The premise of corporate activities is the foundation of society and the environment.
Corporate activities are economic activities,
and they can only be established on a sound environment and society.
Sustainability means activities to maintain and enhance the environment, society, and economy,
which are the very foundations of a company's existence.
A non-sustainable world:
A sustainable world:
CureApp DEI Policy
At CureApp, as common values guiding various activities and decisions, we have established DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies such as "an organization where there is no discomfort due to differences in background and values", "an organization that is fair in employment, evaluation, compensation, and other areas", and "an organization that, through the experience of its business, products, and services, does not make users feel uncomfortable or inconvenienced." We aim to create an environment where every diverse employee can demonstrate their capabilities and thrive.
Social Issues to be
Addressed by CureApp
While advancements in healthcare today continue day by day, many issues are still left unresolved.
CureApp see the following four issues in particular as major challenges.
Healthcare Disparities
Japan has established a network of hospitals and medical clinics nationwide under its national health insurance system. Despite this, we can see regional disparities in the healthcare provided in urban and rural areas, and this gap continues to widen as medical technology continues to advance. This issue is also seen in global, with large disparities in healthcare existing between different countries and regions.
Burgeoning Medical Costs
Soaring medical costs driven by rising research and development expenses and an increasingly aging society have become a significant issue. In Japan in particular, where national healthcare expenditures exceeded 43 trillion yen in FY2018, this is recognized as a serious issue which is beginning to undermine the national health insurance system.
Treatment blank period
Conventional medical treatments generally do not allow for therapeutic intervention on the part of medical practitioners in periods between treatments when the patient is outside the hospital, creating what is known as a “treatment blank period”. For patients with dependencies, lifestyle diseases, and other chronic illnesses that need to be managed, these blank period in treatment are not addressed through medical intervention to help patients implement correctional behavior on their own. This not only inhibits improvement in patient’s health; it often also leads to treatments being suspended or a deterioration in the patient’s condition.
Disparity in the Quality of Healthcare
The enormous workload and longer working hours of medical professionals has become a social issue. In addition, with an increasingly aging society, the number of patients requiring healthcare on a daily basis continues to increase, and the inability to dedicate a sufficient amount of consultation time on each patient has become a concern in clinical practice. Further, advances in medical technology have raised the bar for the level of experience and long-term training required of medical practitioners, and a disparity in the quality of healthcare provided has developed as a result.
Value (Impact) Provided
by CureApp
MISSIONRe-evolving “Therapeutics”
with Software
We run our business in pursuit of our mission to “re-evolve ‘therapeutics’ with software”. In response to the aforementioned issues, we are committed to realizing a society in which all people can enjoy quality medical care at any time with peace of mind through the social implementation of a new treatment modality called therapeutic apps.
Rectifying Disparities in Healthcare
In general, therapeutic apps can be freely prescribed and used for treatment without any restrictions imposed by distribution networks provided the patient has access to the Internet. Further, expertise from medical professionals can be incorporated into the software algorithms during development to compensate for the uneven concentration of medical professionals in urban areas.
We aim to help rectify disparities in healthcare by driving the adoption and implementation of therapeutic apps in society.
Contributing to the Optimization of Medical Costs
While a new drug generally entails research and development expenses in the order of tens to hundreds of billions of yen before it goes to market, therapeutic app development provides extremely low risk of side effects, and requires minimal research and development expenses to achieve the same therapeutic effect – an example of which is seen in Japan’s first nicotine dependency therapeutic app, which was developed over a seven year period, compared to the typical research and development period of nine to seventeen years seen for medicinal drugs.
In addition, early intervention using therapeutic apps to address dependencies and lifestyle diseases is expected to help keep medical expenses at an appropriate level by reducing future health risks and social costs to such an extent that it more than offsets the medical expenses incurred in providing early intervention treatments.
We will continue to work to ensure suitable medical costs by pursuing therapeutic apps applicable to a broad range of illnesses and ailments.
Eliminating Treatment Blank Period
As noted above, gaps in treatment pose a significant concern regarding the effectiveness and continuation of treatments. Therapeutic apps can be used to provide treatment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at home or in the office, and without other constraints through a smartphone app that many people now use daily. This boosts the therapeutic effectiveness of treatments for illnesses that require continual therapeutic intervention, without taking up the already limited medical resources available.
We strive to contribute to eliminating treatment blank period through our therapeutic apps.
Stabilizing Healthcare Quality
Inevitable variations in healthcare quality due to overwork of physicians and the increasing sophistication of their expertise are major challenges for both physicians and patients, and are difficult to solve by their own efforts under the constraints of limited healthcare resources. By replacing time-consuming cognitive-behavioral therapy and lifestyle guidance, which are personalized to each patient's lifestyle and mindset, with therapeutic apps equipped with evidence-based guidance and personalized algorithms, it becomes possible to stabilize the quality of healthcare without imposing a burden on medical resources.
We endeavor to stabilize healthcare quality without burdening doctors and medical professionals through our therapeutic apps.
Impact Logic
CureApp will contribute to the realization of a “society where reliable, high quality healthcare is available to all at any time” by developing and releasing a broad range of therapeutic apps addressing various illnesses and by driving growth in the therapeutic apps industry.
