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Home
About DAC-SP
Early Detection Blueprint
Case Studies
Grant Recipients
Resource Index
US Fellowship RFI
Contact
Japan
The Japan Flagship site was built on the work of the WHO Kobe City Project which seeks to bolster early detection and the management of dementia. For three years prior to the DAC-SP Early Detection Program, the site has been conducting community outreach (through mailed vouchers for a “free cognitive test”) in primary care. The blood test was conducted by specialists at Kobe University, where the digital cognitive assessment was also offered. Additionally, they collected a patient survey questionnaire for any participants who declined the blood test. The local government covered patient out-of-pocket expenses and provided liability insurance for any diagnosed participants for dementia-related accidents.
Universal healthcare is provided in Japan. The newer tools, digital cognitive assessment (DCA) and blood-based biomarkers (BBM), were not covered by government insurance, and the Early Detection Program was implemented as a research study to enable the use of these tools.
1
Existing reimbursement for the early detection of dementia minimized barriers for program buy-in. In turn, cooperation with partner organizations, including those who provided some funding, was streamlined.
2
Some primary care providers were reluctant to move away from familiar paper-based diagnostic tools that were covered by their healthcare system. The DCA also took a significant amount of time (~30 minutes), creating barriers to adoption in clinics outside of Kobe.
3
Learnings from the existing Kobe Dementia Model provided a strong foundation for the DAC-SP Early Detection Program at Kobe University. However, there were challenges in introducing BBMs to the workflow. In Japan, amyloid biomarker tests (for Alzheimer’s) can only be ordered by specialists – creating a significant barrier for scaling.
4
Dr. Hisatomo Kowa
Professor of Neurology at Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Principal Investigator of DAC flagship project in Kobe
Japan
The Japan Flagship site was built on the work of the WHO Kobe City Project which seeks to bolster early detection and the management of dementia. For three years prior to the DAC-SP Early Detection Program, the site has been conducting community outreach (through mailed vouchers for a “free cognitive test”) in primary care. The blood test was conducted by specialists at Kobe University, where the digital cognitive assessment was also offered. Additionally, they collected a patient survey questionnaire for any participants who declined the blood test. The local government covered patient out-of-pocket expenses and provided liability insurance for any diagnosed participants for dementia-related accidents.
Universal healthcare is provided in Japan. The newer tools, digital cognitive assessment (DCA) and blood-based biomarkers (BBM), were not covered by government insurance, and the Early Detection Program was implemented as a research study to enable the use of these tools.
Dr. Hisatomo Kowa
Professor of Neurology at Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Principal Investigator of DAC flagship project in Kobe
