Policy Research Institute page Focusing on the Utilization of Data Acquired in Everyday Life Living Lab Initiatives

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However, as the paradigm shift from "physician-led medicine" to "patient-centered medicine "*1 progresses, there is a growing need for a more detailed understanding and comprehension of the patient's condition. 1 The need for a more detailed understanding of the patient's condition is increasing. In this context, there is a growing need to collect and analyze data that is relevant to patients' real lives, and to obtain PHRs (Personal Health Records) from healthy people (citizens) who are not suffering from diseases. The following is an overview of the Living Lab, an innovation activity involving users (citizens), which was covered in Policy Research Institute News No. 61*2.

About Living Lab

Although there is no fixed definition of "living lab" and many ideas have been proposed, it generally refers to a "co-creation mechanism for open innovation in everyday life. While a physical location may exist, it may also refer to a digitally connected network or space.

Living Labs began in the U.S. in the early 1990s and have been rapidly expanding since 2000, especially in the Nordic countries (e.g., Finland), where more than 400 Living Labs are said to currently exist worldwide. In Europe, a network of living labs called the European Net Work of Living Labs (ENoLL)*3 has been established, and as of September 2020, there are more than 150 living labs registered with ENoLL worldwide. Figure 1 shows the countries with ENoLL-registered Living Labs (as of 2015).

Figure 1 Worldwide distribution of historically accredited Living Labs (2015)
Source: ENoLL

It can be seen that there are various countries other than Europe that have living labs registered with ENoLL, such as the United States, China, and India. In Japan, such places have already been created in various regions.

Living Labs are not only for users (citizens), but also for companies seeking to develop services, local governments and NPOs seeking to solve regional issues, universities and other research institutions conducting regional research, and a variety of other stakeholders. shows the percentages of universities (37%), research institutions (33%), government (7%), and corporations (23%) among the Living Labs affiliated with ENoLL.

Figure 2 Stakeholder breakdown (ENoLL member companies)
Source: Prepared by the author based on content published in ENoLL

The areas of activity of living labs were also reported in 2015 in a survey of living labs that are members of ENoLL ( Figure 3 ).

Figure 3: Breakdown of activity areas (ENoLL member companies)
Source: Prepared by the author based on information published in ENoLL

Health & Wellness, mainly activities to improve the health care and lives of the elderly, accounted for the largest share of activities (52%), followed by Social Innovation (41%), Social Inclusion (39%), Smart Cities (33%) and Energy (20%). Currently, Living Labs tend to be aimed at solving local issues through the participation of users (citizens) rather than at helping companies develop new products and services.

There are several types of Living Lab activities,

  1. (1)
    Technology showrooms: showcasing technology
  2. (2)
    TestBed: A type of demonstration experiment in which participants can actually experience the exhibits, rather than just see them as in (1) above.
  3. (3)
    Practice in daily life (e.g., at home): A type of healthcare technology that is introduced in relation to a real issue and incorporated into daily life to test the concept.
  4. (4)
    (2) Platform rooted in daily life (sustainable): Same as (3) in that it is a long-term living lab in the place where people live, but a sustainable mechanism involving various stakeholders.
  5. (5)
    Complementary multicultural platform: Living Labs are highly influenced by socio-cultural backgrounds, but are complementary to each other in a more scalable form

These are the following five types*4.

The pharmaceutical industry is expected to use types (2) and (3) to experiment with mobile devices and ICT technology to acquire and utilize a variety of data from patients and consumers. For example, although the Living Lab name is not used, since 2016 Pfizer and IBM have been working to understand the movements of Parkinson's disease patients in their homes and to verify the effectiveness of therapeutic drugs. Inside the installed homes, from refrigerator handles and kitchen cupboards to chairs and beds, sensors that respond to subtle changes in the patient's movements, a key indicator of Parkinson's disease, are installed to collect patient data in real time and monitor disease symptoms 24 hours a day. In this initiative, data collected in real time in line with daily life is analyzed to verify whether it is possible to evaluate the progression of Parkinson's disease and the efficacy of pharmaceuticals*5 This activity is similar to the type of activity described in (2).

Living Lab Activities at home and abroad

A domestic activity in the healthcare field is the "AIST Living Lab" conducted by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Here, the laboratory is conducting demonstration experiments to support the lives of people with altered life functions by using artificial intelligence technologies, including (1) observation technologies to clarify problems, (2) technologies to support monitoring, and (3) technologies to support the design of living systems. We are building an internationally unparalleled living laboratory environment that seamlessly links basic research for technological development and verification in a virtual experiment/virtual environment that assumes an actual site, to demonstration research that supports verification and effectiveness evaluation (impact evaluation) in a real environment in collaboration with satellite living laboratory environments, nursing care facilities, hospitals and other sites, and actual communities. AIST is building an internationally unparalleled living laboratory environment that seamlessly links verification and impact evaluation in a real-world environment.

