With the Internet becoming an essential part of communications infrastructure, a rapid technological development is taking place in the market. The healthcare/medical industry segment also see a growing trend in utilization of the Internet, which shows that the IT industry sees the healthcare market segment as one of the promising areas.

In order to cope with the country’s unprecedentedly rapid increase in the aging population in the world, the Japanese government is urged to look for optimal solutions to improve the existing healthcare system, including the problem of the fastest growing cost in medical care. The IT-based healthcare business is becoming increasingly important, while a lot of issues have yet to be addressed in terms of system/regulatory problems as well as quality service implementation.

The latest issue of the serial report "Case Studies On Notable Online Healthcare Business Models" is focused on the current issues and future development scenario of the online healthcare business, with the results of interviews with representatives of new medical/healthcare market entrants working in the areas of paid membership services, online health management services, medical information services targeting physicians/ hospitals/ healthcare-related industries.