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Health Care and The Environment: The Risks Posed by Climate Change How should the healthcare industry respond?

Health issues caused by the rising temperatures associated with climate change have increased dramatically in recent years. Record heat waves in Europe caused more than 60,000 deaths last year, while a sharp increase in climate disasters such as floods and droughts in Africa have led to worsening food security and the spread of infectious diseases. Japan is no exception, and the number of “Heat Stroke Alerts” issued by the Ministry of the Environment continues to rise each year. This year, the number exceeded 1,000 for the first time since the alerts began, with escalating numbers of people being transported to emergency rooms due to heat stroke.

In this edition of the COSMO newsletter, we sit down with Dr. Yasushi Honda, Professor Emeritus of Sports Science at the University of Tsukuba to get his take on the health risks posed by climate change; the key facts you need to know; and how the healthcare industry should respond.

岩下裕司Health Care and The Environment: The Risks Posed by Climate Change How should the healthcare industry respond?
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Healthcare and the Environment: Understanding the Movement around PFASHow should the healthcare industry face this issue?

Have you heard of PFAS? Standing for “Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances,” PFAS is the generic name for artificially created organic fluorine compounds. Capable of repelling water and oil, in addition to being highly resistant to heat, chemicals, and ultraviolet rays, they are used in a wide range of applications from water repellents and emulsifiers, to fire extinguishing agents and surface treatments for packaging materials. However, as stable compounds, PFAS have also become known as “forever chemicals” since they can remain in the environment with little degradation. Reportedly, some PFAS may potentially affect human health if people are internally exposed to them for long periods of time. In recent years, there has been an accelerating trend toward their tighter regulation, particularly in the US and Europe. In this newsletter, we asked Dr. Kouji Harada, Associate Professor at the Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, to introduce some of the fundamentals around PFAS, as well as share his insights into related domestic and international trends, and what approach the healthcare industry should take. Read on to the end for Dr. Harada’s profile.

岩下裕司Healthcare and the Environment: Understanding the Movement around PFASHow should the healthcare industry face this issue?
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HIV Prevention Focusing on Communities

– Interview with Kota Iwahashi, President of akta
– Understanding how akta became a NPO success story

Patient empowerment and greater patient participation in managing one’s own health care have gained attention in recent years. One area where this trend has made particular progress is that of HIV and AIDS. As president of akta, Kota Iwahashi has been at the forefront of anti-HIV efforts in Japan. In a sequel to our last newsletter issue, COSMO wanted to learn more about how akta came about, the activities it’s involved in, and what lessons may be learned as an organization that continues to successfully drive progressive initiatives within a challenging environment. (Read the previous newsletter ‘HIV today: Latest Information and Changing Mindsets here).

岩下裕司HIV Prevention Focusing on Communities
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<HIV today> Latest Information and Changing Mindsets: Shifting to a community-based approach that puts people and the community at the center – Interview with Kota Iwahashi, President of akta –

More than a year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Among the many consequences being felt by us all, one issue that stands out is the impact on operations at public health centers, a body that tended to garner little attention in the past. The past year has underscored the important role public health centers play, but has also shone a light on the difficulties created when such centers are forced to focus exclusively on one disease, in this case COVID-19.

For this issue of the COSMO Newsletter, we wanted to understand how this situation is particularly affecting HIV transmission and treatment. We sat down with guest contributor Kota Iwahashi, President of akta, a non-profit organization that offers education and support to those affected by HIV and AIDS, to gain insights into the latest developments when it comes to HIV transmission in and outside of Japan.

The following guest contribution is compiled from an interview with Kota Iwahashi, President of akta, conducted exclusively for COSMO Newsletter readers.

岩下裕司<HIV today> Latest Information and Changing Mindsets: Shifting to a community-based approach that puts people and the community at the center – Interview with Kota Iwahashi, President of akta –
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The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) Viewpoint: Revise Japan’s Immigration Laws to Allow Hiring of Foreign Domestic Workers to Support Japanese Women’s Participation in the Workforce

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) Viewpoint:
Revise Japan’s Immigration Laws to Allow Hiring of Foreign Domestic Workers to Support Japanese Women’s Participation in the Workforce

 

The ACCJ has issued three Viewpoints on this topic. The first two were issued in 2013 and 2015, with sponsorship from the ACCJ Growth Strategy Task Force. This most recent Viewpoint was issued in November 2020 and was sponsored by the ACCJ FDI and Global Economic Cooperation Committee and the Human Resource Management Committee.

Kumi Sato, President and CEO of Cosmo Public Relations Corporation, was the principal writer of this Viewpoint, which is one of her life’s work. Ms. Sato is dedicated to encouraging the Japanese government to ease immigration regulations that would allow foreign domestic workers to be sponsored by Japanese citizens, as is done in other Asian places such as Hong Kong and Singapore. The option to hire foreign domestic workers would help increase women’s participation in the workforce, contribute to the domestic economy, and aid Japan’s campaign to become an Asian Financial Center.

