Points of View Utilization of Data Obtained in Daily Life Initiatives in Smart Cities

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The Office of Pharmaceutical Industry Research Yasuhiko Nakatsuka, Senior Researcher

1. Introduction

OPIR Views and Actions In No.61, we introduced the Living Lab as an initiative for open ^innovation1). The largest percentage of living lab initiative areas registered with ENoLL, a network organization of living labs discussed in that report, was Health & Wellness (52%), activities to manage the health and improve the lives of the elderly, but 33% of the It was found that they are also being used as part of smart city initiatives. Smart city projects have actually been launched in various regions of the world as demonstration efforts: teleworking and videoconferencing through the advancement of ICT and IoT technologies have reduced opportunities to go out and travel, AI-based business support has changed the office environment and location, and the shift to automated driving has led to The expansion of choice of place of residence due to freedom from mobility constraints is further accelerated by the impact of coronavirus infection. In this context, smart city initiatives may not only bring about significant changes in the structure of cities, their ways of being, and people's sense of values, but also provide hints for solving urban issues.

In this report, we review the domestic trends of smart city initiatives to solve urban issues, as well as the initiatives in the medical and healthcare sectors. We also consider the role that the pharmaceutical industry can play.

2. What is a smart city?

According to the "Toward the Realization of Smart Cities [Interim Summary]" published by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism in 2018, a smart city is defined as "a sustainable city or district where management (planning, development, management, operation, etc.) is conducted to address various urban issues while utilizing new technologies such as ICT to achieve overall optimization. ²⁾ The term "smart city" was coined before and after 2010. The term "smart city" began to permeate society around 2010, and initially, many initiatives were undertaken using "individual field-specific" methods that focused on specific areas such as energy. Eventually, in response to the recent trend toward the use of ICT and data, an increasing number of ICT and data-utilizing smart cities have emerged, which claim to be "cross-sectoral" in that they are not only focused on energy, but also on the environment, transportation, communications, education, medicine and health, and a wide range of other fields.

It is easy to imagine a smart city by focusing on the question, "How can we make our lives better while taking the environment into consideration? It is easy to imagine a smart city by focusing on the question, "How can our lives be made better while taking the environment into consideration? For example, if houses think for themselves, control the amount of electricity they use, and generate their own electricity, they can conserve power efficiently and provide surplus power to their neighbors. In addition, health-related data such as vital signs and step counts could be acquired, analyzed, and utilized to improve personal health care. The supply chain of pharmaceuticals can also be made more efficient through the use of self-driving cars for transportation and system inventory management of vaccines and other products. And since this trend will create many business opportunities, the economy will also develop. In this way, it is clear that the goal is not only to solve energy problems or to be connected via the Internet, but also to improve the quality of life in an environmentally friendly manner. In addition, although smart cities are being addressed around the world, the situation differs between emerging and developed countries in the way they are approached. In emerging countries such as China, where economic growth is rapid, the main focus is on "next-generation city projects" that respond to rapid urban expansion and form new cities, while in developed countries such as Japan, Europe, and the United States, where basic infrastructure is in place but is aging, the main focus is on management and renewal of buildings and facilities, and "redevelopment urban projects" are underway. This is not the only challenge in developed countries. In addition to aging basic infrastructure, there is a global energy shortage problem, a super-aging society, economic revitalization, and a host of other issues, and smart cities are attracting attention because they are expected to collectively solve these problems.

3. Smart City Architecture

In order to solve regional issues while improving productivity and maintaining and enhancing regional vitality, the digitally enabled transformation of regions into smart cities is one of the most promising means, specifically, to realize sustainable, resident-centered regional management by reducing costs and improving productivity and added value through digitization. Specifically, it is to realize sustainable, resident-centered regional management by reducing costs and increasing productivity and added value through digitalization. In order to realize these goals nationwide, a smart city architecture (blueprint) is considered necessary to easily and efficiently promote the shift to smart ^cities3).

