Osaka Hospital launches project to safely utilize generative AI for healthcare workforce improvements
Date: 26 Feb 2026
Japan Community Healthcare Organization Osaka Hospital (JCHO Osaka Hospital), Fujitsu Japan Limited, and Fortience Consulting Inc. have launched a project to safely integrate generative AI across all medical operations at JCHO Osaka Hospital. With support from Microsoft Japan, the team intends to build a model other public and general hospitals can follow.
Since November 2024, the hospital has used generative AI for non-clinical work like meeting minutes and a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) staff chatbot. Those early wins set the stage to extend AI into clinical workflows.
What's going live and when
- Generative AI services for creating discharge summaries and supporting nursing handovers.
- Go-live targeted for June 2026 at JCHO Osaka Hospital.
- Development of internal guidelines for AI use, hospital-wide information infrastructure, and clear operational governance.
Why this matters for hospital leaders
- Workforce relief: Reduce time spent on documentation so clinicians and nurses can focus on patients.
- Consistency and clarity: More standardized discharge summaries and handover notes can help cut errors and rework.
- Safety-first adoption: Built-in guidelines, governance, and an information backbone to keep use cases controlled and auditable.
- Repeatable playbook: The partners plan to share learnings to accelerate AI adoption and DX across other institutions.
Scope and approach
Fujitsu Japan will introduce generative AI services for clinical documentation (discharge summaries) and nursing communications (handovers). The hospital, with Microsoft Japan and Fortience Consulting, will formalize policies, roles, and technical safeguards so staff can use AI confidently day to day.
The RAG-based chatbot already in place for staff support shows a path to controlled knowledge retrieval with traceable sources. The same philosophy-safety, quality, and measurable workload reduction-will guide the clinical rollout.
Leadership and collaboration
- Hiroya Kuwahara - Head of Healthcare Business, Fujitsu Japan
- Toshirou Nishida - Director, JCHO Osaka Hospital
- Norihiro Shimizu - Head of Healthcare, Microsoft Japan
- Takuya Shigenobu - Social Value Creation Division Head, Senior Managing Director, Fortience Consulting
Dr. Ryuji Hamamoto, Representative Director, Japanese Association for Medical Artificial Intelligence, said: "This is an excellent project that safely implements generative AI for clinical document creation and integrates governance and education. Ensuring safety, reducing the burden on those working in the field, and improving quality is extremely important. I look forward to this project's nationwide expansion."
Practical takeaways for your hospital
- Start with defined, high-burden use cases (e.g., discharge summaries, nursing handovers) and measure time saved and quality gains.
- Publish internal AI guidelines covering data handling, clinical oversight, escalation, and auditing.
- Invest early in your information architecture: access controls, logging, and model update processes.
- Create a governance forum that includes clinical, IT, compliance, and frontline staff to keep adoption safe and useful.
Learn more
Background on RAG for controlled knowledge retrieval: Microsoft Learn: Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Healthcare solutions context: Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare
If you're planning hospital-wide adoption, here are resources that can help: AI for Healthcare and AI Learning Path for Medical Records Clerks.
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