Similarly, AIST's "Kashiwa Living Lab" has a simulated living environment including kitchen, bath, toilet, etc., and an artificial climate control room where temperature and humidity can be adjusted. We are working on the safety, effectiveness, and performance evaluation of robots by providing development support to many manufacturers in projects to develop and introduce robotic nursing care devices. In order to gather diverse opinions, in addition to nursing care robot researchers, we also hold workshops with the participation of nursing care professionals and residents in the Kashiwa area*6.

Overseas, activities are active in Europe, and this issue focuses on activities in Denmark, which is working together with the national government.

In Copenhagen, Denmark, the city of Copenhagen in Scandinavia, with the background of academia such as the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the University of Copenhagen, and life science and healthcare-related clusters such as Medicon Valley*7 and the Copenhagen Healthtech cluster*8, there are a number of living lab types (2), including Living Labs (2) and Living Labs (3) that specialize in health tech innovations.

The Living Healthtech Lab*9 is a collaboration of these living lab facilities in Copenhagen, and is a test hub that combines personal registry (electronic health data) with remote and home healthcare, e-health, etc., with the participation of citizens with high IT literacy, The city of Odense, also in Denmark, is trying to create innovations.

The city of Odense, Denmark, is also promoting the practice of "CoLab," a living laboratory involving universities, companies, and local residents. The city is planning to build a large new hospital, which is expected to employ many new technologies related to healthcare and welfare, and the CoLab is a place to explore the technologies and services required in this new healthcare setting. Here, demonstrations of medical devices, IoT devices, etc. are being conducted*10.

In addition, three Nordic cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki (Finland), and Reykjavik (Iceland), are participating in the Nordic Business and Living Lab Alliance, which aims to consolidate a strong network of living labs in the Nordic region that specialize in health and wellbeing for the elderly and the elderly.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Living Labs

Living Lab activities are taking place in various regions, including Japan, and the benefits of working in a Living Lab are described for each stakeholder.

  1. 1) Number of reports and countries from which data was obtained
    Users (citizens)

    One of the major advantages of the Living Lab is that it allows people to express their own opinions on issues through the activities of the Living Lab. In addition, the Living Lab activities can lead to an improvement in the quality of life of the people involved, as well as to a return of value to them.

  2. 2)
    Businesses

    Compared to conventional interviews and marketing research, the Living Lab is expected to have a deeper relationship with users (citizens), and can efficiently and effectively identify potential needs that companies have not been able to identify. It will be possible to utilize data on healthy people (vitals, daily life, etc.), which has been difficult for the pharmaceutical industry to obtain in the past, and it is expected that this will lead to not only the development of pharmaceuticals but also to efforts to improve the health care of citizens. Furthermore, since the relationship between corporate activities and users (citizens) will become deeper, it can be expected to build a long-term relationship.

  3. 3)
    Government

    Social issues addressed in the Living Lab are often issues that need to be resolved by the government, and the exchange of opinions among users (citizens) can clarify local issues that the government may not have been aware of. In addition, the involvement of the government makes it possible to increase awareness of government policies among many users (citizens). By incorporating the opinions of users (citizens) into the formulation of mid- to long-term regional plans, it becomes easier to gain the understanding of citizens and to improve the long-term strength of the region, which is not influenced only by the immediate needs of the parties concerned.

    On the other hand, there are some disadvantages in utilizing Living Labs. As mentioned above, a Living Lab will involve a wide range of stakeholders. The large number of stakeholders can make it difficult to reach a coherent conclusion. In addition, the information handled by companies often contains confidential information, and in a living laboratory where citizens participate, it may be difficult to control information, such as information leaks.

Summary

When the pharmaceutical industry develops ethical drugs, information on treatment needs and therapeutic effects is obtained through treatments, clinical trials, and clinical research conducted by medical institutions, and direct contact with individual patients is rare, and the need for such contact has been small until now. Therefore, it has been possible to create ethical drugs without participating in initiatives such as Living Labs. However, considering that the pharmaceutical industry will be involved not only in therapeutic approaches but also in overall healthcare for citizens, including preventive and preemptive medicine and nursing care, it will become necessary to effectively utilize not only patient data at medical institutions but also data from citizens, including healthy people. In the field of clinical trials, the use of ePRO (Electronic Patient Reporting Outcome System) and other methods to obtain data from patients close to their daily lives is already gaining momentum. We believe it is also important to consider the "use of data that is relevant to daily life" by using a system like the Living Lab, where users (citizens) are highly involved in research.

( Yasuhiko Nakatsuka, Senior Researcher, Pharmaceutical and Industrial Policy Research Institute)

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