This building is very unique! It has an artificial turf rehabilitation field the size of a futsal court adjacent to it. What particular areas, such as facilities, did you focus on when you opened this clinic, if any?

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I decided to open a business in order to create a sports ground. I originally worked at a general hospital, then as a full-time doctor for the Urawa Reds for eight years, before returning to a general hospital for two more years.
During the eight years I was a team physician, I worked in an environment where there were sports areas used for rehabilitation and prevention with rehabilitation staff on site. While practicing at the hospital after retiring as a team physician, I felt that a major problem is that members of the public who experience injury are not being rehabilitated at the ground level and there are no staff available to actually supervise the rehabilitation process. Rehabilitation is always necessary in order for people to return to work and prevent future accidents, and having a sports ground is better, because without rehabilitation staff to check the patients’ movements, proper response and prevention cannot be achieved. Top athletes have a full rehabilitation environment, but the general public does not, so I decided to open my own business in order to create an environment where I can provide rehabilitation not only indoors but also on the ground level to the general public, from children to the middle-aged and beyond.

It really shows your passion for rehabilitation. How did you find the property?

We knew we needed some space, and in our search, we found a large warehouse that was originally sued for logistics. The decision was made to open the clinic at its current location (in Chuo-ku, Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture), as it would cost less than building from a vacant lot and would allow rehabilitation services without the need to worry about rainy days.
In order to provide better medical care to patients, the clinic has also installed a 1.5 Tesla superconducting MRI and multi-slice CT, including fluoroscopic x-rays to provide the same level of diagnostic capabilities as a general hospital. Many clinics are responding to rehabilitation needs by offering a fee-based sports club as a training environment and such, but then that means patients are in a separate environment from the rehabilitation room, both in terms of fees and staff. Our sports ground is part of the rehabilitation room at our clinic, allowing patients to seamlessly move between both areas to receive rehabilitative care and preventative treatment.
While not quite the same as top athletes, the clinic’s environment allows the general public to work on rehabilitation, return to work and avoid injuring themselves again under the guidance of our staff in our rehabilitation room and on the sports ground.

We actually toured the grounds and rehabilitation room earlier and were overwhelmed by the quality of the facilities!
You introduced electronic medical records when you opened your clinic. What were some of the important points you considered when introducing the system?

Ease of use. We considered it important to be able to input SOAP data easily, refer to a patient’s past medical history easily using drag & drop, to be able to draw pictures, and so on.

So, the emphasis was placed on ease of use. At the time, you told us that you chose our BrainBox from several other electronic medical records, including our own. What was the final deciding factor in your decision to install our product?

We were torn between Yuyama’s BrainBox and products by two other companies. After visiting all three and receiving demonstrations, I decided to install Yuyama’s BrainBox because it was easy to use and covered many of the points I considered important.

So, you introduced the system because it fulfilled the majority of your requirements. How do you feel about the usability of the new system?

I think it is easy to use. Things like customization and combining sets of prescribed medicines makes it very easy to use and operate. I also like the freedom allowed in combining sets. We feel that BrainBoxVIII is a great productm because it reduces the stress of inputting information and makes it easy to customize sets of medication.

As it is an electronic medical record that focuses on ease of use, we are very happy to hear this. Are there any features that you find particularly useful?

Being able to transcribe multiple disease names at once is extremely convenient. It also helps that, when I type in a standardized sentence, it can be immediately reflected in the medical record using the study call function which saves me time in typing it all out by hand. We are currently having a junior doctor do outpatient consultations as well, and I like that the color of the text can be changed depending on the doctor so that the person who entered the information can be recognized at a glance. The background color can be selected in some areas too, so important parts to look out for can be noticed quickly. I think these are great options, but the selection is small. I believe there are still a few areas that are still in development, such as the ability to create and remember new colors.

We are glad to be of service. You said there were other aspects besides the machine’s performance that led to your decision. May we ask what in particular?

The staff who explained and supported us from the moment we started the trial were incredibly helpful. They explained everything well, and I knew I could trust them and entrust my clinic to Yuyama, too. In fact, our main contact and the maintenance staff have been very attentive from installation right up to today, so I am still glad that I chose Yuyama

That’s so nice of you to say! You are well known for joint operations, and we heard that you have also incorporated your own formula for calculating joint muscle strength into our BrainBoxVIII functionality and customized it to provide reports too. How is its usability?

You mean the form for muscle strength measurement? I created it to help patients understand the condition of their joints more clearly. We were able to get customized muscle strength measurement values to save on an Excel sheet so that they could be viewed on the BrainBoxVIII screen as well. I find it to be more convenient and the fact that I can have it customized is great.

You and your junior doctor see patients together. Is there anything that you consider important during examinations?

I ask this of my junior doctor too, but the medical interview is important. I interview the patient and carefully ask why the trauma/disability occurred. Without knowing the cause, we cannot prevent it from happening again, and we cannot provide appropriate medical treatment and rehabilitation, so we place the greatest importance on the medical interview.
I believe that if we can’t get a picture of 90% or more of the diagnosis, treatment, return to work, and injury prevention from the interview, no matter how many physical findings we get or how many imaging tests we do, we can’t properly diagnose and respond to the patient. I have spent a lot of time in medical interviews since my days working at general hospitals. However, since we have a lot of patients and a limited amount of time, our clinic is one room divided into four that are all the same size. I have a list of items that I ask during the interview, and based on this list, I have a staff member with expertise in the field ask for detailed background information on things such as when the injury occurred, where it occurred, and what happened the following day during a preliminary interview that I refer to as I examine the patient. I have a mirror display for examinations, and I ask my assistants to input data so that I can concentrate on examining the patient.

This story makes me keenly aware of the importance of the medical interview. Is there anything you would like to see in BrainBoxVIII in the future?

The new version has improved the functionality a great deal and is very helpful. We would like to see more variations when it comes to background and text colors that can be changed to our preference.

Thank you for your time today.