The "Smart City Reference Architecture White ^Paper3) " issued on March 31, 2020, by the Strategic Innovation Creation Program, concretizes the components of each layer in light of the use cases and ideal state of a smart city, and also provides a blueprint for the promotion of smart city services by relevant stakeholders, including the entities that promote smart cities. It also defines an architecture (Smart City Reference Architecture) that can be used as a reference for smart city promoters and other related stakeholders when constructing smart city services (Figure 1). (Figure 1)

This architecture incorporates the concept of a systems approach with reference to "Society 5.0" and the platforms that will realize "Society 5.0," and is not confined to a single industrial field, but is designed to quickly, cheaply, and safely realize coordination and collaboration among systems, including existing systems, in order to create new value. It is based on the "Society 5.0 Reference ^{Architecture4)} ", a reference model that serves as a guideline for creating new value.

The Smart City Reference Architecture is constructed based on the following four basic concepts that are important in promoting smart cities.

Users will enjoy the benefits of a smart city by using various smart city-related services, and urban management and urban OS are the two wheels that support these services.

Even if only an urban OS, an IT system, is introduced, it will be difficult to realize a smart city with a sense of unity and direction unless a function to manage the entire smart city in the region (urban management) is in place. Conversely, if an urban OS is not introduced at the right time, services and data will be scattered, and efficient smart city development will not be realized either within the region or in Japan as a whole. The data management platform "FIWARE" is attracting attention as an urban ^OS5). FIWARE is an infrastructure software developed and implemented under the EU's Next Generation Internet Public-Private Partnership ^Program6). FIWARE is a general-purpose software that is divided by function and can be used in any combination of modules, allowing it to flexibly respond to changes and be customized according to business conditions. Until now, it has been common for companies to provide an Application Programming Interface (API) to disclose their data to the outside world, but "FIWARE" not only provides an API, but also organizes the specifications and manages the interfaces and data IDs that are passed on to other services. FIWARE not only provides APIs, but also organizes specifications and enables distributed data management by using interfaces to other services and a mechanism to manage data IDs, thereby facilitating the development of applications that cross systems. In Japan, NEC has built a common platform for smart cities based on FIWARE and is using it as the urban OS for Takamatsu City in Kagawa Prefecture. FIWARE has been adopted in more than 140 cities in 26 countries around the world, and its use rate in smart cities is high.

4. Initiatives in Japan

In the "Integrated Innovation Strategy 20197 ⁾ " (Cabinet Decision on June 21, 2019), which the Cabinet Office identifies issues to be strengthened and new issues to be addressed in the future and formulates to achieve its goals, smart cities are positioned as a leading realization of "Society 5.0". In addition, the so-called "Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 20208 ⁾," the so-called "Kotta-no-Koshi 2020," approved by the Cabinet on July 17, 2020, also mentions the strong promotion of the social implementation of smart cities. The Cabinet Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and other ministries are taking the lead in the project, establishing basic policies and a framework for collaboration among the various ministries in promoting smart cities. The Cabinet Office's "Future Technology Social Implementation ^Project9)," the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Data-utilizing Smart City Promotion ^Project10)," METI's "Regional New Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Creation Promotion ^Project11)," and MLIT's "Smart City Model ^Project12)," as well as "New Mobility Service Promotion Project13 ⁾," "Smart City Model Project14) ," and "New Mobility Service Promotion Project15 ⁾ " by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism. ⁽¹² )" and "New Mobility Service Promotion ^{Project13)" by} the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Furthermore, the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism established the "Smart City Public-Private Partnership Platform," whose members include businesses, universities and research institutes, local governments, and related ministries and ^agencies12), in order to accelerate smart city initiatives through public-private partnership. The Platform will support members' smart city initiatives by providing business support, holding subcommittee meetings, providing matching support, and conducting dissemination promotion activities. Companies from all industries, including construction, electricity, gas, water, telecommunications, finance, and service, are participating from the private sector.

It can be seen that there are 180 projects in this platform, and the breakdown by issue category is shown in Figure 3. (as of November 2020).

Although there is some overlap in the classification of issues within projects, the most common issue is "transportation mobility" with 158 projects (approx. 88%), followed by "tourism and regional revitalization" with 143 projects (approx. 79%), "health and medical care" with 48 projects (approx. 27%), "infrastructure and maintenance" with 37 projects (approx. 21%), "disaster prevention" with 35 projects (approx. 19%), "logistics Infrastructure and Maintenance" (37%), "Disaster Prevention" (35%), and "Logistics" (17%). Health and medical care" and "Logistics" were considered as possible areas of involvement for the pharmaceutical industry. The main initiatives in the "health/medical" field include the following.

