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Located in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi, the Japan International Eye Hospital (JIEH) operates as a hospital specializing in ophthalmology, while also offering the care of an optician. Paris Miki Holdings Inc., the hospital’s parent company, is currently expanding its business activities worldwide. The hospital’s conception came about after an encounter between the former chairman of Paris Miki and a Japanese ophthalmologist who volunteered to improve eye care in Vietnam. The Optos retinal imaging device contributes to the hospital’s efforts, that are committed to providing higher-quality ophthalmic medical care for the local community.
A passion for improving ophthalmic medical care in Vietnam
In Vietnam, there are many people who lose their eyesight due to poverty and a lack of dissemination of medical technology. As of 2015, there were about 500,000 people afflicted with blindness throughout the country, and about 66% of these cases were attributed to cataracts*1. While improvements are currently being made, efforts are still insufficient.
Paris Miki Holdings Inc., which has more than 90 years’ history as an optician, established the Japan International Eye Hospital (JIEH) in October 2014. Located in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi, the hospital was established to support the activities of Dr. Tadashi Hattori – an ophthalmologist who has been volunteering to perform free cataract surgeries and improve eye care in the country. Paris Miki Holdings Inc. executive officer Yuji Kayama provided further insight into the conception and development process, explaining, “Our company currently operates 109 branches in 12 different countries and regions, as well as its 650 branches throughout Japan*2. For about 10 years, we have been working on various collaborations between cutting-edge eye care and high-quality opticians with the goal of becoming a global hospitality brand.” When asked specifically about the impetus behind the establishment of the JIEH he explains, “I heard that it all started when Dr. Tadashi Hattori, an ophthalmologist who had been volunteering in the region for many years, and Hiroshi Tane, our previous chairman, happened to meet and empathized strongly with each other’s thoughts and passions.”
- *1Source: Vietnam news website VAITJO article, based on JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) data distributed in October 2015. Japanese only.
https://www.viet-jo.com/news/social/151012061152.html - *2As of March, 2022.
The Optos retinal imaging device contributes to patient-first medical care
Mr. Yosuke Aoyagi who is a director of the local subsidiary that runs JIEH explained, “The JIEH provides the same standard of medical services in Vietnam as in Japan. To achieve this, it employs skilled local and Japanese staff such as ophthalmologists, engineers and nurses, and actively introduces the latest medical devices and treatment techniques available globally. Hospitality is also emphasized in the levels of patient care, utilizing the Paris Miki spirit of ‘customer first’. Our hospital performs many advanced surgical procedures and conducts retinal examinations to check the eye condition before and after surgery. In order to make these examinations faster and more accurate, we introduced the Optos Daytona ultra-widefield retinal imaging device for the first time in Vietnam, in 2020.” Mr. Aoyagi continued, “The Daytona can acquire retinal images with an ultra-widefield of 200˚, covering approx. 80% of the ocular fundus with a single capture, without mydriatic and without any contact. Since this makes it possible to check the periphery of the fundus via a super-clear image, it has become much easier for doctors to explain the condition of the eye to patients.” In addition, because this equipment doesn’t require use of a mydriatic agent to open the pupil during the examination, the waiting time of approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour after applying instillation is eliminated. This approach is beneficial to patients because it allows them to return to everyday life right after inspection.”
The Optos Daytona ultra-widefield retinal imaging device has also brought about certain positive changes to the technicians and nurses who operate the equipment. Mr. Toshinao Mihara, marketing manager, explains, “Until now, only doctors could really have a deeper understanding of the retinal periphery condition. However, since this Optos system enables us to see it in a single image, nurses and engineers can also gain a common understanding, such as by knowing, ‘this is the lesion that the doctor was talking about’.
Through such retinal imaging, doctors, patients, technicians and nurses can share and understand the same issues, which makes diagnosis and treatment much easier. Furthermore, they can all realize and share facts, such as that there are a surprisingly large number of people with problems in the periphery of the retina, and that people who have severe myopia accompanied by deformation of the eyeball are more likely to develop retinal detachment.” He continues, “It has helped us realize that it is extremely important to work on controlling the progression of myopia, not only from the point of view of an ophthalmologist, but also by making use of our expertise as an optician and combining eyeglass and contact lens technology.”
- *Comments are based on personal experiences and do not guarantee the same outcomes.
Into the future
Finally, we enquired about the cooperation between the JIEH and the local Vietnamese community, and its future prospects.
Mr. Kayama said, “When establishing our hospital, we received a lot of support from various fields through both the Vietnamese and Japanese Embassies and government agencies. Since the current director of the hospital is an authority in the Glaucoma Society, we value close cooperation with local medical institutions, such as receiving patients’ referrals from many ophthalmic hospitals in the area.”
Mr. Mihara continued, “From a marketing point of view, we will continue to gather a variety of information and work on how we can achieve a higher level of Japanese-style medical services at local prices. I’d like to make our hospital a place where every patient can feel glad to have visited us, including satisfaction with the level of hospitality.”
Mr. Aoyagi concluded, “While maintaining the current quality level, we would like to expand the scale of our hospital so that we can provide our services and medical care to even more people. In addition, we will explore the possibility of training ‘eye specialists’ in conjunction with medical universities in Hanoi.”
The JIEH, which is covered in this article, has accepted about 70,000 patients and performed about 30,000 surgeries to date*. In addition to providing a full range of eye care services, the hospital also has an optician’s store annexed to the hospital – offering patients appropriate glasses and contact lenses for each individual need. Thanks to the shared passions of a doctor and business executive to help those in need, this incredible venture has created a new-style eye hospital. While continuing to work earnestly to reduce the risk of blindness and support eye health in Vietnam, the hospital has initiated improvement of eye care services within the country. We hope that Optos ophthalmological devices will continue to support the eye health of patients in Vietnam.
- *As of March, 2022.