Street Medical for Future Medical Care

Abstract

　Non-Communicable Diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and chronic lung disease, are the leading causes of death worldwide. These diseases do not have a one-to-one relationship between cause and effect, but are the result of the intertwining of various factors in multiple layers of daily life, such as diet, exercise, sleep, relationships, living environment, preferences, and work. However, it is not easy for the general public, excluding health-conscious people, to change their behavior toward their future health. Therefore, we propose a new concept of "street medical" as a starting point for the development of new intervention methods. "Street medical" is an attempt to expand the scope of medical care from "patients" to "consumers" and from "hospitals" to "places of daily life," and to incorporate the knowledge and know-how accumulated in the lifestyle and entertainment industries to update medical care in order to appeal to the happiness of people.

　In this paper, we introduce two examples of "street medical" that we have worked on so far: (1) "floor decoration design measures to promote fast walking and increase stride length" and (2) "digital games to promote early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)," along with the results of their effectiveness verification, and share an image of "street medical" in practice. Furthermore, we will show the possibility that the "PERMA Model," a check frame for the Happiness factor, can be extremely effective in developing effective behavior change intervention methods.