Invitation for Innovation & Research Webinar

Digital Health & Rehabilitation – Present and future collaboration between Denmark & Japan

Supported by the Royal Danish Embassy, Tokyo

Time: April 25, 2023 from 2.00pm to 4.30pm Japanese time / 07.00 – 09.30 Danish time

Place: Online (Zoom) and at Juntendo University, Bldg. 7, 13F, Ariyama Memorial Hall

The Japanese – Danish Research Network on Telehealth/Telerehabilitation and Welfare Technologies (JD TeleTech) is delighted to invite you to our upcoming seminar on: “Digital Health & Rehabilitation – Present and future collaboration between Denmark & Japan.”

As digital health and rehabilitation continue rapidly evolve, we believe that collaboration between countries is essential to driving research, innovation and improving patient outcomes. This seminar will explore the current state of digital health and rehabilitation in Denmark and Japan, present examples of current research collaboration as highlight opportunities for future collaboration. We are pleased to announce that expert speakers from both Denmark and Japan will attend and share their insights.

The target group for this seminar are researchers and healthcare professionals within digital health and rehabilitation, representatives from companies as well as Master or PhD students.

Download the full program here

It is free to participate in the event.

Registration

Please register at this link before Monday April 17, 2023 the latest.

We hope that you’ll be able to join us for this informative and engaging event.

Best Regards,

Dr. Hiroyuki Daida, Dean & Professor
Graduate School of Health Science,
Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan
Email: daida@juntendo.ac.jp

&

Dr. Birthe Dinesen, Professor & Head of Laboratory for Welfare Technology – Digital Health & Rehabilitation, Sport Science – Performance and Technology,
Department of Health Science and Technology,
Aalborg University, Denmark
Email: bid@hst.aau.dk

Together for a Better Walk

IMASEN Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Aichi, Japan) visited us at Aalborg University as well as the Municipality of Aalborg.

Our mission: to help pre-frail seniors maintaining physical autonomy using the aLQ exoskeleton.

A research project headed by Sport Sciences – Performance and Technology research group in collaboration with IMASEN. This project is an example of how the JD TeleTech brings collaborators from Denmark and Japan together.

Master student in Robotics on an exchange stay at AAU

Koto Sakamoto w Mugyu

Master student Koto Sakamoto from Keio University in Tokyo, Japan is visiting Aalborg University for 4 weeks. The aim of her stay is to see how we work with research in social robots and to test her own prototype of a social robot in a Danish nursing home.

Koto has also given a guest lecture on her development of the social robot “Mugyu” (in Danish meaning “kramme-robot”).

Koto Sakamoto w Mugyu in lab

Visit from Japan

Yesterday, the Center for Welfare Technology had a visit from Japan, where the company RT Works presented a new walker with a motor, so that the elderly can get help with difficult walking.

Group picture at Center for Welfare Technology

There were also researchers from AIST – the national research institution for robots at the meeting.

Group picture at Laboratory for Welfare Technology

Subsequently, the group visited AAU SUND at the Welfare Technology Laboratory, where we discussed cooperation on the development of a new model for evaluating welfare technologies in Japan and Denmark. We see the need for this in both countries, and will cooperate on this in the future.

Visit to Japan January 2023

LOVOT

Professor Birthe Dinesen had a visit to Tokyo and JD TeleTech January 23-28 2023.

It was the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic that Dr Dinesen had a visit to Japan.

The aim of the visit was to meet with current collaborators and to establish new collaborators within JD TeleTech.

Thank you to Rumi at the Danish Embassy in Tokyo for help organizing the visits to the companies and other partners.

Visit Groove-X
Juntendo University

April 25 the JD TeleTech will have a round table at Jutendo University Hospital in Tokyo. Please stay turned on this webpage about more details.

Visit from Tokyo Metropolitan Government on elderly care and technologies

Wednesday the Elderly Housing Unit of Tokyo Metropolitan Government had a visit to the Lundbeck Center, Aalborg Municipality, Center for Welfare Technologies, Aalborg and Laboratory for Welfare Technology – Digital Health & Rehabilitation, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government

The aim of the visit was to learn about elderly care and use of new technologies for future elderly care. The visit was part of the JD TeleTech network.

What did we learn from the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the use of digital technology in healthcare?

Come and participate on August 29-30 at the international conference on “Digital Health Beyond Covid-19: Lessons Learned” at Aalborg University (AAU) in Copenhagen.

The final program is now complete and available here.

You can register for the conference here no later than August 8.

There will be more than 40 exciting presentations from over 10 different countries. The conference is organized by the Transatlantic Telehealth Research Network (TTRN), International Society of Telemedicine & eHealth and AAU. Thanks to the Novo Nordisk Foundation for supporting the conference.

We hope to see you at the conference.

Worlds eldest application developer visited Aalborg University

We are honored that Ms. Masako Wakamiya from Japan today visited Laboratory for Welfare Technology – Digital Health & Rehabilitation, Aalborg University.

Ms. Masako Wakamiya at AAU

Ms Wakamiya is 87 years old and started getting IT knowledge/skills in the late 50s and has become IT evangelist. She is known as the oldest application developer in the world, and because of it, she was invited to WWDC by Tim Cook, CEO, Apple in 2017. When Tim Cook visited Japan, she met him upon his request. Furthermore, she had a talk show with Audrey Tang, IT Minister of Taiwan last year. She has a broad network also in Japan and been respected by the staff of Digital Agency and other IT related agencies/sections in Japan.

Ms. Wakamiya is in Denmark this week exploring how elderly persons use digital services in Denmark and how we deal with digital inclusion in practice. We had a fruitful discussion.

Ms Wakamiya also had a visit at Lundbygades Nursing home in Aalborg Municipality today.

Visit from Japan

Today Laboratory for Welfare Technology – Digital Health & Rehabilitation, AAU and JD TeleTech had visitors: Anne-Marie Thoft, Invest in Denmark; Masaki Teraoka, the Royal Danish Embassy in Tokyo and Akihiro Sakurai, KMD (DNP), Yusuke Matsuura, DNP; Mika Yasuoka-Jensen, RUC; Mao Uchida Japannordic and team.

We discussed the new digitalization strategi in Denmark within digital health and research collaboration possibilities within digital health between Denmark and Japan.

So nice to be able to meet in persons again.

New publication on the use of video games for cardiac rehabilitation

NEW PUBLIKATION – Together with Japanese cardiologist I have the following paper published:

The Potential Application of Commercially Available Active Video Games to Cardiac Rehabilitation: Scoping Review

Background

Commercially available active video games (AVGs) have recently been used for rehabilitation in some specific patient populations but rarely in those with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Commercially available AVGs are designed to increase motivation for continuous play, which could be applicable to the long-term cardiac rehabilitation process.

Objective

To assess the effectiveness of AVG-induced physical exercise, safety management, and patient adherence by applying commercially available AVGs to cardiac rehabilitation.

Methods

Scoping review

Results

Among 120 nonduplicate articles reviewed, 5 (4.2%) were eligible for inclusion, of which 3 (2.5%) were reported by the same research group. The AVG consoles used were Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Wii, and sports-related programs were adopted for the intervention. No adverse cardiac events occurred in the identified studies, and dropout rates tended to be low.

Conclusions

AVGs appear to be safe and feasible for promoting an active lifestyle in patients with CVD. However, the effectiveness of AVGs alone as a therapeutic exercise to improve physical function may be limited.

Link to publication