[Practical use of E-claim data for regional healthcare planning].

Japanese E-claim data contain comprehensive medical procedures and are adapted nationwide. Almost 94% of hospitals and pharmacies claim medical records for payment electronically. Although the handling and analysis of E-claim data are not as easy as those of Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) data, these data contain important and useful information for the next regional healthcare planning of local governments in Japan. In this paper, we explain some examples of a healthcare delivery system in each region and patients' behavior in Hokkaido obtained from the Joint Program for E-claim database of Hokkaido University Hospital and the Hokkaido local government. Differences between the E-claim data format and the DPC data format are also described in terms of data analysis. Some suggestions are provided for the E-claim data format of the next generation.