Shizuka Iida, IIDA CLINIC Director & Chief Urologist: “Our strength is our fine record of over four decades of specialized medical care for kidney dialysis and urinary tract.”

In 1969, former President Osamu Iida, M.D., Ph.D. opened the Iida Urological Clinic in Omuta city, located in the southern part of Fukuoka prefecture, with the aim of establishing the region’s first hemodialysis center. He started the region’s first hemodialysis center in 1971, which has provided medical care for patients associated with either urological disease or chronic renal failure. He was involved in the expansion of hemodialysis medical care in southern Fukuoka prefecture for many years. He was a pioneer in hemodialysis care, having worked in this area for nearly half a century. In April 2006, chief urologist Shizuka Iida, MD, Ph.D., was a deputy director and contributed to the clinic’s development centered on laser-based endourological surgery. He has been working as a director since 2011. Subsequently, in April 2009, Shuji Iida, MD, Ph.D., who is a younger brother of the current director, joined as a deputy director and chief nephrologist to take care of hemodialysis patients. Over the years, Iida Clinic’s medical system, with expert full-time urology and nephrology specialists, has been strengthened. 

In conversation with Shizuka Iida, Director & Chief Urologist of IIDA CLINIC

Q. Can you explain your services in brief?

Our clinic specializes in urology and nephrology. Regarding urology, we mainly perform endoscopic surgery using laser as well as outpatient treatment. The division of nephrology has a hemodialysis care unit, which treats patients with chronic renal failure.

Q. What are the challenges you faced while developing your treatment methods?

With concern to urological surgery, since there are many elderly patients, in order to improve safety and shorten the length of hospital stay, we mainly perform endoscopic surgery using laser equipment, and the average length of hospital stay has reached about 2.5 days. On the other hand, for outpatients’ hemodialysis care, a total of 24 beds are divided into four units (6 beds per 1 unit) so that treatment can be performed comfortably, and the bed spacing is widened to give consideration for patient privacy. In addition, Free Wi-Fi has been installed throughout the clinic so that patients can connect to the Internet.

Q. How does your solution align with the existing medical practice?

First of all, we thoroughly discussed how to streamline existing medical practices. As a result, we thought it was most important to share a huge amount of patient information and make effective use of it. We have made it possible to centrally manage everything from electronic medical records and image storage systems to accounting processing. As a result, we have managed each patient’s information safely, and staff members can always securely access and effectively deliver patient information when needed.

Q. Where do you stand as a company in the current market landscape? And what are you doing to stay ahead of the curve?

We have two important missions. The first mission is to manage each and every patient seriously and provide appropriate medical services to them. We make full use of the latest technology to get the highest clinical outcome with the shortest hospitalization. Moreover, we take into consideration patient privacy and are active in providing a comfortable hospitalization period for each and every patient. Another important mission for us is to be environmentally friendly. In November 2014, we built a new clinic to accommodate the expansion of our business. This clinic has a total floor area of about 1.5 times that of the previous clinic, but it is structured to be a “Smart Clinic” that consumes less electricity and water. In general, hemodialysis requires a lot of electricity and water. Compared with previous methods for administering dialysis treatment, the time required is now shorter but still requires five hours per treatment. To make pure water for dialysis in one go requires a bathtub size of clean water, and half of it is typically discarded after filtering. We reuse this discarded water effectively and subsequently came up with the idea of an energy-saving system that includes creating hot water and electricity via our solar system, rooftop greening, and LED illumination. Today, the number of natural disasters is increasing due to abnormal weather caused by global warming. It is a natural obligation for companies to aim for a carbon-neutral society, and the medical industry is no exception. However, in many hospitals and clinics, the reality is that energy saving is lacking. Therefore, we were the first to launch a smart clinic, and in 2015, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry of Japan (METI) gave us the Energy Conservation Grand Prize in recognition of its energy conservation effect.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have introduced full appointment medical care for outpatients. As a result, it has led to less congestion in the clinic and a reduction in waiting time, and it has become possible to provide higher quality medical services.

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

In Japan, the birthrate is declining, and the aging population is increasing more than ever. It will be necessary to provide advanced and safe medical services to the elderly in the future. In ensuing hemodialysis care, it is necessary to combine exercise therapy and appropriate nutritional management guidance by a dietitian to prevent decreasing the ADL such as locomotive syndrome in the patients. Currently, we regularly measure the amount of extracellular fluid volume and muscle and fat volume in the body by using InBodyTM (multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis system) for dialysis patients and incorporate exercise therapy using exercise bikes and tube training during hemodialysis to prevent muscle weakness. In the urological field, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and kidney stone disease have been increasing in either males or females in the past decades. We have been providing both medical and surgical management for these patients. Renal stones, in particular, are one of the lifestyle-related diseases which are increasing in Japan, as well as in Western countries. Since renal stones are often associated with hyperuricemia and hyperlipidemia, guidance with regard to dietary habits is extremely important for the prevention of recurrence. Consequently, the prevention of urolithiasis has the added benefit of leading to the prevention of metabolic syndrome. In the future, we consider preventive medicine to be important and intend to actively engage with patients in cooperation with our staff.

“We are a clinic which specializes in providing expert care for patients with kidney and renal diseases with two full time specialists who work closely with chief director, who is a pioneer in local dialysis treatment”