The purpose of a Data Health Plan is to enable efficient and effective health activities based on the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle and the analysis of various data, including medical cost data and information from health examinations. The Japanese government has asked all health insurance societies to implement their own Data Health Plans from the 2015 fiscal year.

Objectives of the Data Health Plan

Approved by the Japanese government in a June 2013 Cabinet decision, the Japan Revitalization Strategy identifies “extending the nation’s healthy life expectancy” as a key policy objective. Healthy life expectancy refers to the time for which a person can live free of health-related restrictions on day to day activities. An important goal of extending healthy life expectancy is to minimize the difference between average life expectancy and healthy life expectancy–i.e., the duration for which an individual is afflicted with health problems that restrict day to day activities. A Data Health Plan is intended to help achieve this goal.

Distinguishing features of Data Health Plans

Under a Data Health Plan, health activities will be managed in accordance with the PDCA (plan-do-check-act) cycle. This includes analyzing data, including data gleaned from rezepts and health examinations; ascertaining Society medical care costs; stratifying health risks; and identifying persons for whom health activities would be highly effective. Based on a data-driven scientific approach rather than undertaken haphazardly, activities based on this approach should prove more effective. This is the goal of the Data Health Plans.

Relationship to specified health diagnoses

Cycle to data-driven health activities by standardizing electronic data on health exams. Additionally, since plans for specified health diagnoses and other activities address specific methods for implementing both specified health diagnoses and specified health guidance, two key health activities, it is desirable for the Data Health Plan to be formulated in a manner linked to these plans, thereby making health activities more effective and efficient.

Planning period and announcing and publicizing the plan

The period covered by the second-term data health plan is the six-year period from fiscal 2018 through fiscal 2023.

In addition, to ensure that members, employers, and other related parties understand the nature and objectives of the health activities and to make them more effective, the Data Health Plan will be announced via the Society website and bulletin. Additionally, other plans and efforts will seek to promote awareness among the affected parties.