【Seamr Inc.】Eliminating MRI Inspection Bottlenecks in Japan, the World's Most MRI-Dense Country, Through Large-Scale Medical Equipment Sharing

The Paradox of a Nation: Why Patients Wait Months for Scans in the World’s Leading Country for MRI Density

My name is Junya Sano, representative of Seamr Inc. We are on a mission to eliminate the massive time loss in medical access by developing a sharing platform for large-scale medical equipment.

Today, sharing services have permeated our lives, making everything faster and more convenient. Yet, when it comes to speed, the medical industry still faces a major hurdle. While healthcare naturally takes time because it deals with human lives rather than machines, it is unacceptable that patients are forced to wait months before their actual treatment even begins.

In Japan, patients requiring an MRI scan—a crucial diagnostic tool used to visualize internal conditions and determine treatment paths—often have to wait months for an appointment. This is highly ironic because Japan actually has the highest number of MRI machines per capita in the world.

The root cause of this paradox is a severe supply-demand imbalance: 30% of hospitals are extremely congested, while 70% have underutilized capacity. Large hospitals with over 500 beds are flooded with referrals, causing orthopedic surgeons and other specialists to face 1-to-3-month wait times for scans, which delays diagnosis. On the other hand, radiological technologists and administrators at local clinics face pressure from management due to low utilization rates of their expensive MRI machinery.

By matching these two groups, we can eliminate the MRI wait times and accelerate patient treatment. This is why we developed "Seamr"—a sharing platform for large-scale medical equipment.

A 30-Second Booking Flow: Connecting Idle Medical Resources Between Hospitals

MRI is a highly essential diagnostic tool, with 120 million scans performed annually in Japan—a 1.5x increase compared to 2020. We connect large, congested hospitals and local clinics that do not own MRI machines with hospitals that have open scanning slots.

While the joint use of medical equipment is legally permitted under Japanese healthcare regulations, the actual booking process has remained highly manual, relying on paper brochures, phone calls, and faxes. Clinicians spent 15 to 30 minutes searching for available facilities and confirming slots.

By using "Seamr," this analog workflow is fully digitized. Doctors can instantly search across multiple medical institutions and complete a booking in just 30 seconds for a specific 1-hour slot. Patient details, safety precautions, and scanning instructions are all managed within the web app. The doctor simply prints a booking slip for the patient, who then visits the partner hospital to receive the scan smoothly.

A Sustainable Revenue-Sharing Model Creating Win-Win-Win Dynamics

We do not just offer a scheduling tool; we provide a concrete solution to improve hospital revenues.

A single MRI scan generates 13,300 JPY in public health insurance billing. By splitting this revenue among the referring clinic, the scanning hospital, and Seamr (as a platform fee), we build a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

Some might worry that the referring clinic has little financial incentive. However, under the Japanese insurance system, the referring clinic can bill not only for the consultation but also for "computerized image interpretation," "electronic image management," and "initial/re-examination fees." Since Seamr only divides the base MRI scan fee (13,300 JPY), the referring clinic retains a substantial financial upside.

For large, congested hospitals, outsourcing scans frees up internal resources, accelerates patient throughput, and increases monetization. For small clinics without MRIs, this model prevents patient leakage (where patients referred to large hospitals never return) by allowing them to outsource only the scanning function while keeping the patient for ongoing treatment, ensuring stable clinic revenues.

From Tsukuba Proof-of-Concept to Nationwide Scale: The Roadmap to a "Diagnostic OS"

While our immediate focus is Japan's massive MRI market, we plan to expand the service to other large-scale devices, such as CT scanners and DEXA (bone density) scanners. We estimate our SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) to be 5 billion JPY, with a long-term TAM (Total Addressable Market) of 500 billion JPY.

In terms of traction, we successfully concluded our proof-of-concept (PoC) in Tsukuba this March. Since launching full-scale sales in April, we have onboarded 15 hospitals in just three months. Furthermore, we have secured a joint research agreement with the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Akita University for this fiscal year. We will gather clinical evidence demonstrating how Seamr improves scanning efficiency and patient outcomes.

Our business model begins with a matching fee of 10% per transaction (approx. 1,330 JPY per scan). In the medium to long term, we will leverage the accumulated diagnostic data to evolve Seamr into a "Diagnostic OS"—a software suite that guides doctors from initial symptom suspicion to optimal scanning and rapid diagnostic output, transitioning to a high-margin subscription model.

This venture is driven by a unique team: myself, with years of experience as a pharmaceutical MR (Medical Representative); Shirai, a radiologist working at a major university hospital; and Miyazaki, a tech product manager. Together with healthcare professionals, we will build a seamless medical infrastructure. We appreciate your support.

質疑応答・フィードバック

Interviewer (Mr. Toyama): Mr. Sano, thank you for your presentation. I actually fell victim to this exact issue this year. I went to a small clinic, was told I needed an MRI, and was referred to another hospital because the clinic lacked the equipment. However, the appointment was scheduled two weeks later. By the time I had the scan, my symptoms had almost resolved. I have experienced this pain point firsthand.

I have a question: How are scan images and medical records shared between the referring clinic and the scanning hospital?

Mr. Sano: Mr. Toyama, thank you for sharing your experience. Preventing such diagnostic delays is precisely the problem we aim to solve.

Currently, image sharing in Japanese medical institutions relies on writing data to a CD-R and handing it to the patient or mailing it. Our platform initially follows this established workflow. The reason is regulatory: if we integrate direct image viewing and sharing into our web application, the platform itself would be classified as a "medical device," requiring rigorous regulatory approval from the government. Therefore, our strategy is to scale rapidly by focusing on the booking and sharing matchmaker first, while preparing the regulatory filings to introduce image-sharing features in the next phase.

Interviewer (Mr. Toyama): I see. So you are focusing on the booking marketplace first to navigate regulatory hurdles. If you expand your network, it would indeed enable same-day workflows where a patient gets examined in the morning, scanned at a nearby hospital during lunch, and returns to the clinic for a diagnosis in the afternoon.

Mr. Sano: Yes, absolutely. That same-day cycle is fully achievable with our platform.

Interviewer (Mr. Toyama): While medical DX has been discussed for years with electronic health records (EHR) and remote teleradiology, what are the main bottlenecks to expanding your network, and how do you plan to scale transactions?

Mr. Sano: While COVID-19 accelerated medical DX, many hospitals still prefer in-house operations and resist changes in workflows. We address this by introducing a low-friction tool that respects their current clinical habits.

To drive rapid adoption, we are launching an alliance with pharmaceutical companies. Recently, there has been a rise in specialized drugs (e.g., for osteoporosis or dermatology) that cannot be prescribed unless a patient undergoes a scan and receives a confirmed diagnosis via large-scale equipment. Leveraging my background as an MR, we will collaborate with pharma sales reps to educate doctors that they can easily scan and prescribe on the same day using Seamr. This will drive significant transaction volume by tying scans directly to prescription opportunities.

Interviewer (Mr. Toyama): Partnering with pharmaceutical companies is a very smart go-to-market strategy. I hope you scale this service rapidly to save patients from waiting. Best of luck.

Mr. Sano: Thank you very much. We are committed to scaling this infrastructure nationwide.