacture and sale of health and medical equipment, and Hitachi Systems' ownership of highly secure data centers and its strengths in the development and operation of IT services. A&D will be responsible for designing and manufacturing dedicated terminals, electronic body scales and other equipment for recording life logs, while Hitachi Systems will develop and operate systems using cloud technologies.
Leveraging their respective strengths in this way, the two companies aim to provide life log services that users can use with peace of mind.
As the first initiative under this cooperative relationship, Hitachi Systems and A&D plan to trial the “cloud-based lifestyle improvement support service” using life logs with several thousand employees of the Hitachi Group, as a program to prevent metabolic syndrome.

Based on the results of this trial, the two companies plan to refine the “cloud-based lifestyle improvement support service”. At the same time, they will facilitate the linking of A&D's dedicated life log terminals with electronic body scales, blood pressure monitors and other equipment. In this way, Hitachi Systems and A&D plan to develop life log-based services in Japan and overseas in a wide range of fields, including health management for people working irregular hours, sports and fitness, fatigue and stress medical examinations and individual health management. These services will also help prevent and improve lifestyle diseases by changing individual mindsets.

“Cloud-based Lifestyle Improvement Support Service” Framework

Users can automatically and objectively record data on their daily movements and convert this into numbers simply by always wearing an A&D-made wristband-type life recorder* that functions as a dedicated life log terminal. Hitachi Systems will securely collect and analyze at data centers the data that are converted into numbers by life recorders. In addition to the amount of daily exercise, calories burned, and sleeping time, users will be provided through a portal site with information related to their daily rhythm that could not be visualized with conventional pedometers and activity monitors. Effective visualization of personal lifestyle and health data should raise health awareness and help prevent metabolic syndrome and other lifestyle diseases.

*
The wristband-type life recorder uses “Life Microscope” technologies developed by Hitachi, Ltd.

System Overview

Usage Situations of “Cloud-based Lifestyle Improvement Support Service”

Life Microscope

Life Microscope is a system that uses compact and lightweight wristband-type life recorders with embedded accelerometers to continuously collect and analyze data on an individual's activity for the visualization of daily activities, sleep, lifestyle rhythm and other facets of a person's life. Hitachi's Central Research Laboratory has been researching and developing this system since 2004 and it has been used on a trial basis as a lifestyle rhythm visualization tool within the Hitachi Group since 2008 by employees who have returned to work after a long absence due to an accident or sickness.

Visualization Technology: Life Tapestry

Data measured by accelerometers can be visualized as a “tapestry” of a person's daily life.

About A&D Company, Limited

A&D Company, Limited is engaged in the development, manufacture and sale of measuring equipment for many fields, including medical and healthcare equipment, scales and weighing indicators. In the medical and healthcare equipment field, A&D handles a wide range of products, extending from advanced medical care products to products for home medical care and examination. In recent years, A&D has extended its lineup of health measuring devices such as blood pressure monitors and electronic body scales incorporating Bluetooth and other standard wireless technologies, while providing those various products to medical and healthcare service providers, systems providers and the general public. The connection of health measurement equipment with a wristband-type device announced today is a new undertaking for A&D.
For details, http://www.aandd.co.jp (open in new window)

About Hitachi Systems, Ltd.

Hitachi Systems, Ltd. is an IT services company with strengths in high-quality operations and maintenance services. Hitachi Systems works closely with customers through a network of roughly 300 service sites and contact centers across Japan, through which it offers a wide range of business system design and integration services, and outsourcing services that take advantage of its robust data center infrastructure. A leader since the dawn of the IT era in Japan, Hitachi Systems leverages a track record and expertise in IT services to offer one-stop services covering the entire IT life cycle-from system consulting to integration, installation, operation and maintenance. Hitachi Systems also pushes beyond the boundaries of IT to create new value for customers, with the aim of becoming a global service company to which customers can entrust any operation.
For customer inquiries, please visit at https://www.hitachi-systems.com/eng/

Contacts in Japan

Osamu Sugiyama
Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Tel: +81-3-5435-5002
E-mail: press.we@ml.hitachi-systems.com

Shinobu Ozaki
A&D Company, Limited
Tel: +81-3-5391-6120
E-mail: and-medicalpress@aandd.co.jp

*
Life Microscope and Life Tapestry are registered trademarks of Hitachi, Ltd.
*
Other company names and product names are the registered trademarks and/or trademarks of the respective companies.
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