Sapporo Data Utilization Platform Construction Project" by Sapporo City, Hokkaido

Collect and analyze anonymized data such as step count data, biometric (height and weight) data, and personal awareness (collected through questionnaires) to confirm the relationship between health and exercise, clarify trends, and provide information on health promotion, etc. tailored to individual users.

Smart Wellness City Council," Sapporo City, Hokkaido

The "Health Data Cloud" centrally manages big health data from the National Health Insurance and Association Health Insurance, and promotes behavioral change toward walking and using public transportation with "health points" as an incentive.

Kumagaya Smart City Promotion Council, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture

Under the title of "Sports Healthy Community Development Based on Health Big Data," the company is collaborating with the Wild Knights, a member of the Japan Rugby Top League, to establish a new health program to promote health and extend healthy life expectancy by utilizing health management data accumulated through player condition management to help citizens overcome the summer heat and heat stroke. The plan is to establish a new health program to improve health and extend healthy life expectancy so that citizens can overcome the summer heat and heat stroke. In the future, by promoting the linkage with specific health checkup data, the project aims to reduce the burden of medical costs for the entire community.

Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture "MaaS-based patient support program to improve treatment continuation rates for chronic eye diseases" (Novartis Pharma)

Aiming to provide a community-specific mobility service that will reduce the burden of hospital visits on patients, improve the rate of treatment continuity, and lead to autonomous participation in community life, the company will provide information distribution and car allocation reservations and transportation for patients with chronic eye diseases who are expected to have difficulty getting around. Novartis Pharma, a pharmaceutical company, has joined the project and is responsible for distributing chronic eye disease awareness information.

Kashiwanoha Smart City Consortium," Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture

It is planned to integrate data from health centers (medical institution data, medical and nursing care receipts, etc.) with vital data and life logs obtained in the private sector to enable easy management by individuals.

Kaga City, Ishikawa "Kaga Smart City Promotion Public-Private Partnership Council

It is planned to digitize information on infant health checkups and school health checkups (from the fetal stage to the third grade of junior high school), and build an application that allows individuals to use their own health information, which will be used to provide health advice for each individual, present health checkup information at medical institutions, and utilize the information as big data for health policies.

Iizuka City, Fukuoka "Smart Wellness City Service Deployment Project

Aiming to realize the future vision of the city of health and happiness, "a city where all people can live healthy, active lives with a smile," the company aims to develop and implement (1) "health and happiness point services" and health and happiness-type "MaaS," (2) "community development decision-making support services" using big data, and (3) "health and happiness creation stations" using public real estate (PRE). The goal is to develop and implement a "health and happiness creation station" development model that utilizes public real estate (PRE). As stated in the future vision, the project focuses on health and incorporates a system in which health and happiness points are awarded and the value returned to users based on the improvement of body composition data, achievement of personalized goals, and the rate of continuity.

Arao Wellbeing Smart City", Arao City, Kumamoto Prefecture

Using IoT and other sensor groups, this system aims to make citizens and visitors aware of the importance of health, and to promote interaction and health. Taking a step forward from the conventional "measure" to "understand" approach of sensors, the project aims to build a system in which data reaches not only the person being measured but also others, such as family members, through a "send" mechanism.

In addition, the following are some of the initiatives in the "logistics" field.

Chichibu City, Saitama: "Project for integrating daily life transportation and logistics through smart mobility in mountainous areas

Using drones to deliver daily commodities and medicines to assist the elderly and vulnerable shoppers.

Misato Town, Shimane Prefecture "Misato Town version of medical and welfare industry innovation through telemedicine implementation using future technologies such as video announcements and drones".

Plans include a remote medical diagnosis business using Internet Protocol (IP) video notification terminals, AI-based image analysis for identity verification, cashless payment for medical expenses, and delivery of medical supplies by drone.

Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, "Medical MaaS project in a mountainous area".

