We all recognize that the society, as well as medicine, is rapidly changing now. All the existing values are questioned. We must question ourselves, "What is the significance of the Department of Ophthalmology, Yamagata University Faculty of Medicine?" The answer is to provide an environment where excellent ophthalmologists can grow. Although "excellent ophthalmologists" may be differently defined, they should treat patient with a high ethical sense, fight against diseases using high technology, and develop novel treatments with their own intentions and abilities.

In the future, it will be rather risky to rely on organizations to develop their own carriers. No organization is flawless and ever remains comfortable for the member. However, excellent ophthalmologists are always demanded by the society. Thus, the significance of our department is to provide an environment to grow excellent ophthalmologists, who are desired by the society, will survive any situation, and can lead a satisfactory life as an ophthalmologist.

Specifically

1. Learning basic ophthalmic techniques is set as a goal in the early (2 years of ophthalmologic training, excluding the super-rotation period) and latter periods.
2. Specialized clinical group are rotated during the training period to experience all fields of ophthalmology.
3. State-of-the-art ophthalmic medical care and science can be learned at an early stage to facilitate the setting of a step-up pathway towards a high goal as an ophthalmologist. Participation in international and national conferences is encouraged in the early training period.
4. Advanced medical care should be developed as a role of university hospital. Opportunities to participate in the development are provided for young doctors. Clinical experience is critical for introducing advanced life science into clinical settings. However, new ideas are more important. I always feel that suggestions by young doctors in clinical settings are very significant.
5. Personnel interchanges are encouraged between young doctors at university hospitals and doctors at general hospitals. Clinical experiences at both hospitals are essential to develop excellent doctors. At university hospitals, advanced medical care can be learned and instructions are directly given by many competent instructors inside and outside universities. At general hospital, medical treatments must be performed at doctors' own discretions and responsibilities, and clinical experiences are accumulated to evaluate their own clinical abilities and determine their specialized fields. Through such experiences at university and general hospitals, young doctors develop their clinical abilities.

The main roles of university hospitals are described above. Subsequently, young doctors select their own directions and stand on their own feet. There are various courses, such as developing clinical abilities through education and research at their own university hospitals, developing clinical techniques through clinical practice at different organizations, and engaging in basic research at graduate schools. Of course, we will fully support their further steps. However, the most important thing for the doctors is to develop and maintain morals and motivations during training periods. Unless they put effort in the wrong way, this would definitely help them grow into excellent ophthalmologists. Then, finally they would be able to make their own decisions of life. This is how to develop "independent ophthalmologists in the era of self-responsibility," i.e., ophthalmologists who can cooperate with colleagues and find a good mentor to improve their abilities at their own discretions.

As described above, we aim to develop ophthalmologists and advanced medical care. In addition, we must provide a friendly environment where colleagues help each other and establish a good relationship to survive the hard times together. Our ethics are essentially based on kindness and we must actually show it to patients. Although this is included in the above training system, I believe that it should be learned directly from good senior doctors, as I experienced. I believe that good relationships with senior doctors help it. The environment where senior doctors train and protect their juniors cannot be created by the training programs. These cannot be achieved intentionally, but fortunately, in our department, young doctors are voluntarily improving their abilities with pleasure towards their goals. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have interest in our department.

Target disease and contents and characteristics of medical treatments

Target diseases

Vitreoretinal diseases, cataract, strabismus/amblyopia, corneoconjunctival diseases, glaucoma, uveitis, tumor, eyelid diseases, and orbital diseases

Contents and characteristics of medical treatments

For vitreoretinal diseases, state-of-the-art vitreoretinal surgery is performed with a surgical microscope attached to an OCT device to obtain detailed information on the retina during surgery and educate medical students and interns. We are actively performing drug treatments, such as anti-VEGF therapy, for age-related macular degeneration and biologic drug treatments for non-infectious uveitis. Japan's leading experts are involved in the treatments in the fields of ocular tumor, pediatric ophthalmology, cornea, and glaucoma.

Treatment records

Annual number of operations

975 cases (2006), 1,016 cases (2007), 1,056 cases (2008), 1,084 cases (2009), 872 cases (2010), 967 cases (2011), 1,036 cases (2012), 1,140 cases (2013), 1,310 cases (2014), 1,159 cases (2015), 1,078 cases (2016)