In today's rapidly advancing, highly digitalized society, the nature of patient communities is also changing significantly. In addition to traditional analogue health communication, virtual health communication has become widespread, and digital tools have become more widely accepted by patients and citizens as a more active medium. In the field of drug development, discussions on patient participation have developed rapidly, and various examples of practice have begun to accumulate. Activities to collect patient experiences more systematically and link them to the development of drugs that meet patient needs are deepening. In order to treat so-called patient experience data as evidence and utilize it for decision-making at various stages of healthcare, it is necessary to gradually and continuously build data through co-creation with patients.

In light of this situation, we believe that the time has come to provide a forum for thorough discussion of the usefulness, challenges, and future of "online communities for those affected," which have been developing in recent years as a health communication tool, and have therefore decided to hold the first "More Together Symposium."

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