Direct link to the Viewpoint

Press Contact:
Cosmo Public Relations Corporation
Yoko Awata
email:yoko.awata@cosmopr.co.jp

岩下裕司The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) Viewpoint: Revise Japan’s Immigration Laws to Allow Hiring of Foreign Domestic Workers to Support Japanese Women’s Participation in the Workforce
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Announcement of personnel changes

Glen Sunohara, current President and Representative Director of J-CAN KK, has joined COSMO as Board Director as of January 1, 2021.
Glen will advise COSMO on short and long-term business plans and also leverage his experiences as an expert in healthcare to counsel the company on service enhancement and internal capability development.

岩下裕司Announcement of personnel changes
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Survey results: How should your company communicate with media during a pandemic?

Journalists in Japan embrace online interviews and want them to continue post-COVID-19, in combination with face-to-face PR to accelerate information sharing.

Drastic changes in the ways in which companies share information with the media in Japan have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While delivering information online has undoubtedly seen a rapid rise over the past 12 months, there are still some who argue that such channels leave a gap when it comes to giving media what they want.

COSMO decided to find out. We carried out a media survey of fifteen of our closest front-line reporters from the healthcare sector* on “How corporate PR should provide information to the media during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Conducted from 21 to 23 December, 2020, the results offer first-hand insights into which approaches media find the most suitable, and the topics reporters most want to hear more about.

Read on for a summary of key findings and insights that will help you successfully navigate your corporate PR in 2021 and beyond.

岩下裕司Survey results: How should your company communicate with media during a pandemic?
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Medinew and COSMO Joint Webinar: What Patients Expect of Pharmaceutical Companies Today; Insights on Appropriate Information Provision

On October 28, COSMO co-hosted a joint webinar with Medinew, a leading medical marketing magazine with a large readership among the pharmaceutical industry. Highlights from the session have now been made available online as a Medinew seminar report (Japanese language only).

Setting out to establish answers to the event’s topic of “What Patients Expect of Pharmaceutical Companies on Appropriate Information Provision Today,” Mr. Yoshiaki Kaneko, CEO of Medinew’s operating company, Pharma Information Network, Inc., opened the webinar with a presentation on “Communication with Patients for Pharmaceuticals Marketing.”

“Promotion efforts have until now focused on improving disease awareness and patient education to increase sales, but due to changes in pharmaceutical companies’ business models and the impact of COVID-19, it is likely that we will see a shift toward more patient-centered promotion in the future. Business areas will also be required to broaden their scope from a focus on product offerings to information service offerings,” said Mr. Kaneko.
Findings and recommendations from COSMO’s “Patient Insight Report”

The next speaker, Tomomi Nagasawa, Managing Director of Cosmo Public Relations Corporation, spoke on the topic of “Patient Awareness and Behavior during Treatment Selection and Prescription: Results of a Survey of 300 Cancer Patients.”

In March this year, COSMO conducted a nationwide online survey of 300 male and female patients across ten major types of cancer in order to gain insights into how cancer patients select treatment options, as well as measuring the behavioral differences among patients with different types of cancers. Patient awareness and perceptions of 19 major pharmaceutical companies were also measured to understand how corporate reputation affects the selection of prescription drugs. The results were compiled and released in July this year under the title of “Patient Insight Report: Cancer.”

Speaking on the decision to undertake such a survey, Ms. Nagasawa explained, “In recent years, treatment options for cancer have increased. [New practices, including] informed consent, in which patients receive explanations from physicians and then decide whether or not to consent; or shared decision-making, where physicians and patients share information on evidence and decide treatment options together, are becoming mainstream. Healthcare is transitioning from a service that patients passively receive from their physician, to one that patients themselves understand and choose.”

Ms. Nagasawa then introduced key findings from the survey. For example, unmet needs when it comes to information may be inferred from the fact that while 80% of patients research treatment options, 30% cannot understand the information and still end up relying on physicians’ explanations.

When selecting prescription medicine, patients are concerned about negative news on drug manufacturers; they research manufacturers of any prescribed medication and assess the company’s reputation. This reveals patients’ desire to proactively select better treatment and implies that the reputation of pharmaceutical companies does affect to some degree patients’ evaluation of treatment options and effectiveness or safety of therapies.

Importantly pharmaceutical companies potentially stand to bridge the gap between healthcare and patients. Supporting patients’ understanding of medical information can help them to positively consent to treatments or actively decide on treatments and thus affect their level of satisfaction toward treatments.

The presentation then concluded with specific recommendations to help pharmaceutical companies fulfill their role of providing information to patients, divided into:

1. Two practical ways pharmaceutical companies can provide easy-to-understand medical information to patients.

2. Three essential elements expected of pharmaceutical companies at all times when developing corporate reputation and communicating messaging.

