The interest in medical information technology has risen rapidly in recent years. The purpose was to illuminate the significance of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) for patient services from the viewpoint of medical workers. A self-administered questionnaire using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was completed by the 564 medical workers at a university hospital. The analysis of the questionnaires show what the respondents thought was the order of significance of the items below from one to seven. The first was safe medical care and nursing; the second, a relationship of mutual trust; the third, correspondence to patient needs; the fourth, the independent medical participation of a patient; the fifth, the most suitable medical care and nursing; the sixth continuing of medical care and nursing; and the seventh, high medical care and nursing. The findings show that the order of significance corresponds to what the respondents think is achievable.

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 We developed an automatic syndromic surveillance system from electronic medical records with the purpose of early detection of the outbreak of infectious diseases. This system works by monitoring the number of patients who visit a doctor with fever, respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, vomiting, or rash. At first, we conducted a study at one clinic from May 2005 to September 2006 to develop the prototype.
 Then, since October 2006 we have started to extend the system to other medical institutions in the same community in order to detect outbreaks in the community. We found an outbreak of the Noro virus in October 2006, a late influenza outbreak in March 2007, and a meningitis outbreak due to Echo virus type 30 in late August and September 2007. In the case of the meningitis outbreak, the system detected vomiting as the initial sign of meningitis, and the public health center sent a recommendation to schools through the education board that everyone should wash their hands.

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 The query form used for social investigational survey can be divided in a choice type pattern and a free description answer pattern. Although the question of the free description answer pattern can draw the true intention of the respondent, it is difficult to analyze statistically.
 In this study, we analyzed free description answer from a social survey for opinion of the elderly carried out by Tokushima city using the text mining method, and compared the results with those obtained by a choice type pattern using the multivariate analysis.
 As the result, there was a correlation between results by the question of the choice type pattern and free description answers. And it was possible to draw out more objective assessments from free description answers than the choice type pattern.

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 Advances in IT and the separation of dispensing and prescribing functions have been increasing the amount of information processed by pharmacies year after year. Use of IT is arguably a very useful way to streamline this process. With citizens already making use of information technology, it is desirable to use IT proactively in providing drug information (DI) to patients. We studied the use of the Web functions of mobile phones in the provision and collection of DI.
 Our system consisted of a client application and a Web application. Communication with the server was encrypted by SSL. Information was actively provided through e-mails and passively provided through server access. In addition, a system for reporting on the patients' drug administration conditions was configured. Monitoring research was used for system evaluation.
 Traffic was heavy, with many users accessing the system to check “dosage history,”“content of next scheduled dose,” and “registration information.” However, the number of patient reports decreased as the survey progressed. Pharmacists rated the system high for convenience, citing use in checking dosage history or sending out e-mails to notify patients that their prescriptions were ready. It was possible to use data extraction from the receipt computer to collect data without the burden of data input.
 This system is expected to be useful in checking compliance via dosage history, but problems existed in confirming drug administration conditions on an ongoing basis. In the future, it will be necessary to improve these shortcomings to further contribute to patient convenience and improve the quality of pharmacotherapy.

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 Background: Minds (Medical Information Network Distribution Service) is a database system providing clinical practice guidelines and associated medical information on the Web. We thought we are able to clarify system requirements for the Web-based database system by revealing characters of the regular users of Minds.
 Methods: The subjects were registered users of Minds. The research was carried out from March to April, 2006. The requests of cooperation to the questionnaire were sent out by E-mail and the survey was done on a Web site. In the analysis we firstly searched factors related to regular access to the system by chisquare test. Subsequently, we analyzed relationship between factors that had significant differences and the regularity of the access using logistic regression model.
 Results: In paramedics, significant relationship was observed in “for explanation to the patients /the family (Odds ratio=2.05)” and “satisfaction of the Web site usability (OR=3.07)” with regular access. In doctors and dentists, significant relationship was observed in each of “for explanation to the patients / the family (OR=2.13)”, “to get the latest information (OR=1.72)”, “use Minds for medical examination and treatment (OR=2.88)”, and “satisfaction of the Web site contents (OR=2.31)” with regular access.
 Conclusion: We showed that those who access Minds on regular basis tend to make use of it at the scenes of medical examination and treatment. On another front, connecting to the Internet from the medical sites is difficult in many cases. For the future, we think it necessary to devise an off-line mechanism of the information providing service.

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