Keio University conducted practical training based on community diagnosis as part of an interprofessional education program involving three healthcare faculties: the School of Medicine, the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, and the Faculty of Pharmacy. This training took place in Wakkanai City (Hokkaido), Minakami Town (Gunma), and Mino City (Gifu). Students engaged in data collection, hypothesis setting, fieldwork-based hypothesis verification, and explored solutions to community issues. Through this process, they learned about the importance of experiencing residents' daily lives firsthand, the interconnectedness of various community factors, and collaborative approaches to problem-solving. The program offered students the opportunity to understand community dynamics and teamwork, while engaging in active trial-and-error learning that fostered independent learning and problem-solving skills.

Since 1993, our hospital has been entrusted by the Gifu Prefectural Government with the operation of the home health care system in the region. Hospital healthnurses, keeping in close contact with other medical institutions and self-goverinig bodies, have endeavored to support the health and medical care of home patients.
Initially, there was much to be desired in the way some government offices were addressing to home health care and care coordination for patients when they were discharged from hospital. These inadequacies have largely been corrected and in 1998 a comprehensive home care system came into being.
Our effort to restructure the home care system has been crowned with success in many ways. Formerly there were many cases in which individual organizations rendered services separately, but now hospitals, local medical associations and government offices have come to play on the team, which has made it possible to provide home care effectively and efficiently. Moreover, the hospital staff have become fully aware of the importance of home care.