I came up with the idea for Medifellow’s service while returning from an academic conference in Philadelphia in 2013. At JFK International Airport, I met a Japanese person living in New York who told me that although she could speak English at a conversational level, she found it difficult to understand medical terminology and diagnoses. She said she couldn’t find a Japanese doctor in New York and asked if I would work in New York.
At that moment, I thought that if we could provide remote medical consultation from Japan through the web, this problem could be solved. Since then, I have been considering the possibilities of providing services from various perspectives. In recent years, companies and hospitals in Japan have begun providing remote medical consultation through the web, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has issued guidelines for remote medical consultation. However, there are few services for foreigners living abroad.
The name “Medifellow” incorporates the meaning of “fellow”, or “comrade”. With the idea of providing high-quality medical information to patients who are worried about their health abroad, I decided to launch the medical consultation service “Medifellow” based on second opinions, using my career as a clinical doctor and clinical researcher.
CEO
CEO M.D.
Takashi Niwa
CEO graduated from Aichi Medical University School of Medicine in 2005 and has worked as a respiratory physician at Kanagawa Prefectural Cardiovascular and Respiratory Center since 2017. He also served as a clinical research manager and respiratory interventional supervisor at Kurashiki Central Hospital while working at the center.
He is a specialist and instructor in general internal medicine, respiratory medicine, and bronchoscopy, and has multiple achievements and awards from domestic and international societies such as the World Conference of Lung Cancer, the Asia Pacific Society of Respirology, the European Respiratory Society, and the American Thoracic Society. He is currently also a member of the clinical guidelines committee and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s designated rare disease research team, working towards the development of interventional treatment for chest vessels and bronchoscopic diagnosis and treatment.
COO Bachelor of Pharmacy
Udai Ikeda
CMO graduated from Gifu Pharmaceutical University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2008 and has experience in hospital management consulting. They have worked to improve the management of approximately 30 hospitals, including university hospitals, local government hospitals, and public hospitals. The achievement hospitals are featured in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ management improvement casebook. CMO has also served as a lecture for prefectural officials and many other workshop instructors, and after that, they gained experience in recruitment support consulting in the HR industry. They are currently engaged in cross-border career change and employment support.
CMO M.D.
Erina Tabata
CMO graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in 2011 and has worked as a respiratory physician at the Kanagawa Prefectural Cardiovascular and Respiratory Disease Center since 2016, after working at the National Hospital Organization Tokyo Medical Center. In addition to being a specialist in respiratory medicine and a general practitioner, CMO has presented at multiple international conferences and has received awards from the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.
