Japan Association for Medical Informatics

[AP1-E2-1-03] Explore the Potential of a Regulated Digital Pharmacy Industry in Japan

*Junhao Zhong1, Zhengjia Mao2, Hangpeng Li3, Tetsuya Toma4,6, Yoshimasa Masuda5,7 (1. Department of Pharmacy, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science University, United States of America, 2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States of America, 3. Department of Biotechnology, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America, 4. Department of System Design and Management Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America, 5. School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, United States of America, 6. Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University, Japan, 7. Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University, Japan)

Digital Pharmacy, Online Pharmacy, Prescription, Healthcare System, National Health Insurance


In Japan, getting prescription medications is a time-consuming and labor-intensive manual process, and purchasing prescription medications through the Internet is highly restrained by the law. In the context of Japan, such a sophisticated process leads to a series of problems for the whole healthcare ecosystem beyond inconvenience. The long-existing National Health Insurance (NHI) system insures every citizen's medical cost with an age-dependent policy, and the elders generally enjoy a high coverage rate. Since Japan has a well-known aging society, this sophisticated process has led to a financial problem for the government. Furthermore, the illicit online pharmacy websites that sell counterfeit medications expose safety risks to the patients, and it is difficult for the government to call to account. To take a measure on these problems, this paper explores digital pharmacies as a solution and evaluates the potential outcomes. Based on the literature review and case study of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) applications in the U.S., the authors conclude that a regulated digital pharmacy industry (RDP) could improve patients’ outcomes and alleviate the financial pressure. As a result, the paper proposes to implement digital pharmacies with regulations as an innovative change that aligns with the recently developed digitalization technologies.