Around Beauty Meetup #9: An original experience for people facing social issues and adapting to new cultural backgrounds
2021.12.17Around Beauty Meetup is an event in which a variety of innovators, both internal and external, related to beauty gather and interact at S/PARK. The ninth event was held under the theme of "Challenges to change the culture by understanding the issues of the people involved," and we spoke with Ms. Yukari Tsunoda, CEO of vivola Co., Ltd., a start-up that provides comprehensive support for women's health, focusing on developing and operating “cocoromi”, a smartphone app that allows users to use AI to search for similar cases and treatment information from the fertility treatment database.
While some may regard the word “fertility treatment” as very specific, not only women but also many participants, such as those interested in tackling social issues and those who wish to conduct research in-depth, gathered at this on-line meetup because of the expectation that Ms. Tsunoda's efforts would involve learning about many perspectives of "taking on the challenge of cultural change."
At the opening, Yuko Nakanishi, project leader of fibona, said, "When the external environment surrounding us changes, the definition of beauty changes accordingly. I would be happy if I could be inspired by the beauty of the future as well as future culture by looking at it from various perspectives, including social issues."
The gap between the evolution of lifestyles and the environment surrounding maternity and fertility, with a shadow over the declining birth rate problem
Ms. Tsunoda's presentation began after the participants discussed what they were interested in at the Ice Breaker utilizing online co-editing.
Ms. Tsunoda became a freelancer after experiencing R&D and new business development at an electronics company. After working on about 50 projects involving the creation of new businesses, mainly by large enterprises, over three years, the company established vivola Co., Ltd. in 2020. Ms. Tsunoda started her presentation by talking about why vivola focuses on the social issue of fertility treatment.
Everyone already knew about the declining birthrate and population decline in Japan, but the actual condition was more serious than I imagined. In 2016, the number of births fell below one million, but the number of births in 2020 was projected to fall further to 840,000. In 2021, due in part to the impact of the corona outbreak, the number fell to less than 800,000. On the other hand, there are more than half a million patients receiving fertility treatment. Since fiscal 2022, it has been decided that fertility treatments will be covered by insurance, but it will be increasingly necessary to improve the environment for people who cannot give birth even if they want to give birth.
Women's social advancement is increasing, and the number of women having a freelance career is increasing. At the same time, the age at which women are having their first child is increasing. Studies have shown that the proportion of first births over 35, so-called geriatric pregnancies, which are caused by genetic disorders, rise sharply, and that the risk of death, and miscarriage increases after implantation. However, many people in their early 20s and 30s, who are considered to be at the optimal reproductive age, do not know about this, and instead focusing on their career.
Even in the age of 100 year lifespans, the environment surrounding medical treatment for pregnant women remains unchanged, and the growing gap in modern lifestyles is highlighted by the declining birthrate. Although understanding of the current situation and development of laws through new data are progressing gradually, the goal is still far away.
“Cocoromi”, an application that reduces fertility treatment challenges and reduces distant treatment
However, it is not only medical and social systems that issue challenges. The treatment policies and inspections vary according to the hospital, and high literacy is required for the patient for the judgment and selection. Fertility treatment has a high frequency of outpatient visits and a long waiting time, making it difficult to balance work, and many people give up. Spending a lot of time and money on a seemingly endless, invisible treatment is also a significant burden on patients.
Therefore, in order to reduce the issues faced by patients as much as possible, Ms. Tsunoda began developing Cocoromi. This allows patients receiving fertility treatment to digitally record treatment logs, which is similar to those recorded in notebooks and Excel, without burden. It also allows users to refer to statistical data on people who have succeeded in in-vitro fertilization and homogeneous data that is close to the patient's own situation. Furthermore, they can participate in communities where patients can exchange information with confidence.
Not only can the data evidence for making the judgment material for treatments be obtained, but in the future, the trials of the online medical practice system, which would reduce the impact on work, are also scheduled to start. By collecting data from both the patient side and the medical doctor side, the company aims to use AI to provide medical institutions with individualized optimization programs for treatments and reduce the "inconvenience of getting medical services."
A literacy problem common to cosmetic therapy and fertility treatments that "isn’t taught at schools"
In the latter half of the event, Dr. Kazuyuki Ikeyama, who is engaged in cosmetic treatment for the elderly and cancer survivors at the Social Value Creation Division of Shiseido, and Kiriko Masachika, who developed point-making products at the Shiseido Global Innovation Center was involved in developing the Perfect Cover Foundation, which can cover wounds and the evidence of side effects of treatments, were joined with the facilitation by Yukiko Koga, a member of fibona.
Ikeyama strongly empathized with tackling the problem of elderly people and cancer survivors using cosmetics is the problem of literacy which is required for both patients and medical practitioners. Ms. Tsunoda pointed out that one of the reasons patient literacy doesn’t improve is that there are vast numbers of treatments and, making it difficult to understand clearly.
In addition, issues surrounding fertility treatments have been considered taboo because of sensitive topics, and the fact that they have not been widely discussed also leads to the loss of opportunities for information sharing. The concept of fertility and contraception are covered in school education, but fertility is mostly not covered in gender education. Women who told again and again about the importance of contraception until their twenties are blamed for being infertile after reaching the age of 30. Ms. Tsunoda confided that there are many people saying that they cannot keep up with the discrepancy.