 

■ Interested readers who were unable to join the webinar or are interested in reviewing the information introduced may access the full Medinew seminar report available online here, which includes a selection of slides and graphs used during the presentation.

■ Cosmo PR’s Patient Insight Report: Cancer is available for purchase in both Japanese and English language. “The report offers detailed survey results on corporate reputation according to cancer type. It can be used to understand patient perceptions of pharmaceutical companies, including awareness levels and corporate image as manufacturers and distributors of cancer therapies. The report also provides detailed analyses of cancer patients’ thoughts and behaviors that offer valuable reference material for pharmaceutical companies when planning and implementing promotional activities.” – Medinew Japan.
Click here for an overview of the survey and details on how to purchase the report.

We’d like to thank you for your continued interest in Cosmo PR and encourage all our readers to share these links with others who may also find value in them. It is our hope that the webinar discussion, cancer patient survey, and report benefit as many people as possible.

 

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COSMO announces Patient Insight Report at the 12th Japanese Association of Health Communication

The 12th annual conference of the Japanese Association of Health Communication was held online during September 26 – 27. Joining the “Communication with Patients and Families” segment, Cosmo PR offered a presentation on survey results from its Patient Insight Report, under a theme of “Search Behavior of Patients When Selecting Treatment Options and When Medication is Prescribed; Potential Effects of Corporate Reputation on Patients’ Selection Behavior.”

岩下裕司Medinew and COSMO Joint Webinar: What Patients Expect of Pharmaceutical Companies Today; Insights on Appropriate Information Provision
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What is the pathway to patient-centric ethical drug development?

Pathway to patient-centric drug development

Shift from patient engagement to public engagement

Healthcare in Japan is transitioning from care that patients passively receive, to one that they independently choose.
This trend is becoming increasingly important, not only in terms of patients’ conducting their own research and openly discussing information with healthcare professionals, but also within drug research and development. Why is collaboration between pharmaceutical researchers and patients or citizens, which was minimal in the past, needed more now? How can this be achieved?
To answer this question and more, we interviewed Dr. Imamura, who is taking on the challenge of creating a place where researchers and patients can learn together.

MatsubaraWhat is the pathway to patient-centric ethical drug development?
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Cosmo PR and HekaBio Announce Strategic Partnership and Investment in HekaBio

Cosmo PR and HekaBio Announce Strategic Partnership and Investment in HekaBio

 

HekaBio K.K. (hereafter: HekaBio) and Cosmo Public Relations Corporation (hereafter: Cosmo) have announced that Cosmo has made an investment in HekaBio and that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership to increase awareness of and accessibility to emerging innovations in the bioscience field that will aid in meeting the needs of patients and society as a whole.

 

“I am delighted with Cosmo’s investment and the strategic partnership, which I believe will be highly synergistic as we develop and bring to market a broad range of MedTech and pharma innovations that are needed in Japan. In Cosmo’s Healthcare group (hereafter “Cosmo Healthcare”), we have a strong partner with shared values. Our partnership will enable us to make a greater contribution to society through our collaborative business activities. HekaBio specializes in early access to assets in development in worldwide biotech, regenerative medicine and MedTech ventures, and the success of these programs will be greatly enhanced through collaborations that can be forged in Cosmo Healthcare’s established network” said Rob Claar, CEO of HekaBio.

 

“Cosmo Healthcare is constantly looking for a way to broaden knowledge of cutting-edge innovations that will lead to healthcare advancements in Japan. HekaBio has such innovative programs that there is no overlap with the activities of any of our current clients. We look forward to working with HekaBio to introduce innovative ideas and create opportunities for the further development of pharmaceuticals, delivery systems and devices that can fulfill the needs of patients and help create a healthier society” said Kumi Sato, President and CEO of Cosmo.

 

About HekaBio K.K.
HekaBio is an ecosystem for accelerating healthcare innovations in Japan, operating as an in-licensing bio venture, a business development firm and a contract research organization (CRO). HekaBio focuses on solutions with high potential to address patients’ unmet medical needs and deliver cost savings for society. HekaBio currently has nearly 50 programs under management, many of which are new category innovations highly valued among Japanese clinicians.

 

About Cosmo Public Relations Corporation
Cosmo is a long-established leader in developing communications strategies across a broad range of life science specialties. It has a firm understanding of the Japanese healthcare regulatory framework, a wide network of experts across the entire healthcare sector and unrivaled contacts within the Japanese media. Its skills in qualitative and quantitative analyses make it adept at reading public sentiment and understanding the innovations of a broad range of healthcare professionals, thereby making it able to improve communication and match interests among different stakeholders.

 


Press Contact:

HekaBio K.K.
Mari Tanaka
email:mari.tanaka@hekabio.com

COSMO HEALTHCARE, Cosmo Public Relations Corporation
Yoko Awata
email:yoko.awata@cosmopr.co.jp

Tomomi-NagasawaCosmo PR and HekaBio Announce Strategic Partnership and Investment in HekaBio
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