1. RIPO For Companies & Research Institutes YNU Research Center Novel Medical Systems Based on Interdisciplinary Research between Social and Natural Sciences

Novel Medical Systems Based on Interdisciplinary Research between Social and Natural Sciences

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Purpose of Research

This center promotes research and education of regulatory science and technology for advanced medicine by promoting research and development of advanced technologies such as information and communication technology (ICT), robotics, electronics and photonics, AI and data science etc., and promoting research and education of regulatory science, which bridges between science and technology innovation and global business / dependable social services. Regulatory science is a multi-disciplinary field between social and national sciences, and a core principle for reliable social services and sustainable business based on technical innovation. To promote them this center leads internal collaboration at this university among all faculties and institutes between the social sciences (economics, management, law and education) and natural sciences (science and engineering, environmental information, urban innovation), and introduce research results outside this university by regional collaboration (prefecture, city, city universities etc.) and industry-academia-government collaboration and international collaboration. These collaboration is aiming to solve problems in medical social services such as medical malpractice and delays in drug approval (drug lag and device lag) by principle of regulatory science. This means that trade-off between the effectiveness (benefit) of a medical device based on advanced science and technology, and its dangers (risks) on human body and other medical devices can be numerically analyzed by scientific measurement, and then the analyzed measurement can be quantified and evaluated through regulatory sciences in order to formulate rule or regulation of safety standards and guidelines based on the agreement of all parties or stakeholders involved. Such a clear indication of the cost and uncertainty in practical application can result in fair promotion of sustainable, dependable social services and global businesses for legal certification.

Research content / methods

Based on activities of the Center for Future Medical Social Infrastructure Based on Information Communications Technology (ICT), simply called Medical ICT (MICT) Center, established on September 29, 2005 in Yokohama National University, this center has been successively improving the external evaluation of the university as a whole by the fusion of the social sciences and natural sciences, this center has been leading multidisciplinary research towards “Promotion of dependable medical social services / global businesses based on regulatory sciences” through arts-science collaboration, medical and engineering collaboration, regional collaboration, industry-academia-government collaboration and international collaboration using regulatory sciences.

In order to continue and to acquire new collaborations through external funding like the Kanagawa Prefectural Contracted Project “Kanagawa Medical Equipment Regulatory Science Center” that has been carried out FY2014-2018, in addition to strengthening our collaborative structure within the university, it is necessary for the research center as a successive center of MICT Center to play a central role in actively utilizing external collaboration and providing stable operation.

In preparation to implement the “Regulatory Science Evaluation and Analysis Center for Medical Devices and Chemical Materials using Advanced Science and Technology” at this university, which was published in the Cabinet Office Large-scale / Large Master Plan 2014 and 2017 following the negotiations between Kanagawa Prefecture and the government (Cabinet Office, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) in FY2015, this research center will carry out scientific quantitative analysis and evaluation of the risks and benefits of Medical ICT Device Law / Radiowave Act approval, as a representative example for when regulatory science is implemented in a medical / engineering fused module.

As a specific representative example, following the completion of the international standardization IEEE802.15.6 on Body Area Network (BAN) which is central to ICT-based medical / engineering fusion innovation, demonstrative experiments are performed in several locations such as office environment and hospitals, etc. Vital data and environmental information sensed in and around the human body, will be collected and analyzed to improve medical services and systems. This will be done through collaboration with the Yokohama City University, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, as well as the University of Oulu in Finland and related businesses, etc. It will follow coordination of “Kanagawa Medical Equipment Regulatory Science Consortium,” to be implemented along with associating external member companies and institutions which have been collaborating with the Kanagawa Medical Equipment Regulatory Science Center by external budget with research contract and jointly proposed projects etc.

Last update:2020/03/18