News

Osaka - Tokyo (Japan), May 29, 2019 - Maruho Co., Ltd. ("Maruho", Headquarters: Osaka, Japan, President and CEO: Koichi Takagi), announces today that it has launched the smartphone application "Atopi Note" for patients with atopic dermatitis. Welby Inc. ("Welby", Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan, CEO: Takeshi Higiki), and Maruho jointly developed the application. Welby operates the app while Maruho promotes it.

Atopic dermatitis, also known as atopic eczema, is a skin disease that results in main symptoms of itching and inflammation that repeat in a cycle of exacerbation and relief.¹
Treatment needs to be continued with patience², and it is said that efficient communication and an establishment of trust between a doctor and patient are important factors that influence the improvement of treatment results.³


The "Atopi Note" application launched today enables patients to feel aware of the progress of their symptoms and the effects of their treatment. It was developed with the purpose to facilitate communication between patients and doctors by allowing patients to provide information such as photographs at a medical examination. Maruho hopes that by recording and managing the degree of itching, photographs of the affected area, and times when applying medicine, patients and parents of children with atopic dermatitis will see an improvement in medical adherence.*

Maruho, specializing in dermatology, launched the "Nikibi Log" app for acne patients, jointly developed with Welby on March 4, 2019. Maruho will continue to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of people by providing scientific solutions useful for skin health. Welby continues to lead the Japanese Personal Health Record (PHR) service to realize patient-centered medical care in the future with the vision "Empower the Patients".

*Adherence: Refers to the extent that a patient actively participates in treatment that corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care provider

1. Norito Katoh et al: The Japanese Journal of Dermatology 128 (12), 2431-2502, 2018
2. Tamotsu Ebihara: MB Derma 268, 11-17, 2018
3. Takeshi Nakahara: Progress in medicine 38 (5), 477-482, 2018

Application Information:
Name: Atopi Note - Skin Condition Management App
Release Date: March 29, 2019
Download method: Downloadable from the App Store or Google Play (free)
App Store：https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app//id1440454887?mt=8
Google Play：https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.maruho.adnote&hl=ja

（Main features of Atopi Note）

Function 1: Record Your Symptoms
You can record the degree of itching and when medication is applied. You can take pictures of skin symptoms and save them separately according to specific parts of the body. In addition, the appearance of a rabbit character encourages you to continue recording entries in a fun way.

Function 2: Support for Medical Treatment and Skin Care
You can check weather information that effects atopic dermatitis (weather, dryness, ultraviolet rays, pollen*). In addition, you can set reminders to prevent forgetting to apply medicine, and there is a notification function for your next medical visit.

*Pollen information is available only from February to May

Function 3: Review
You can check the degree of itching registered in Function 1 presented in graph form. You can also check the pictures of skin symptoms in a list by region. This helps to inform a doctor of changes in symptoms and treatment progress during a medical examination.

About Maruho
Maruho Co., Ltd. has its headquarters in Osaka and leads Japan in research and development, manufacturing and commercialization of dermatological products. Founded in 1915, Maruho has 1,512 employees, and net sales were approximately 78.57 billion yen in its fiscal year ending September 30, 2018. Pursuing its long-term corporate vision of "Excellence in Dermatology," Maruho is striving to improve the health and quality of life of people all over the world.
For more information, please visit https://www.maruho.co.jp/english/

About Welby
Welby Inc., which was founded in 2011, is one of the biggest mobile/digital health platform operators in Japan and have been providing various medical apps for both patients and HCPs as the certified medical device company. Welby Inc. makes an open platform for personal health records and data aggregation, which can connect to medical devices, activity trackers and manual-input data from lab tests or prescriptions. One of the applications "Welby MyKarte" is the smartphone apps for patients with lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension to monitor the blood glucose and blood pressure. Welby Inc. also works directly with large, global pharmaceutical companies altogether, making apps for lifestyle-related illnesses, chronic pain, central nervous system diseases, oncology, immunology, and rare diseases.

About Personal Health Record (PHR)
A personal health record (PHR) refers to health and medical information that is managed electronically by a patient. In recent years, PHR is referred to in a broad sense as all the health information collected by a system. This data includes numerical data from smartphones such as blood pressure, weight, blood glucose levels, etc., lifestyle data, data from examinations acquired in cooperation with medical institutions, drug prescription records, etc.