Ikeyama said that "it is similar to beauty and cosmetics." It is unusual to teach useful knowledge about makeup in most schools. As a result, there are many patients suffering from coloring due to cancer who give up on using makeup because they aren’t directly linked to an abundant source beauty. "We've seen a lot of cancer survivors who see the condition of their skin and know the right way to deal with it, and it's important to have literacy," said Masachika, who interviewed a large number of patients during development.
Balancing treatment and work is also a serious issue. "It is necessary to create an environment at corporate seminars using both what can be prepared by the internal system (hardware) and what enhances literacy (software) of other parties." Ms. Tsunoda said. Although people tend to focus on the development of internal systems, it is clear from an example of "a menstrual leave" that the rule tends to simply become a dead letter without any understanding of the system.
The reason for not stopping the challenge of addressing social issues, which is difficult but interesting, lies in the "unforgettable formative experience"
In the latter half, the topic progressed to real-life stories about the origin of the behavior of three people who have improved their careers through adherence to their own beliefs. "I don't think it's surprisingly easy to find friends to tackle social issues in a society or organization where economic activities must also produce results. Still, why do you all tackle this issue, what is the impetus for it, and what are the factors that drive yourself?" asked Koga.
Ms. Tsunoda, who has been receiving fertility treatment as one of his patients for many years, has experienced frustrations and regrets saying, "I would have chosen a more efficient treatment sequence if I’d had more knowledge." Ms. Tsunoda chose how to start a business because she had experienced the difficulty and interesting aspects of business development from scratch in her previous job. "As a startup, I have a lot of opportunities to compete with people younger than me, but I've seen many different kinds of businesses, and I'm the one involved in this business. I'm confident that I understand the challenges I face," she said.
Ikeyama introduced an unforgettable sight at the starting point of the activities of the cosmetic therapy that are currently being addressed.
"I heard this story from a staff member at an elderly care facility who joined Shiseido and worked as a volunteer. There was an elderly man and woman in the facility who’d been seeing each other. One day, the old woman started washing her face with toothpaste. It was not because of dementia, but because that was the only beauty item she had among her belongings. However, when she left the facility, there were many cosmetics lined up on the drug store shelves. When I heard about that, I thought that this situation had to change."
Masachika joined Shiseido with the desire to brighten the world with cosmetics and led her own team to participate in the development of the Perfect Cover Foundation.
"If you try a product under development, a panel test will be held, and everyone who has problems with scratches and bruises will go to the venue. If you use the product to hide the scratches and bruises, they will leave the venue with completely different expressions. When I saw the results of the panel test, I felt the weight and responsibility of what I was doing. Some of them had serious burn marks, but I rather thought "Let's make the products that can cover even this discoloration. Thanks to the unforgettable formative experience, I can believe myself to overcome any difficulties with the development of makeup products.” Masachika talked about her own thoughts and experiences, sharing her fierce spirit of never giving up.
After the panel session, there was a Q&A session and discussion in the small group. In the meetup this time, the percentage of female participants was high, while there were also a lot of questions from men, indicating that the high interest in fertility treatment, while still a black box issue, exceeds gender.
A male participant who had experience worrying about the need for fertility treatment asked, "What do you think of this as an approach to those who don't want to start fertility treatment?" Ms. Tsunoda explained that in addition to the production of the YouTube animation "Pre-ninkatsu" for precondition care, she was proposing, through corporate seminars, screening tests prior to entering fertility treatment and the introduction of optional AMH (anti-mural tubular hormonal) testing for health checkups.
Non-staggering challenges based on formarity experiences involving surroundings and changing culture
At the end of the meeting, project owner Hidefumi Araki gave a closing message. "While understanding the importance of the issue of fertility treatment, there is still concern about the compatibility of social value and economic value," he said. "In the future, companies that can provide social value will be supported. While we should promote social value without hesitation, it is important to first have the idea that economic value will be added as a result. I hope to pave the way."
While diversity is becoming accepted, there are still many cultures in society where a lot of updates have yet to catch up, such as the issues of pregnancy and childbirth and the fact that makeup use for the elderly and cancer survivors has yet to become a norm.
People who are facing the seeds of social issues in the foreseeable future and continue to take on challenges with a solid goal have a strong force to keep them involved. One participant commented, "In this meetup, I learned a lot not only about social issues but also how to confront immediate tasks and issues." The meetup led to the feeling that the increase in the number of people facing social and personal issues inspired by the participants in this event would lead to a culture change and encourage Ms. Tsunoda to take on various challenges, including her own activities.
[Profile]
Yukari Tsunoda (CEO of vivola Co., Ltd.)
Joined Sony Corporation in 2009. After working for R&D in the development of devices, etc., she launched a lifestyle product with colleagues in the R&D laboratory using an in-house new business proposal system. After leaving the company in 2016, she became a freelancer supporting new businesses in various industries, and in recent years has actively participated in the themes of social issues. After experiencing gynecological disorders and infertility treatments, she felt there were still issues in making the treatments understandable and providing access to treatment data. In 2020,s she established vivola Co., Ltd., with women's medical x AI as its business domain. She aims to realize a world in which women can live independently regardless of their life stage through solutions based on data evidence.
★ vivola Co., Ltd.
https://www.vivola.jp/
★ cocoromi, a searching service that assists infertility treatment
https://lp.cocoromi.com/
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