- Various functions as a smartphone application to complement the "Paper Maternal and Child Health Handbook
- Particularly useful are "immunization scheduling" and "management of a wide variety of records and data.
- As an "official app of local governments," it has been adopted by more than 190 municipalities nationwide at this time.
(We spoke to...)
MTI Corporation
General Manager, Electronic Maternity Record Book Service Department, Healthcare Business Division
Kazuhiro Hozoku
Manager, Corporate Communications Office, Corporate Support Division
Chie Orimo
Corporate Support Division Public Relations Office
Tomoko Kayama
The "Various Possibilities" Hidden in Smartphone Apps
Editorial: Your company's apps are very famous, not only "Maternal and Child Mo" but also "LunaLuna".
Orimo: In 2000, we launched "LunaLuna," a pioneering women's health information service. In 2012, we established the Health Care Business Division and entered the health care field in earnest, leveraging the know-how cultivated through the "LunaLuna" service.
Editorial: My wife also used Luna before the birth of her child.
Orimo: LunaLuna" has been downloaded a total of 14 million times (as of July 2019) and has been used by an extremely large number of people over a long period of time. Currently, we are strengthening functions to support fertility by utilizing the big data accumulated in "LunaLuna" to predict the date of ovulation and inform couples of days with a high probability of pregnancy. We are also currently working with four municipalities to provide support for couples wishing to conceive.
Maternal and Child Mo" is beginning to be used in municipalities across the country.
Editorial: So when you get pregnant, now the "mother-child mo" is used.
Sailing Feet: The MCHM application "Maternal and Child Health Record Book" is a concept application to be used in conjunction with the existing "Paper MCH Record Book". Since the details of the "paper MCH handbook" vary slightly from municipality to municipality, "MCHmo," which has been introduced by municipalities, can be customized for each municipality. At present, of the 1,741 municipalities in Japan, more than 190 municipalities, more than 10%, have introduced the system.
Editorial: What exactly does it mean for a municipality to introduce a "mother-child mo... ......?
Sailing Feet: In this form, the municipality pays a fee to us to officially distribute "MCHMo" to its residents as a "municipal application. The application can also be named with the municipality's own name based on "MCHMo".
Orimo: For example, Funabashi City in Chiba Prefecture named it "Funakko Appli" and Amagasaki City in Hyogo Prefecture named it "Amakko Sukusuku Appli.
Editorial: What is the advantage of having a unique name for a municipality when introducing "MCHMo"?
Orimo: People who use smartphone applications to support childcare often start looking for and using various applications at the time of pregnancy and childbirth, but they tend to be very confused about whether the information provided is correct and how easy it is to use. Therefore, we are proposing to local governments that if they give "MCHMo" a name unique to them, it will be easier to understand that it is an official municipal application, and this will lead to a sense of trust.
Sailing Feet: The first is a "vaccination scheduler. Currently, there are more than 30 vaccinations that children must receive, and it is extremely difficult for parents to keep track of all of them. In addition, there are medical restrictions on the timing of vaccinations, and although checks are performed by the hospital, accidents and problems cannot be prevented. The second function is to keep various data and records instead of a paper MCH handbook, The third function is "distribution of local information," which enables local governments to provide a variety of information.
The convenience that only a smartphone application can offer
Editorial: What are the characteristics of the "mother-child mo."
Sailing Feet: First is the "vaccination scheduler function. It is often necessary to reschedule vaccinations due to a child's fever, etc., and there may be a limited period during which vaccinations can be received free of charge. It is hard to find another app that can take into account the medical restrictions of vaccinations and schedule them well. It is really hard to manage vaccination schedules on paper, so I think this feature is one of the features that makes users choose "MCHMo".
Editorial: I would really appreciate it if you could automate the complex schedule.
Sailing Feet: Another major feature is the "information distribution function. First, there is a function that automatically distributes information registered by the local government based on the data of the app users. For example, when an app user reaches the 28th week of pregnancy, the app automatically sends out information about a "mommy and daddy class" hosted by the local government. The app can also be used to automatically distribute other notices that are repeated every year, such as "confirmation of the current status of the child allowance.
Of course, it is also possible to deliver communications to a narrowly targeted audience. Since an increasing number of people "don't look" at too much information these days, sending information relevant to them in a pinpoint manner will also help improve the browsing rate. Reservations for various events delivered can also be made through "MCHMo," and data shows that as a result of delivering event information via the application, the event participation rate increased by 20% compared to previous years.
Editorial: Indeed, it is convenient to "receive information" and make reservations on a smartphone!
Sailing Feet: One of the comments we recently received from a local government official was that "being able to contact them in case of an emergency is a great advantage. For example, if a group medical checkup was cancelled due to a guerrilla downpour, we had no choice but to contact each individual by phone. With "MCHMo," however, we were able to send out a timely, simultaneous notification of the cancellation.
In terms of recording child-rearing data, "MCHMo" emphasizes "visualization" (i.e., graphing of data and posting of photos). For example, during pregnancy, graphing makes it easier to notice changes in weight, and there is a system that reads the data and displays appropriate advice. For children's growth curves, not only their height and weight, but also a graph of their obesity level can be viewed.
Furthermore, in the case of the MCH handbook, the fact that various data can be backed up in the cloud is becoming increasingly important. In fact, there have been recent cases of people whose MCH handbooks were swept away in windstorms and floods, and paper records kept by local governments were also lost.
