A study tour is a nice way to explore a foreign country. It often seems like a holiday to an interesting place. However, the aim of each study tour is, as the name implies, to ‘study’. Therefore, the description of the scientific research of this study tour is presented here.

Introduction

The learning objective for this tour is to understand the similarities and differences between the Netherlands and Japan, to examine principles for them and to investigate the consequences for our field of interest. Before the actual tour each participant will contribute to the investigation by exploring parts of the research question. The goal of this investigation prior to the study tour is to:

1. Broaden international knowledge, especially about the Netherlands and Japan
2. Be able to explore and explain the differences in health care between both countries and be able to predict the consequences for different subsectors
3. Write a scientific report about our research question
4. Be prepared before going on the study tour
5. Get to know each participant of the tour

Theme and Research question

Before going deeper into the theme and research question of this study tour, first an explanation about its name. The name Daidō-shōi is literally translated as; ‘Small differences, big similarities’. Daidō-shōi is also used to express the Japanese phrase; ‘similarities outweigh the differences’. Japan, with its expressive culture, “strange” language and ancient history, seems to be very different compared to our Dutch western nation. Nevertheless, Japan and the Netherlands share a small part of their history by Dejima, a Dutch trading post, on an artificial-island in the bay of Nagasaki, from 1641 to 1859. From there the Dutch medical knowledge was distributed throughout Japan, under the name ‘Rangaku’, which means ‘Dutch Learning’. Because the Netherlands and Japan share this basic knowledge about health care, we are interested how each methodology has developed separately in the following centuries. These changes could be developed due to differences in geographical orientation, culture, politics, and so on. It would be very interesting to see whether we are able to define the most important similarities and differences in health care between these two countries. Therefore, our theme is:

‘The similarities and differences between the Japanese and Dutch technology in health care’

With this theme, we aim to investigate both similarities and differences, in order to get a full view on the possibilities and challenges in innovations on the field of technology in health care. Health care literally means; the care for a patient’s health. In this investigation, health care is specified to all processes involved in a patient’s health. This investigation is specified on the fields of the master tracks of the participating students, Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Technical Medicine (TM). These students form a bridge between the technical and medical knowledge. Summarizing it may be said that the concept health care covers a wide field of interest. Therefore, when using the term ‘health care’, we aim at processes from management, tissue engineering and rehabilitation to signals and robotic or imaging techniques, which are all meant to improve the care for a patient’s health.

Following the theme and the field of interest for the participants of this study tour, our research question is defined as:

‘What are the similarities and differences between Japan and the Netherlands on the field of technology in health care?’

Because, this is still a very broad research question, the research is divided into three subquestions which results in a macro, meso and micro investigation. These subsections and their goals are:

Macro question

‘What are the major similarities and differences between influencing factors on the development of technology in health care in Japan and the Netherlands?’

• Including the exploration of Japan and the Netherlands
• Making our own country the implicit reference
• Enabling an expectation framework, formulate a context for the meso and micro investigations

Meso question

‘What are the similarities and differences between the factors influencing the implementation and development of technology in human health activities sectors in Japan and the Netherlands?’

• Study of selected subsectors interesting for our research question
• Sectors are defined by the International Standard Industrial Classification of all economic activities (ISIC)1

Micro investigation

‘What are the similarities and differences in technology in health care between Japan and the Netherlands concerning specific research fields?’

• The research fields are defined by the companies and investigation institutes to be visited during the actual visit to Japan
• Research before, and the actual visit of a number of selected organizations and companies, results in a comparative investigation and lead to answer of the research question

Prior to the tour, the macro and meso questions are to be answered. These answers are gathered in this preliminary report. While visiting the companies and organizations in Japan, answers on the prepared questions of the micro part should be gathered. This investigation is to be completed after the study tour, by defining the answers on the research question, combining the macro, meso and micro parts of the investigation.

To illustrate the structure of this investigation, see the figure below:

A combination of the macro, meso and preparation for the micro investigations, creates the context for the actual tour, published in the preliminary report. This is a preparation for the micro investigation at the companies and institutes in Japan. Together they will answer the research question, which is represented in the final report.