Video Feature

Vol.5, October 2015

Mamoru Takase

Senior Manager
Medical Professional Education
Johnson & Johnson K.K. Medical Company

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) offers a wide range of medical devices including artificial joints, and instruments for laparoscopy and thoracoscopy surgery.

Our primary mission at the Tokyo Science Center (TSC) is to provide training programs for the appropriate and safe use of medical devices for the treatment of patients.

Advanced medical technologies have led to more complexity in medical devices such as those used endoscopic surgery.

In 1992, J&J opened the ‘Medical Innovation Institute of Technology (MIT)’ in Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture, for endoscopy trainings for healthcare professionals. The center aimed to contribute to surgical outcomes through training opportunities when laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery was developed in 1990 in Japan.

Over the years endoscopic surgery proliferated, and the center had a limited capacity for responding higher training needs. So, J&J decided to establish TSC at Kawasaki’s King Skyfront to expand training opportunities.

Thanks to the location close to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), TSC can attract healthcare professionals from Japan and overseas. In fact, there is increasing demand from healthcare professionals in Asia, with higher needs in learning surgical procedure by Japanese doctors. We provide international programs to get together with healthcare professionals from other countries including Asia.

The international programs organized at TSC are conducted in English.

TSC welcome doctors from various fields of medicine including neurosurgery, orthopedics, cardiovascular medicine, and diabetes as well as surgery.

Examples of training programs for Medical Doctors and nurses include minimal invasive treatment sessions focused on laparoscopy and thoracoscopy; X-ray based orthopedics; angiography in our catheterization laboratory; appropriate use of self-monitoring of blood glucose meters for diabetes;

Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, the appropriate and safe use of medical devices leads to the most effective treatment outcome.

One of the important features is that our instructors are surgeons with many years of experience in manipulating medical devices. Their surgical techniques and demonstrations of appropriately using of our medical devices offers young doctors first hand insights into performing a wide variety of surgical procedures.

Many Medical Doctors from Japan and Asia visit TSC. We want to respond their needs and contribute to improvements of medical devices to match the size of Japanese physicians. .

At TSC, we strive for innovative training programs. Recently, we are implementing joint development of ‘artificial organs’ with our partners. These are brand new and fabricated using new materials for clinical applications including cauterization, ultrasonically activated scalpel, and autosutures.

We invite Japanese skillful doctors in their fields as instructors of our training programs. Feedback from young doctors participating in these programs shows that they really benefit from lectures by skilfull doctors. In some cases they focus on keeping contact with the instructors after the seminars. So the training programs provide valuable networking opportunities for doctors.

Also, There are participants from Asia are eager to study Japanese Doctors’ ‘procedures’. Our training programs enable international networking as well.

Today, it is said that there is a deficiency of surgeons in Japan. In an effort to encourage more students to consider careers in surgery, J&J organize so-called “Black Jack Seminar” with surgeons for students from elementary to high school from around the nation. Now that we are located in Kawasaki – a city with a strong focus on science - we plan to work with local hospitals to organize the seminars for children in the city to increase awareness of careers in surgery.

Just like CIEA, LiSE, and iCONM that are already located in KING SKYFRONT, many more leading institutes are expected to come to the area.
At TSC, we welcome professional clinicians, who participate in training courses. We would like to connect our visitors with the researchers at other facilities here. This will be our way of contributing to growth and development of KING SKYFRONT.

Medical doctors and clinicians in Japan have an excellent reputation in Asia, Europe, and U.S.A. At J&J, TSC also receives strong attention from around the world for becoming a flagship training center for doctors in Japan and Asia. Hoping that many more doctors in Japan will deliver medical care from KING SKYFRONT to the world, we would like to keep providing such trainings in the future.