Medical note

What Medical note does

Medical Note (株式会社メディカルノート / Medical Note, Inc.) is a Tokyo-based, privately held Japanese healthcare information platform founded in 2014 that connects patients with medical information and providers through its consumer-facing web and mobile properties at medicalnote.jp. The platform aggregates 161,454 hospitals and clinics, 4,812 registered doctors, and 6,855 expert-reviewed articles covering 2,380 diseases and conditions across all 47 Japanese prefectures. Its core products include the main Medical Note site for disease, symptom, hospital, and doctor search; a 24/7 Medical Note Q&A (医療相談) service staffed by physicians and nurses; a specialized Cancer Portal (がんポータル); and Medical Note Expert, a professional-facing portal for registered doctors to manage profiles and contribute content. Native iOS and Android apps extend the platform to mobile users.

The business operates on a hybrid B2C/B2B2C model. General consumers access the platform free of charge, with monetization derived primarily from Amazon Associates affiliate commissions and an inferred subscription or premium tier on Medical Note Expert for medical professionals. The company has raised approximately $11.1M across three funding rounds between 2015 and 2019 from JAFCO, Aflac Global Ventures, and Tokio Marine — both insurance-sector strategics — suggesting early alignment with health insurance distribution. The technology stack is described as a web-based healthcare information platform with mobile applications; it integrates third-party facility data (Meicanpany, Merso) and government registry data (Digital Agency Address Base Registry). No AI/ML capabilities, APIs, or developer-facing tools are disclosed in the available data.

Operationally, the company is headquartered in Tokyo with 51–100 employees and is led by CEO Hiromasa Umeda and co-founder/board member Inoue Sho. All revenue and operating signals are domestic; the platform does not serve markets outside Japan. The company's strategic positioning sits at the intersection of consumer health media, healthcare facility search, and physician-mediated Q&A, with content credibility (expert-reviewed editorial) and nationwide facility coverage as its principal defensible assets.

Name

Medical note

Legal name

株式会社 Medicinal Note

Website

https://medicalnote.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Medical Note (株式会社メディカルノート) is a Tokyo-based Japanese healthcare information platform founded in 2014 that connects patients with expert-reviewed medical content, hospital and doctor search across all 47 prefectures, and 24/7 physician-staffed Q&A, monetized via affiliate commissions and a doctor-facing Medical Note Expert service.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Information Platform

NAICS

Offices of Physicians (6211)

SIC

Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090), Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Second Opinion & Expert Medical Review Platforms (HLALADAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Medical & Clinical Reference (Physicians, Nursing, Allied Health) (EDAGAGAA)

Keywords

• Healthcare information platform
• Medical consultation services
• Hospital doctor search
• Patient provider connection
• Expert-reviewed medical content

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Affiliate Advertising: The website operates Amazon Associates affiliate links, earning commissions on qualifying sales made through the platform.
2. Medical Note Expert (Premium Service for Doctors): A separate premium service for medical professionals (Medical Note Expert) providing enhanced profile and content publication capabilities, likely with subscription or premium tier components.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Medical Note operates a healthcare information platform that connects Japanese patients with medical information, hospitals, and doctors. Its core services include a searchable national directory of 161,454 hospitals/clinics and 4,812 doctors, a content library of 6,855 expert-reviewed articles covering 2,380 diseases, and a 24/7 medical consultation (医療相談) Q&A service staffed by doctors and nurses. The platform is accessible via web (medicalnote.jp) and native iOS/Android applications, with a separate Medical Note Expert portal for licensed medical professionals.