In working towards achieving this in a logical, defined manner, CureApp has set ultimate goals (super goals) to address along three pathways in which the value (impact) of our business manifests, and four med-term outcomes to pursue. Looking ahead, we will continue to incorporate these metrics into our management cycle and strengthen our governance.
Pathways in which the impact manifests
- 1. Impact on patientsUntil now, therapeutic interventions have been limited in principle to the hospital, except for medication and other services. Therapeutic apps seek to overcome these constraints and offer patients new therapeutic effects by providing evidence-based therapeutic guidance regardless of time or place. In addition, therapeutic intervention at the initial or mild stages of a disease can prevent the aggravation of an illness and secondary events.
- 2. Impact on doctorsTherapeutic apps prescribed by doctors synergize well with existing therapies by notifying the doctor of app use and providing doctors with prescription aids. While therapeutic app functions are primarily developed with their impact on patients in mind, we predict that the increase in medical professionals realizing the true value offered by therapeutic apps will act as a catalyst for driving the further social implementation of therapeutic apps.
- 3. Impact on academia and industryWe believe that the evidence we have accumulated from our extensive involvement in the research and development of therapeutic apps will accelerate the investment of human resources and funding in the therapeutic app industry, therefore expanding the scope for research and development, through the establishment of regulations and other infrastructure development for therapeutic apps, and the widespread adoption of research and development into this field. We believe that the involvement of various other research institutions and companies, alongside our own efforts, will accelerate the social implementation of therapeutic apps forward.
Medium-term outcomes
- 1. Number of patients receiving therapeutic effects (development of new therapeutic effects) We have set the number of patients receiving therapeutic effects through our therapeutic apps as a medium-term outcome leading to the provision of quality healthcare.
- 2. Amount of optimized medical expenses compared to conventional treatments, etc. (offering treatments with a high cost-effectiveness)The economics of healthcare serve as an important indicator amidst issues with tightening healthcare budgets. The contribution of therapeutic apps – which are developed with significantly lower research and development costs compared to medicinal drugs – is calculated on the impact they have on stabilizing medical costs, which is set as a medium-term outcome providing for reliable (sustainable) healthcare services.
- 3. Number of therapeutic apps provided through the APS/in the pipeline (elimination of treatment blank periods) CureApp provides the APS (App Prescription System, a distribution platform for therapeutic apps) to facilitate the distribution of therapeutic apps, regardless of whether they are developed in-house or by third parties. We have set the total number of therapeutic apps distributed through the APS as a medium-term outcome for the provision of healthcare not constrained by time or space.
- 4. Number of APS installations at medical institutions nationwide (elimination of disparities in regional healthcare)Promoting the distribution of therapeutic apps in itself helps to eliminate regional disparities in healthcare services through the provision of therapeutic apps that incorporate algorithms designed based on insights from medical specialists. CureApp has set the number of installations of our therapeutic app distribution platform, APS, at medical institutions as a medium-term outcome for rectifying disparities in regional healthcare.
Contribution to SDGs
We conduct our business with the goal of realizing a “society where reliable,
quality healthcare is available to all at any time” based on our mission of “re-evolving ‘therapeutics’ with software”.
We believe that these initiatives are intrinsically linked to the achievement of the 17 goals put forth in the SDGs.
We will continue to actively contribute to the achievement of the SDGs through the initiatives outlined in detail below.
3．Good Health and Well-Being (3.4, 3.5, 3.8, 3.a)
We hope to cause a paradigm shift in existing healthcare services and pave the way for a “society where reliable, quality healthcare is available to all at any time” through the development and sale of therapeutic apps intended as patient aids for a variety of lifestyle-related diseases, including nicotine and alcohol dependencies, hypertension, and NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis).
- 3.4By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.
- 3.5Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.
- 3.8Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
- 3.aStrengthen the implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in all countries, as appropriate.
9．Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (9.5)
CureApp have outstanding capabilities in development, regulatory, and commercialization, backed by our record of being the first in Japan to obtain regulatory approval and receive insurance coverage for a therapeutic app. We will look to continue investing in research and development to continuously create new pipelines based on these capabilities.
- 9.5Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending.
17．Partnerships for the Goals (17.17)
In order to achieve a “society where reliable, quality healthcare is available to all at any time”, we will look to coordinate with academia on research and development and government bodies on rule making for emerging industries, promote partnerships in collaboration with medical professionals working in clinical settings, and lead the way in developing initiatives for new industry creation.
- 17.17Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships.
In terms of CureApp's materiality:
In our sustainability initiatives,
we have identified especially important issues as materiality based on two perspectives:
"significance to society and stakeholders" and "relevance to our business".
These materialities serve as guidelines for our sustainability efforts.
In determining our materiality,
a final decision was made after a review by a sustainability committee that included external experts,
ensuring that our perception of the role we play is neither overestimated nor underestimated.
Currently, based on the above perspective,
we have established 10 materialities and set priorities for each as part of our initiatives.
Furthermore, we plan to periodically reflect changes in the external environment and the status of our business
and corporation in our materiality,
and continuously consider the need for revisions.
Under our mission to "reinvent 'treatment' through software",
we aim to enhance the overall sustainability of society
while growing and developing as CureApp by collaborating with stakeholders on the materialities we advocate.