The company will build a model to deliver medical care in mountainous regions where medical resources are scarce. In the future, the model will not stop at medical care, but will also deliver local services and support outings with mobility to realize a society in which people can "continue to live in the town they want to live in. In the future, the company plans to create new value and generate revenue through collaboration with different industries, such as drug delivery, and in the future, it plans to use drones to improve the last mile and promote health and wellness in conjunction with wellness data.

As described above, many of the projects in the "health and medical care" field are designed to help citizens improve their health by establishing medical and health data infrastructures, providing data to users, and returning value to them. Some projects are also considering collaboration with the "transportation" field, which has many challenges, indicating that collaboration with other industries is also very important. In order to address issues in a variety of fields, it is necessary to create a system of public-private partnerships, utilizing the technology and know-how that not only the national and local governments but also private companies can offer in their respective fields of expertise. For this reason, the private sector plays an important role in the promotion of smart cities in almost every region, including construction, IT, infrastructure, and manufacturers. The industries participating in the "Smart City Public-Private Partnership Platform" are as diverse as the construction industry (24 organizations), manufacturing industry (26 organizations), wholesale/retail/restaurants (12 organizations), finance/insurance industry (13 organizations), real estate industry (20 organizations), transportation/communications industry (62 organizations), electricity, gas, water, and heat supply industry (12 organizations), and the service industry (132 organizations). In addition to the "transportation" sector, it will be important to explore and consider the possibility of collaboration with the "health and medical care" sector in other sectors as well. However, at present, there is only one case of pharmaceutical companies participating in the "patient support program using MaaS" in Chiba City, and no other cases of pharmaceutical companies participating in this program were found. One of the reasons for this may be that the medical institutions, pharmacies, and other business-to-consumer (BtoC) sectors that are directly related to citizens are more likely to participate in activities in the "health and medical care" field in a smart city.

In Japan, Toyota announced the "Connected City" project to develop an experimental city called "Woven City" in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, at CES 2020, the world's largest electronics trade show held in Las Vegas, USA, on Tuesday, January 7, 2020. ¹⁴⁾. Named after the way the streets are woven together like a mesh, the city will initially house about 2,000 residents, including Toyota employees and others involved in the project, and is intended to be a demonstration city in a realistic environment where people will live. This project will create a demonstration city where new technologies can be introduced and tested in a realistic environment where people live their lives. The technologies are intended to cover everything that supports people's daily lives, including automated driving, MaaS, personal mobility, robotics, smart home technology, and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In a society where services will be connected by information in the future, the project aims to create new value and business models through the rapid development and demonstration of technologies and services. In this way, it is evident that some companies are actively looking at smart city-related initiatives as a new business opportunity.

5. Overseas Movements

Manchester, U.K., is strongly promoting smart cities: in an area named Manchester Corridor, where there is a concentration of world-class research institutes, universities, and medical institutions, the "CityVerve" project, which ran from 2015 to 2017, focused on "Medical and Health," "Transportation and In the "CityVerve" project, demonstration experiments were conducted from 2015 to 2017 in four specialized areas: "medical/health," "transportation/transportation," "energy/environment," and "culture/community. In the "medical and health" field, efforts are being made to improve the health of patients with respiratory diseases through biometric sensor networks, and to encourage exercise (community wellness) by monitoring and recording exercise and activity by individuals and groups, and providing this information to users ⁽¹⁵⁾.

In Singapore, the Smart Nation Singapore initiative was launched in 2014 as a smart city ^policy16). The Smart Nation Singapore initiative is a policy that aims to solve Singapore's various problems (low birthrate, aging population, slowing economic growth, traffic congestion, etc.), create innovation, and improve people's lives through the use of digital technology and data. The Smart Nation Initiative has five areas: (1) Strategic National Projects, (2) Digital Government Services, (3) Urban Living, (4) Transport, and (5) Health. Health, and multiple projects are underway in each of these areas. In the "Assistive Technology and Robotics in Healthcare" project, an initiative to develop robots and new technologies, robots are being used to assist in the care of the elderly and disabled, drones are being used to deliver medicine and medical equipment, and AR technology is being developed for doctors, AR technology for doctors is also being developed. In addition, "HealthHub," an initiative to develop a portal site that provides the location of medical facilities and health-related advice, allows self-access to personal health data and vaccination records held by public medical institutions.

