| Takeshi Hashiguchi | Marketing Dept., Medical Systems Div., |
| Hiroshi Takeuchi, Ph.D. | Marketing Dept., Medical Systems Div., |
| Akira Uemura | Nuclear Fusion & Accelerator Project Dept., Nuclear Power Systems Div., Power & Industry Systems, |
The decreasing birthrate and increasing number of seniors in advanced countries is becoming an unavoidable situation, and the role played by medicine is becoming increasingly extensive as a means of sustaining an energetic society. People's needs in terms of health maintenance and medical therapy are becoming even more diverse and more advanced than ever before, and there is a demand for further increased quality of medical therapy. Meanwhile, as a result of various types of research related to genes and their functions, medicine has entered a major transition phase, shifting from a science based on traditional standard values to personalized medicine that is tailored to the characteristics of the individual's constitution or medical condition. In this backdrop, Hitachi, Ltd. has coined the term THEME (tailor-made health maintenance for each) to exemplify the directions that medicine will take in the 21st century. Within the continuous flow of risk assessment — screening for diseases — therapy, Hitachi is focusing on three major themes for medicine in the 21st century: (1) individual risk assessment based on the individual's constitution, including measurements of the individual's susceptibility to disease; (2) more accurate advanced disease screening, including function diagnosis (e.g., positron emission tomography (PET), which examines the function of cells, as opposed to CT or MRI, which examines the shape and location of organs); and (3) more appropriate "low invasive therapy," based on the results of diagnoses, which places little burden on the client.
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The Hitachi Hyoron (Japanese Only) |
healthcare, gene, molecular, therapy, screening