Product overview

Medical Note operates as a unified healthcare information platform consisting of multiple interconnected services. The core Medical Note platform provides disease search, hospital/doctor search, and medical news content, while the Medical Note 医療相談 (Medical Consultation) service enables 24/7 direct Q&A with medical professionals. The がんポータル (Cancer Portal) sub-product offers specialized cancer information with expert interviews, treatment guides, and video content. Additionally, Medical Note Expert serves medical professionals with specialist profile management. All services are accessible via web and mobile applications (iOS/Android), with a unified focus on connecting patients with reliable medical information and healthcare providers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Medical Note Expert: A service for medical professionals offering specialist profile management.
• Medical Note 医療相談

Products and services

• Medical Note (メディカルノート) A web and mobile healthcare information platform for Japanese consumers offering disease/symptom research, a national hospital and clinic directory (161,454 facilities), a doctor directory (4,812 doctors), medical news, and expert-authored articles covering 2,380 conditions. Targets patients and caregivers seeking reliable, specialist-reviewed medical information.
• Medical Note 医療相談 (Medical Consultation) 24/7 Q&A medical consultation service where users can ask unlimited questions to a team of doctors and nurses about diseases, treatments, which department to visit, and other medical concerns, and review past consultations from users with similar issues. Targets Japanese patients seeking professional medical guidance without an in-person visit.
• Medical Note Expert A professional service portal for licensed Japanese physicians to manage enhanced specialist profiles, publish expert-reviewed content and interviews, and engage with patients. Likely includes subscription or premium tier components. Targets practicing doctors and specialists seeking an online professional presence.
• Medical Note App (iOS / Android) Native iOS and Android applications providing on-the-go access to the Medical Note platform, including medical content, hospital/doctor search, and consultation features for Japanese consumers.
• がんポータル (Cancer Portal) Specialized cancer information portal within Medical Note offering cancer-type-specific knowledge, expert interview articles, treatment explanations, and dedicated hospital search functionality. Targets cancer patients and their families seeking expert-reviewed oncology information in Japan.

Quantifiable outcome

• 161,454 hospitals and clinics listed nationwide
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Regional players

• Zocdoc: US-based online doctor booking and healthcare marketplace, allowing patients to search providers by specialty/insurance and book appointments. Comparable in hospital/doctor directory functionality, though geographically restricted to the US.
• Kakao Healthcare: Korean digital health subsidiary of Kakao, providing health content, telemedicine, and AI-based health services. Comparable Asian digital health platform with content and consultation services, though primarily serving the Korean market.

Direct peers

• MedPeer: Japanese doctor community platform enabling peer discussion, medical information sharing, and pharmaceutical surveys. Comparable to Medical Note in serving as a Japanese physician-facing content and engagement platform.
• AskDoctors (Mediplat): Japanese Q&A platform where users ask medical questions answered by verified doctors. Directly comparable to Medical Note's 医療相談 (Medical Consultation) service for consumer-to-physician asynchronous medical Q&A in Japan.
• m3.com: Japan's largest medical professional platform (operated by M3 Inc.), connecting 330,000+ physicians with medical content, clinical decision support, and drug marketing. Directly comparable to Medical Note Expert in serving as a doctor-facing content and engagement platform in Japan.
• CareNet: Japanese medical information site focused on physicians and healthcare professionals, providing medical news, clinical content, and educational resources. Direct peer to Medical Note's content and doctor-engagement offerings.

Broad incumbents

• Healthline Media: Major US consumer health information publisher (owned by Dotdash Meredith) producing expert-reviewed health content. Comparable in operating a large-scale, expert-reviewed medical content platform serving consumers, though with much larger scale.
• Yahoo! Japan Health: Major Japanese health information portal operated by Yahoo Japan/LINE, offering disease search, hospital search, and health content at massive scale. Comparable in providing consumer health information and provider directories, but as part of broader portal offering.

Emerging players

• Welby: Japanese digital health platform focused on patient disease management apps and PHR (personal health record) solutions. Comparable Japanese digital health player addressing patient-side engagement, adjacent to Medical Note's patient information focus.
• Epocrates: US-based clinical decision support and drug reference platform for physicians. Comparable business model of serving as an authoritative medical content and decision-support resource, though focused on US clinicians.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/medicalnote_co
• Facebookfacebook.com/medicalnote.jp
• Instagraminstagram.com/medicalnote_co

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Medical note