EURETINA 2024: The cooperative work of an international team

Taiji Sakamoto, MD, PhD, spoke about being a board member of EURETINA and his motivations to be a part of the cooperative work that is a hallmark of EURETINA. The interview took place at the EURETINA 2024 meeting held in Barcelona, Spain, on September 19-22, 2024.

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Taiji Sakamoto, MD, PhD: Hi. My name is Taiji Sakamoto from Kagoshima University, Japan. Yes, I started my work as a basic scientist, and I did a lot of study in molecular science, and I came back to the clinical theater. I did a lot of surgery, and now I became the president of [the] society. At the beginning. I didn't want to be involved in social issues because my family is a family of politicians. And over time, I came to understand, if you want to save every retinal detachment patient, you have to affect society. Otherwise you can't save every retinal detachment patient, especially for women. There is still gender discrimination in Japan and the US, probably in Europe. We have to work much harder to solve that problem.

That is the reason, from my 30-year experience. It is very difficult. When I was young, I thought, "I don't have to think about society or politics or anything." And gradually I came to think, if you want to help the people, you have to think about patients, environment, family, or politics, and many things. Probably aging will tell you, but from each age, from my experience, doctors have law differently. When I was young, I did a lot of surgery, but that is the only solution. I was too young to affect the society, but I'm now very old to think about the whole, you know, vision of the medical science.

I'm the board member of EURETINA, and I learned a lot. EURETINA has a long range perspective, strategic perspective. Of course, they think patient first, but at the same time, they are very realistic. They have to work with a company and a drug company or many companies to get money, but that money is used for patients or science. This is very, very, you know, exceptional, very respectful organization. Many people are very friendly, and it is more, I feel, more freedom, in comparison to that happened Asia, or that happened in the US, probably due to the leaders of EURETINA. They are not selfish, but they are thinking about the whole of Europe, whole world, and for the sake of patients' health. It is very respectful. I think next 20 years, next 10 years, will be very difficult time, but I hope EURETINA will keep this attitude more. EURETINA is our hope.