Establishment and assessment of wide area medical information network system in Hokkaido

To support regional medicine in rural area of Hokkaido, we have tried to establish advanced medical information network system. At first we connected two rural town hospitals with SMU (Sapporo Medical University) and performed medical data transmission via the Internet. We used IPsec and regional Internet exchange (IX) for ensuring security and stability. As a second stage, we established a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a gigabit network with a 120 km radius in order to connect three medical schools (Hokkaido University, Asahikawa Medical College and SMU) with 10 hospitals. These experiments were performed with Internet technology such as VoIP (voice over IP), VPN, IPsec. As a third stage, we have coined VGN (Virtual Global Network) a concept, which includes IPv6 Topological Addressing Policy. According to the policy we established the IPv6 network to connect SMU with Obihiro area hospitals and a preschool for disabled children. Here, we described details of these experiments in terms of applications and network technologies.