Macnica Macnica Headquarters: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture; President: Kazumasa Hara) is a total service/solution provider in semiconductors, networks, cybersecurity, and AI/IoT. In collaboration with professors, we will conduct joint development toward the digitalization of "frailty prevention and improvement services" based on evidence from epidemiological research. We are pleased to announce that we will be providing this service free of charge* to local governments who wish to undergo an initial screening for frailty.

As the aging society progresses, one of the social issues is "frailty," in which the physical strength of the elderly decreases and they become frail. Due to recent measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is necessary to avoid places where people gather, and it continues to be difficult for the elderly to engage in activities such as "commuting places" as before, and in addition, the range of activities is limited due to refraining from going out. As a result, the number of elderly people who are experiencing effects on physical and cognitive functions associated with the corona disaster, such as a decrease in physical activity, unbalanced diet, and reduced opportunities for conversation, is rapidly increasing (also called corona frailty).

From research on frailty, we know three things:

1) Frailty increases with age
2) Frailty is one of the risk factors for certification as requiring support or long-term care
3) Frailty and pre-frailty can be improved by face-to-face (including remote) exercise intervention

In recent years, the importance of frailty prevention has been attracting attention in order to curb the ever-increasing nursing care costs. Diagnosis including frailty has started as a questionnaire for the elderly. However, the frailty diagnosis currently provided by local governments is only for the elderly in the later stages of life. In addition, there are not many local governments that are able to use the diagnostic results to implement exercise interventions for frailty and pre-frailty people with the aim of improving their health condition.

At Macnica, we aim to develop digital services to prevent and improve frailty and provide them at low cost to as many people as possible, in order to help the elderly live rich and healthy lives both physically and mentally. Now, by providing initial screening for frailty free of charge to local governments, we will be able to visualize the frailty status of even more elderly people.We will also collaborate with local businesses and facilities to provide exercise programs to improve health status. We will contribute to improving the quality of life and revitalizing communication between elderly people.

Professor Emeritus Kumagai of Kyushu University has experience based on past academic demonstrations (Sasaguri PoC, Itoshima PoC), and has the know-how to collect demonstration data using reliable experimental protocols. . For non-frailty people, frailty prevention is prepared, and for pre-frailty people, a frailty prevention exercise program is prepared to improve itself. Through systematic confirmation, we aim to maintain the QoL of the elderly and realize an active life.

Through this collaboration, we will jointly develop a "frailty prevention/improvement service" based on epidemiological research evidence provided by Kyushu University Professor Emeritus Kumagaya, which will be available "anytime, anywhere, and for anyone." The concept is to provide "frailty prevention and improvement services" to many elderly people in a short period of time, and aim to quickly resolve the social issues of elderly frailty and ever-increasing nursing care costs. Macnica will develop, implement, and operate the service's system based on the evidence-based frailty program and advice from Kumagai Kyushu University Professor Emeritus and his years of research into frailty, as well as Macnica 's digital and security knowledge and system operation strengths. We provide total support as your general point of contact. Regarding the first version of the digitally-based "frailty prevention and improvement service," we will proceed with system development and structure construction with the goal of releasing it in April 2022.

The service will be provided free of charge to local governments that wish to undergo the initial screening for frailty, which is included in the digitally developed "frailty prevention and improvement service" developed by Macnica. Please see the Company web page for details.
https://www.macnica.co.jp/business/healthcare/products/139590/index.html