- Fertility Support" service, where experts provide consultation on various aspects of fertility care.
- Solves problems such as "I can't talk to the hospital about this" and "I don't trust information on the Internet.
- We are also working with companies and local governments, making us an indispensable part of the future of pregnancy care!
Fami-One is a service that provides support from certified fertility nurses, clinical psychologists, and other specialists to those who are or are thinking of starting their own fertility management program. The BabyTech.jp editorial staff interviewed Mr. Yusuke Ishikawa, President of Fami-One Corporation, the developer of Fami-One, to learn more about the application, its development process, and future plans.
(We spoke to...)
famione Corporation
Representative Director, Founder&CEO Yusuke Ishikawa
There are many concerns around fertility that no one can discuss with you
Editorial:Thank you very much for your time today. Could you begin by giving us an overview of "Fami-One" and its features?
Ishikawa:Fami-One" is a service that allows "all people who are doing fertility control," from those who have just become aware of fertility control to those who are already engaged in full-scale fertility control, including in vitro fertilization, to receive support from specialists in a casual manner. The service has two features.
The first point is that it can be used not only by "those who have started fertility control" but also by those who are in the "what should I do about fertility control ......" stage. The first point is that the service can be used not only by those who want to know basic information about fertility control, but also by those who are at the stage before starting fertility control, for example, "I had a fight with my wife about whether to start fertility control," or "I want to do fertility control, but I don't know how to tell my husband about it.
Second, we have a team of trusted professionals who are available to help you. Our team includes a certified infertility nurse, a clinical psychologist, a culturist (a technician who creates fertilized eggs through in vitro fertilization) who works at the clinic, and a counselor who has experience in fertility and infertility treatment herself, so basically any kind of consultation can be advised. The system is designed to provide answers based on past advice, and in some cases, consultations that cannot be handled by some specialists alone are discussed with other specialists as well, making it a setup that can provide optimal support for those who are engaged in fertility treatment.
Editorial:It is reassuring to be able to consult with such experts on line.
Fami-One offers consultation on line.
Ishikawa:To explain the operation of the LINE system in detail, instead of exchanging messages like a chat room, we send out a URL for answers and advice to questions received on LINE, which can be viewed on a separate page by clicking on it. This system was adopted because the answers and advice to questions are long and difficult to read on LINE, to properly manage and consolidate information, and to maintain an appropriate distance from the consultants. In the past, we tried to use a chat system, but the communication sometimes went on and on, and the consultants sometimes became dependent on the specialist. We have adopted such a system in order to make it clear that the main actor in the fertility management process is you or your partner, and we are in a position to support you.
In addition to Fami-One, there are many certified infertility nurses and clinical psychologists who provide fertility consultations on an individual basis. Among these, I think the main features of Fami One are that we have a system in place to handle consultations from a large number of people, and that we respond to consultations based on the opinions of multiple experts, not just one person's opinion.
Send us the questions you want to ask and get answers and advice.
Editorial:I also experienced infertility treatment, and it would have been very reassuring to have a professional consultation service like Fami-One at that time. There were aspects of the information on the Internet that I was swept up in. ......
She decided to develop Fami-One based on her own experience of pregnancy!
Editorial:What was the impetus behind the development of Fami-One?
Ishikawa:The first reason is that I myself was struggling with fertility issues. A year or two before we established our company in 2015, my wife and I fought a lot about whether or not to go to the hospital for fertility treatment, and even after we actually went to the hospital, there were many things we did not understand. I could ask the doctor about the treatment, but there was a lot of information on the Internet about what I should be aware of in my daily life and how we should work together, but I could not determine which information was really correct. The second reason was that I had worked for a medical company before starting my own business, and I felt that if there was such a lack of correct knowledge about infertility treatment in the world, there must be something I could do as a medical professional. These are the two reasons why I started Fami-One.
Editorial:You are basing this on your own experience of pregnancy.