Similar to the Toyota case in Japan, there are also examples of private-sector-led initiatives overseas. In the United States, Google, through its subsidiary Sidewalk Labs, had begun urban development of a smart city in Toronto, Canada, using sensors to grasp the movements of all kinds of places, people, and things, in pursuit of greater efficiency and comfort. Sensors were to be installed throughout the city, and every move residents made would be recorded and tracked, down to which bench they sat on in the park and how long it took them to cross the street. Concerns were voiced both domestically and internationally about how a private company would manage so much data, but in May 2020, an announcement was made that the development of the system would be ^{discontinued17)}. Although the reason for the discontinuation has not been clearly announced, it is believed that the invasion of privacy due to the collection of large amounts of data without the consent of the individual may have been a major factor.

On June 9, 2020, China's Tencent announced that it will build a "Net City" in Shenzhen, Guangdong ^Province18). In May 2019, Tencent launched its "WeCity Future City" initiative to build a technological system of people-centered distributed intelligence, collaboration through multiple intermediary platforms, and a variety of on-demand services under the rubric of sustainable urban development. Solutions for administrative work, community, retail, transportation, healthcare, education, construction, and other areas are also planned for practical application in this Net City.

6. Accumulated data

As mentioned in the case study introduction, a smart city is expected to collect a wide variety of data, including cell phone base station data, human flow data from GPS, purchase information from commercial facilities, and health information (step count data, biometric (height and weight) data, medical checkup information, etc.). It will be important for those data to be freely and efficiently linked to data and services by providing smart city services through the urban OS. In addition, it will be possible to facilitate the flow of smart city services by using and analyzing the linked data and providing services that lead to increased value for consumers. Singapore, introduced as an overseas example, announced in 2014 a plan to install various sensors throughout the country, share the information obtained with ministries and agencies, and establish a system to promptly respond to the needs of the people. The SNP has installed 1,000 sensors (including surveillance cameras) in locations with high human traffic and is consolidating the data. The results of the analysis of the collected data are being made public in the areas of economy, education, environment, finance, health, infrastructure, society, technology, and transportation.

However, sei-katsu-sha have strong concerns about the provision of personal data. According to the "Results of a Survey of Users of Private Personal Health Record (PHR) Services," conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in December 2020, ¹⁹⁾ the willingness of all PHR users to link health-related data such as health checkup results to "medical institutions" is around 30%, The same health-related data is also linked to "third-party research institutions" and "third-party companies" at only 3%, indicating that Japanese sei-katsu-sha have low trust in the provision of personal data. This indicates that it is important for third parties to gain the public's understanding of the use of data, but it is also necessary to consider how to obtain a consensus.

7. Summary

The pharmaceutical industry is working to solve issues related to patients (treatment needs, changes in dosage forms, etc.). However, since the pharmaceutical industry is a BtoB business, such as hospitals and pharmacies, it is difficult for them to participate in projects that promote open innovation with citizens, such as smart cities. In addition, financing methods used in smart cities include borrowing from banks and other financial institutions, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, project bonds, green bonds, tax increment financing (TIF), social impact bonds, and so on. However, there may be concerns about the generation of funds at this point in time when monetization is not yet clear. Smart city initiatives are likely to be able to resolve issues not through a one-to-one relationship but through the coordination of various types of initiatives, and considering the improvement of healthcare access and value return, it will be possible to consider various measures, including the construction of the current healthcare system. For example, it will be important to consider the role that pharmaceutical companies can play in the construction of smart city projects, such as drug delivery by drone, which is currently being tested only in mountainous areas, and how to deliver drugs (including information) to patients for the convenience of the patients. In addition, if the city data infrastructure is in place and information on routine vaccinations and health checkups is linked, it will be possible to establish a smooth vaccination system even in a situation such as the recent coronary disaster. It will be necessary to continue to improve the use of data in order to respond to the spread of similar emerging and reemerging infectious diseases in the future. In addition, it is inevitable that the government, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, should consider measures to increase public confidence in the third-party use of personal data, including health information, as well as information from medical institutions. It should be added that a system must also be considered to ensure the safe provision of services from the perspective of personal information protection and security.

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