Contributing to Society
Health, Medicine, and Sports
Konica Minolta cooperates in Pink Ribbon activities for the early detection of breast cancer and supports the visually impaired around the world. It also promotes sports, by instance by sponsoring running classes led by the Konica Minolta Track and Field Club across Japan.
Helping to Solve Social Challenges Through the Digital Transformation of Nursing Care Facilities
Japan has become a super-aged society. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it is estimated that Japan will be about 340,000 caregivers short of what it needs by 2025, and the cost of the nation's long-term care insurance system continues to rise.
The government of Japan has made a major shift to scientific nursing care in order to promote care that supports independent living. This emphasizes measures to curb the need for nursing care as a cost control measure. However, many nursing care facilities in Japan have not yet fully embraced IT and IT literacy.
To help, Konica Minolta regularly holds free seminars for nursing care providers to help their facilities embrace the digital transformation necessary to enable scientific nursing care. The company is working to help bring IT to these facilities, for instance by providing accessible explanations of scientific nursing care and systems while presenting case studies of actual digital transformation of care facilities.
Konica Minolta began hosting its own seminars in fiscal 2018. The introduction of webinars in fiscal 2020 greatly increased the number of participants, and as of the end of fiscal 2022, a total of about 3,600 people have attended these events.
Since starting in 2016 to commercialize and promote Care Support Solutions, which transform nursing care workflows using ICT, Konica Minolta has been developing services that help improve the quality of life for care recipients. Based on the HitomeQ brand concept of "working with customers to create a world where all stakeholders beam with anticipation," Konica Minolta aims to use HitomeQ Care Support* to work with and help transform nursing care sites.
- *
- Konica Minolta’s HitomeQ Care Support is a service that improves quality of care and operational efficiency. It does this using sensors and smartphones and by employing proprietary image sensing technology and behavior analysis. In addition to system delivery, Konica Minolta provides full system support. This starts with identification of issues through operation diagnosis, and includes installation support, the creation of an organization that can effectively utilize ICT, and even support for ongoing data-based care operations.
Participants at Konica Minolta Seminars
Starting in fiscal 2020, the event has been held online, bringing in 6.0 times more participants in fiscal 2022 than in fiscal 2019.
Facilities That Have Adopted HitomeQ Care Support
(Index with the fiscal 2018 figure set at 100)
The number of facilities that have adopted the Konica Minolta system has increased 2.9 times in four years.
Cooperating in a Project to Eradicate Kernicterus to Reduce Neonatal Mortality (Myanmar)
Transcutaneous bilirubinometer donation ceremony held at Yangon Children’s Hospital on December 27, 2019
Taking a baby’s measurements using a JM-105 transcutaneous bilirubinometer
Konica Minolta participated in the Kernicterus Eradication Project, an international development promotion project for medical technologies, commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, with the National Center for Global Health and Medicine as the responsible entity, conducted in Myanmar from 2017 to 2019. Konica Minolta lent and maintained necessary measuring instruments and analyzed data.
The neonatal mortality rate in Myanmar is said to be about 20 times that of Japan, and kernicterus is thought to be one of the causes. This disease causes abnormal brain functions and cerebral palsy when the concentration of bilirubin, the substance that causes jaundice, exceeds a certain level in newborns in the early stage after birth. In the past, Kernicterus was considered to be one of the three major causes of cerebral palsy in Japan, but it decreased markedly due to early detection and treatment using measuring instruments (transcutaneous bilirubinometers). Due to lack of expertise and resources, rigorous jaundice management was difficult in Myanmar, where there existed no effective early detection system.
In light of this, the goal for the project was set as establishing and spreading a jaundice management process appropriate for the local situation. Dr. Saneyuki Yasuda of Kagawa University Hospital led the project, which started by collecting data with the help of the Myanmar Pediatric Society. Konica Minolta provided training in jaundice management to public birthing center personnel, including the largest obstetrics departments in Myanmar: Yangon Central Women’s Hospital and West Yangon General Hospital, both in the heart of Yangon. Konica Minolta donated eleven JM-105 transcutaneous bilirubinometers to the Myanmar Pediatric Society.
In 1980, Konica Minolta was the first company in the world to develop a transcutaneous bilirubinometer, contributing to the eradication of kernicterus in Japan. Using this project as a model case, the company will continue to contribute to the spread of jaundice management in Asia.
Early Detection of Breast Cancer
Konica Minolta's Pink Ribbon campaign symbol
Konica Minolta, Inc., supplies digital mammography units that are effective for early detection of breast cancer. Naturally, Konica Minolta also supports the Pink Ribbon campaign, which emphasizes the importance of early breast cancer detection, in all Group companies around the world.
Raising Awareness of the Importance of Early Detection of Breast Cancer
China
Women's Health Forum
In China, Konica Minolta (China) Investment continues to work in a variety of ways to promote the early detection of breast cancer.
Between 2007 and 2008, the company held a series of health lectures at Women’s Health Forums in Shanghai and Beijing. Focusing on health risks unique to women and everyday health management, and cosponsored by local women’s associations and libraries, these lectures were attended by a total of over 3,000 participants.
Further in October 2008, the Breast Cancer Early Diagnosis Project was launched in Shanghai promoted by seven Japanese companies, including Konica Minolta. Under this project, the participating companies bore the costs of carrying out checkups of female office workers aged 35 and over, among whom there is a high incidence of breast cancer. By fiscal year 2018, checkups were performed for approximately 2,900 women in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, with breast cancer lectures provided for those who were interested.
Supporting Cancer Advocacy Organizations
The Konica Minolta Group provides support for organizations that assist breast cancer patients and their families in each area.
In North America, Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas, Inc. assists the Susan G. Komen organization and other organizations.
In Australia, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia Pty. Ltd. helps out the Breast Cancer Network of Australia.
In the UK, Konica Minolta provides a range of support to each organization, including monetary donations, donations of its office equipment and supplies, and participation by employee volunteers at charity events and fund-raising activities. Employees of Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd., for example, participate in a charity run organized by Alma Zois-Panhellenic Association of Women With Breast Cancer.
Konica Minolta also supports organizations related to various kinds of cancer across the world, in Northern America, Australia, Malasia, etc.
Social Contribution in Local Sports
In running clinics and jogging classes, Konica Minolta conveys the joy of running and the running knowhow cultivated by the Konica Minolta Track and Field Club over many years. Konica Minolta encourages interaction among community members, from beginners to serious runners, and helps to promote sports through original initiatives.