Ishikawa:Since I was in the medical industry, I was able to look up articles about fertility care on the Internet and distinguish between "this is information for which there is no evidence yet" and "this is information with evidence," but I think it is difficult for the general public to check research papers and even academic journals. So I felt that there was a danger that many people would accept incorrect information without realizing it.
Editorial:In order to reduce the number of such people as much as possible, Fami-One can be used free of charge.
Ishikawa:That is correct. When you start your pregnancy search, we want you to register anyway, even if you are not yet worried about it. In fact, 60% of Fami-One users have not yet seen a hospital, and 20% go to their so-called family ladies clinic (general gynecology). In other words, 80% of our users use Fami-One even when they are not attending a clinic specializing in fertility treatment. We believe that our goal of having people who have not yet begun full-fledged fertility treatment use the system has been realized to some extent.
Editorial:What can I do with the free version of Fami-One?
Ishikawa:You can receive advice based on a checklist of about 40 questions that you will be asked to answer the first time, as well as consultation services for hospital selection. You can also receive information on fertility and related product campaigns. On an irregular basis, we also offer tickets for free consultations to those who tell us about their fertility status.
The checklist is in an easy-to-answer, question-and-answer format.
Editorial:What were some of the difficulties in developing Fami One?
Ishikawa:The most difficult part was how to make the service meet the needs. The greatest need in pregnancy care is "I want to get pregnant," so if we responded to that need straightforwardly, we would end up providing a service that would "get you pregnant. However, that is something no one can guarantee, and it is not what we are aiming for. Therefore, it was very difficult for us to provide value in response to the need to "get pregnant," such as "I want you to face fertility early," "I want you to go through fertility planning based on correct information with as few regrets as possible," and "I want you to properly discuss this with your partner. We changed the content of the service itself about 10 times, and have continued to make improvements even after the service was changed to the current platform of LINE.
Editorial:What kind of services did you provide through trial and error?
Ishikawa:We have worked on media and community building, full monthly fertility support, and a form of service that quantifies fertility and increases those numbers. We have been listening to the feedback of many people and improving our development and offerings.
Editorial:Would you say that the current consultation service using LINE as a platform is almost a completed form of Fami-One?
Ishikawa:No, we believe there is still room for improvement. Ideally, we would like to develop our services to include not only fertility and infertility treatment, but also ongoing support for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare, as well as consultation on menopausal issues. We also intend to develop our services into a form that provides consultation on menopausal issues.
Editorial:So it's a support service from a team of experts in "all aspects of life."
A service that acts as a bridge between "those who are engaged in pregnancy and those who support pregnancy".
Editorial:Can you tell us how many people use Fami-One and what they think of it?
Ishikawa:Currently, 25,000 people have registered with us. We have received comments from users such as "I cried when I read your advice," "I read the replies I received over and over again," and "I now realize that I was suffering from my own problems. I am truly grateful and at the same time, I am determined to continue to provide a solid service.
We also receive reports such as, "I gave birth," or "Thanks to the push you gave me to go to the hospital at that time, I was able to have a baby safely. In the case of our service, we are currently unable to provide support to those who have reported "I am pregnant," but we are still very happy to hear from them after they have given birth.
Editorial:By the way, how many people are on Fami-One's team of experts?
Ishikawa:We have about 20 to 30 people, scattered throughout the country. The type of work varies, some are our regular employees, some are contracted on a monthly basis, and some are contracted on an advice basis. There are also many more who cannot officially join our advisory team because the hospital where they work prohibits them from working on the side, but who are willing to help us with various consultations and one-time tasks (such as speaking at events). After seeing our joint research with the University of Tokyo and the presentation given by a certified infertility nurse from Fami-One at a reproductive nursing conference, we are often contacted by people who want to join our team as a trusted company.
Fami-One is supported by many experts and staff.
Editorial:What are their impressions of working at Fami-One?
