Automating "Pre-Consultation" with AI Phone x Medical Triage AI: Nationwide Rollout in April 2026
Dr.JOY successfully trialed an AI phone system for hospital pre-consultations, automating 77% of calls. Nationwide availability is planned for April 2026.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: March 30, 2026 at 18:00
- 🔍 Collected: March 30, 2026 at 22:56 (4h 56m after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 22, 2026 at 07:28 (536h 32m after Collected)
Dr.JOY Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and Physician: Hiroaki Ishimatsu, hereinafter "the Company") was selected for the "FY2025 Testbed Demonstration Support Project (Okinawa Prefecture Subsidy Project)" conducted by Okinawa Prefecture, and in collaboration with Medical Corporation Jinaikai Urasoe General Hospital, conducted a demonstration experiment of a "Pre-consultation" support service utilizing AI phones from November 10, 2025 to February 27, 2026.
In this demonstration, we verified a mechanism that automates everything from interviewing patients about their symptoms to determining the urgency of medical consultation by linking AI phones for hospitals with medical triage AI. During the demonstration period, approximately 77% of consultations were completed via AI phone, confirming both a reduction in the burden of telephone response on the medical frontlines, especially for nurses, and an improvement in convenience for patients.
*This service does not perform medical practices, but aims to support primary reception before consultation.
## 600,000 hospital telephone consultations nationwide per day
In Japan, approximately 600,000 telephone consultations occur daily at about 8,000 hospitals, resulting in an average of 25 hours of telephone response time per hospital. In particular, consultation inquiries such as "Should I see a doctor right now?" are concentrated on the main telephone line, causing issues such as difficulty in connecting to reservation lines.
Additionally, because there is no place to consult at night or on holidays, it is not uncommon for anxious patients to visit emergency outpatient departments even if their symptoms are mild. Such situations not only make it difficult for nurses to focus on their primary duties but also lead to operational burdens on medical institutions and strain on emergency medical services.
## What is Pre-consultation?
- [Reception]: Patients call the dedicated dial for pre-consultation. The AI grasps the content and supports reception to initial interviewing.
- [Analysis/Sharing]: Estimates the degree of urgency and recommended clinical department, and shares a summary report within the hospital.
- [Operation]: AI primary reception -> Analysis -> Nurses call back in order of highest severity and priority of consultation.
- [Infrastructure]: Maximum simultaneous incoming calls: 100 lines (best effort) / 24-hour response (excluding planned outages and maintenance). Calls are automatically converted to text and shared within the hospital.
*Recording and text conversion are conducted after obtaining consent in accordance with our policy and hospital regulations.
## Overview of the Demonstration Experiment
This demonstration aims to verify the effectiveness of a pre-consultation support system that links AI phones and medical triage AI in order to solve issues such as "cannot connect" and "cannot answer" in medical institution telephone consultations.
When a patient calls for con
In this demonstration, we verified a mechanism that automates everything from interviewing patients about their symptoms to determining the urgency of medical consultation by linking AI phones for hospitals with medical triage AI. During the demonstration period, approximately 77% of consultations were completed via AI phone, confirming both a reduction in the burden of telephone response on the medical frontlines, especially for nurses, and an improvement in convenience for patients.
*This service does not perform medical practices, but aims to support primary reception before consultation.
## 600,000 hospital telephone consultations nationwide per day
In Japan, approximately 600,000 telephone consultations occur daily at about 8,000 hospitals, resulting in an average of 25 hours of telephone response time per hospital. In particular, consultation inquiries such as "Should I see a doctor right now?" are concentrated on the main telephone line, causing issues such as difficulty in connecting to reservation lines.
Additionally, because there is no place to consult at night or on holidays, it is not uncommon for anxious patients to visit emergency outpatient departments even if their symptoms are mild. Such situations not only make it difficult for nurses to focus on their primary duties but also lead to operational burdens on medical institutions and strain on emergency medical services.
## What is Pre-consultation?
- [Reception]: Patients call the dedicated dial for pre-consultation. The AI grasps the content and supports reception to initial interviewing.
- [Analysis/Sharing]: Estimates the degree of urgency and recommended clinical department, and shares a summary report within the hospital.
- [Operation]: AI primary reception -> Analysis -> Nurses call back in order of highest severity and priority of consultation.
- [Infrastructure]: Maximum simultaneous incoming calls: 100 lines (best effort) / 24-hour response (excluding planned outages and maintenance). Calls are automatically converted to text and shared within the hospital.
*Recording and text conversion are conducted after obtaining consent in accordance with our policy and hospital regulations.
## Overview of the Demonstration Experiment
This demonstration aims to verify the effectiveness of a pre-consultation support system that links AI phones and medical triage AI in order to solve issues such as "cannot connect" and "cannot answer" in medical institution telephone consultations.
When a patient calls for con