Orimo: If the data is recorded in "Maternal and Child Mo," the data can be recovered with an ID and password even if the phone is lost.
Sailing Feet: Maternity Mo also has a menu item called "Dekitakuyo Kinenkinichi" ("I got it! Anniversary!"). This is a "diary function" that allows you to take pictures of the day your child "got up on his/her feet" or "said mommy and daddy" and share them with your family. Paper records are bulky and difficult to organize, but with "MCHMo," it is easy to organize and check even if you have two or three children.
Orimo: Push notifications of vaccinations and other notifications can also be sent by child. The diary function mentioned earlier also displays advice on standard developmental guidelines for children.
Editorial: You have various functions that are not available in a paper mother-child handbook.
An indispensable information sharing tool in the era of "working together" and "raising children alone
Editorial: What kind of feedback have you received from users?
Sailing Feet: The app is easy to use, and it is convenient to manage all data related to the child with a single app," "I can share child-rearing information with my husband and my own parents, and can look after my child from various perspectives. Recently, "solitary parenting" (i.e., mothers are left to bear the burden of child-rearing alone) has become an issue, and one commenter said that using the information-sharing tool "MCHMo" helped her eliminate the feeling of loneliness.
Orimo: One local government official told us that when a guardian went to the health center for consultation and forgot her MCH handbook and did not know her child's height and weight, she was able to tell them immediately because she had the data in her "Maternal and Child Health Record Book. He told us that he was glad that he had his smartphone with him at all times so that he could consult with us properly.
Sailing Feet: The "mother-child mo" is also useful when a father takes his child to the hospital. It is not always easy to know the height and weight of the child, or the type of vaccinations the child has received. ......
Orimo: I think information sharing is especially important for families with two working parents. Incidentally, "Mother-Child Mo" allows the user to set the scope of information sharing for each account, so privacy is also taken into consideration: married couples can share only up to this level, and information shown to grandparents can be shared only up to this level.
Sailing Feet: Municipalities that have introduced "MCHMo" have told us that administrative "inquiries" have been reduced, allowing them to spend more time on their important duties, such as providing face-to-face support to residents. In addition, to ensure that local government employees do not have to spend time on "MCHMo," we have prepared specialized staff to support the promotion of the application's use. As a result, we have received positive feedback that the application has operated smoothly since its introduction.
Another thing the local government told us is that many pregnant women do not contact the local government until they give birth after receiving the MCH handbook, and this has become a problem because the connection between "pregnant mothers" and "local government" has become weak. Therefore, they are using the "MCHMo" to distribute information, and are asking people to contact the local government if they have any problems.
Fundamentally changed the concept of the application in response to the "results of the demonstration test."
Editorial: Can you tell us how the "Mother-Son Mo" was developed?
Sailing Feet: It all started in 2014, when we conducted a joint industry-government-academia experiment using our "hahaco" application in an area called "Kashiwanoha Smart City" in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture. The application was simply aimed at "digitizing the mother-child handbook. As a result of the experiment, we found that many parents wanted to "manage childcare diaries and growth records on their smartphones," while local governments wanted to "distribute information to parents. In other words, rather than "eliminating the paper MCH handbook," we found a need for "providing convenient childcare-related functions. The application that was reworked based on this need was "Maternity Mo," and its first release in 2015 also began in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture.
To be a tool that brings stakeholders together to create a better child-rearing environment.
Editorial: Can you tell us about the future development of "Mother and Child Mo"?
Sailing Feet: First, we would like to increase the number of municipalities throughout Japan that offer the "MCHMo" service. Currently, more than 190 municipalities have introduced the service, and our goal is to reach 1,000 municipalities. We would like to eliminate the inconvenience that occurs when a current "MCHMo" user moves or gives birth back home, only to find that "MCHMo" was not introduced in that area. We would like to create an environment in which "MCHMo" can be used in the same way everywhere.
And the next step is to collaborate with "medical institutions. We believe that it is important to collaborate with medical institutions, especially pediatric hospitals, in order to provide solid support for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, and we are currently conducting demonstration tests in several municipalities. First of all, we are proceeding to specialize in vaccinations, enabling not only "scheduling of vaccinations" but also "reservations". Using this system, the hospital can read the barcode on the vaccine and automatically check and record the "name and lot number of the vaccine to be inoculated," "whether or not the vaccination can be given to the subject," and "confirmation that the vaccination is within the time limit" in conjunction with the "mother-child moiety," thereby ensuring that vaccination errors can be reduced. This system can reduce the number of vaccination errors. This will also eliminate omissions in vaccination records. We would like to provide a safer and more secure child-rearing environment by linking this system with general health checkups and medical data, and also with data from nursery schools and elementary schools.
<After the interview
When actually raising a child, you realize how difficult it is to organize a large amount of information. The information from the local government and daycare centers, hospital visits, vaccinations, and the child's growth records are all mixed together and cannot be grasped in a "printout" or "notebook". It would not be an exaggeration to say that almost every day is a battle against "forgotten items" and "things to look for. It would be really helpful if all of these things could be consolidated in a smartphone and scheduling would be done automatically. I hope this application will become more and more popular in the future.
Mother and Child Mo" official website
https://www.mchh.jp/login