Ishikawa:Basically, many of them work in the field of infertility treatment, and at the hospital where they work, they have to deal with patients as "hospital staff. This means that we cannot tell them that they might actually want to stop their infertility treatment or that they might want to consider another hospital. And of course, we cannot give correct information about fertility treatment to those who have not yet come to the hospital. At Fami-One, we are able to go beyond that position and genuinely tell people who are pregnant and seeking treatment everything we think is good for them, and we are also able to talk to people who have not yet come to the hospital. We have had people tell us, "I'm so happy to be a part of Fami One."
Aiming for a world where everyone recognizes and supports "fertility".
Editorial:Can you tell us about the future development of Fami-One?
Ishikawa:First, we would like to strengthen the use of this service by corporate welfare programs and local governments. After all, in order to change the social trends surrounding fertility care, it is important to ensure that companies and local governments throughout Japan provide support related to fertility care and infertility. To this end, it will be necessary to include information on fertility and infertility treatment in training programs for new employees and managers, as well as for those who are involved in fertility-related activities. From the perspective of preventing employee turnover as a welfare program, we have introduced the program to companies such as Odakyu Electric Railway and Mixi Group since September 2018, and have held seminars for Sony, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and the ITOCHU labor union. Currently, we are in the process of introducing the system to several other companies, including Tokyo Metro and Comics. In collaboration with the Marunouchi Health Center, a project of Mitsubishi Estate, we are preparing to develop a new service to create an environment in which women can work comfortably, and as a trial, we are introducing Fami-One for employees, including those of group companies. In addition, for local governments, in FY2020 we will begin offering the "Pregnancy Line Support Project" as a model project to Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture, and in FY2021, in addition to the official offering by Yokosuka City, Fami-One will be introduced to Ora Town in Gunma Prefecture and several other local governments. We hope to further strengthen this initiative in the future.
Various companies and local governments have begun to introduce the system (Editor's note: figures are the number of companies of each size existing in Japan).
We are also working to strengthen our ties with medical care. One of our efforts is to build a system in which Fami One can be more of a "bridge" between medical institutions and patients, in addition to providing support for hospital selection. Another initiative is to conduct joint research with the University of Tokyo to provide medically evidenced-based lifestyle advice that is effective for fertility and infertility treatment. People are very concerned about what to do about fertility and infertility treatment other than medical treatment, so we intend to develop advice based on medical evidence that says, "Doing these things will bring you closer to conception.
Editorial:What exactly do you mean by "acting as a bridge" between medical institutions and patients?
Ishikawa:Patients who come to medical institutions generally consult with doctors and nurses, but there are some consultations that they are too shy to ask for advice. For example, they may ask questions such as, "I am sorry to ask for an explanation of the medicine I have already heard once," "I wonder if the current treatment is OK," or "I wonder if I can transfer to a different hospital. In addition, "non-medical consultations" such as "communication problems between spouses" and "workplace problems related to infertility treatment" are also difficult to discuss, and in the first place, there is the problem of doctors not being able to answer such questions. Therefore, we would like to create a system in which medical institutions and Fami-One share roles, with doctors and nurses at the hospital handling medical matters, and Fami-One providing other services such as explanations about feelings, couple discussions, and medications. We are already working on this concept in cooperation with several hospitals.
Editorial:Partnering with Fami-One is likely to improve customer satisfaction at fertility hospitals!
Ishikawa:We will also strengthen the introduction of the program to local governments and companies because it is necessary to change the world in which companies do not understand or do not give a break to pregnant women even though their fertility is very physically demanding. People tend to say, "Pregnancy care is an issue only for those involved," but we intend to make sure that we spread the word in a way that even those not involved need to know about.
After the interview
As he mentioned in the interview, one of the reasons he launched the service was because of his own experience with infertility treatment, and I felt his strong will to "provide users with an honest service. The world is full of products and services that take advantage of people's anxiety about infertility treatment, as well as dubious information that is not based on correct medical knowledge. I hope that the existence of truly reliable services like Fami-One will reach more people.
Fami-One Official Website
https://famione.com/
Press release on the collaboration between Fami-One and Yokosuka City.
https://famione.co.jp/2020/05/13/yokosukashi/
