The Forum invited top experts and leading enterprises in the ophthalmology field in China to gather online to analyze the current situation and pain points in China’s ophthalmic medical field from multiple perspectives and look into the development of ophthalmic devices. The Forum was live-streamed via innomd.org and other platforms and watched by a total of 6,500 people.
The first half of the Forum was chaired by Professor Zhang Ming, executive member of the Ophthalmic Devices Specialized Committee, CAMDI (“Specialized Committee”) and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University.
The opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Jiang Feng, Executive Vice President of CAMDI and Chairman of the China Strategic Alliance of Medical Device Innovation. First of all, on behalf of CAMDI, he congratulated the Specialized Committee on the successful holding of the Forum by overcoming difficulties and expressed thanks to the experts and entrepreneurs for their support of the work of the Specialized Committee. Then, he said that the Secretariat of CAMDI would continue to support the work of the Specialized Committee as always and expressed the hope that the Specialized Committee would take the Forum as a new starting point to conduct industrial innovation with manufacturing enterprises and experts, promote industry exchanges and integration, make breakthroughs and contribute to the ophthalmic medical field.
After the opening ceremony, Mr. Wang Liping, Chairman of the Ophthalmic Devices Specialized Committee, CAMDI, member of the Johnson & Johnson China Presidents’ Council, Vice President of Johnson & Johnson AMO Greater China, Australia and New Zealand and Chairman of Johnson & Johnson Global Community Impact in China, made a presentation titled “Current Development Situation and Trends of Ophthalmic Devices Industry in China”. He overall introduced and analyzed the development situation of eye health management, healthcare and ophthalmic devices in China and pointed out the work direction of the Specialized Committee. He said that Chinese people’s awareness of and demand for eye health management are gradually improving, and there are many challenges and huge opportunities in the industry. He said that the ophthalmology market in China is in its initial stage, in which public and private hospitals develop synchronously, and the next decade will see rapid development. He emphasized that the Specialized Committee should focus on promoting technological innovation, strengthen the building of industry norms and standards amid industry innovation and development, promote the healthy development of the industry and provide high-quality products to meet people’s demand for eye health. He said that as the first Chairman of the Specialized Committee, he would live up to expectations, shoulder the mission and contribute to the development of ophthalmic devices.
Professor Sun Xinghuai, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and Head of the Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science of Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, made a presentation titled “Establishing an Innovation Supply and Demand Platform for Ophthalmic Products to Promote Innovative Research and Transformation of Vision Science”. He analyzed the course of ophthalmic devices from theory, experiments, clinical practice to mature products. He pointed out that the development of ophthalmic devices in China should not only target advanced technologies in the world but also expand the promotion and application of appropriate technologies according to China’s actual situation and meet China’s overall economic development and consumer power of society. He said that it’s important to develop innovative sci-tech achievements into innovative products instead of only publishing SCI papers, and it’s important to transform them into products, technologies and concepts. He emphasized the need to establish some innovation cultures to create some innovation atmospheres and the need for an innovation chain guided by research objectives, scientific management and capital.
Professor Lyu Fan, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, made a presentation titled “Myopia Prevention and Control and Medical Device Development”.
She introduced the work of the state key laboratories, engineering technology research centers, clinical medical research centers and NMPA key laboratories in the field of visual health and analyzed in detail the R&D, industrialization and marketization of various devices in the systemic engineering of myopia screening, prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment. She said that the key feature of the development of the global sci-tech revolution today is the transformation from science to technology and the industrialization of major basic research results, however, it is very difficult worldwide to build a bridge between academia and industry.
Mr. Xie Jiangbing, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and Chairman and General Manager of Eyebright Medical Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., made a presentation titled “Extended Range-of-Vision Intraocular Lens Development and Prospects”. He introduced the development history of intraocular lenses (IOLs) and the current situation of IOLs in the market. He said that with the development of the times and the increase in the lifespans of the elderly, patients have developed higher demand for quality of life, expecting not only to see clearly but also to see comfortably, with which, cataract surgery has entered from the era of sight-restoring surgery to the era of refractive surgery. He said that the concept of refractive cataract surgery was put forward overseas 15-20 years ago, however, the development of the new technique has not been smooth, some new problems are identified in clinical observation, and there is a process of re-understanding the product design concepts. He said that there are different voices in the international academic community regarding frontier and hot concepts and there is a need for consensus and clear definitions and criteria.
Dr. Liu Dong from the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation, NMPA and the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University made a presentation titled “Foundations and Research Applications of Ophthalmic Medical Devices”. He focused on introducing the material and device research progress made by Professor Chen Weirong’s team at the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University in three aspects including ocular drug carriers, new IOLs and wearable wireless corneal bandage contact lenses.
The second half of the Forum was first chaired by Liu Wu, Secretary General of the Specialized Committee and Deputy Director of Ophthalmology of Beijing Tongren Hospital.
Dr. Jiang Feng, Executive Vice President of CAMDI and Chairman of the China Strategic Alliance of Medical Device Innovation, delivered a speech again, in which he briefly analyzed the policy environment for doctors’ entrepreneurship from perspectives of the policy environment, current development situations and challenges of overseas and domestic medical device industries and practical experience in doctors’ entrepreneurship, gave related suggestions, and introduced the services of innovation and entrepreneurship service platforms in the industry.
Zhang Dong, Head of the Medical Affairs Department of Instruments Division of EssilorLuxottica SA, a vice chairman unit of the Specialized Committee, made a presentation titled “Jointly Exploring New Opportunities in the Industry and Building Professional Consensus”. He expounded on EssilorLuxottica SA’s patient-centered tenet, category hierarchy, positioning and concept of establishing a vision ecosystem. He expressed the hope to promote ophthalmic digital healthcare and telemedicine with the help of the platform of the Specialized Committee and explore with clinical personnel in product development, verification, improvement and standardization to form consensus and better serve patients.
Bi Hongsheng, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and President of Affiliated Eye Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, made a presentation titled “Thinking about the Production-Education Integration System for Optometry Technologies”. He put forward that the barriers between universities, hospitals and industries should be broken down to transform achievements and patents into products. He mainly shared the work and experience of the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the International College of Ophthalmology and Optometry of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Shandong Academy of Eye Disease Prevention and Therapy, the Shandong Ophthalmology Medical Union, and the Prevention and Treatment Center for Children Visual Impairment of Shandong Province in terms of building the talent cultivation system, combining Chinese and Western medicine, and public health.
Ms. Xie Xin, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and China Director of Clinical & Professional Affairs and Greater China Director of Medical Affairs of Beijing Bausch & Lomb Eyecare Co., Ltd., made a presentation titled “Thinking about the Innovative Development of Soft Contact Lenses”. She shared the history of Bausch & Lomb growing from an optical store in 1853 gradually into a world-leading ophthalmic enterprise and shared the technological innovation solutions of Bausch & Lomb for myopia prevention and control, people with dry eye, eye diseases, post-operative treatment, and functional vision correction. She said that Bausch & Lomb keeps looking for opportunities for innovation and development in China and has launched strategic partnerships with Boao Hope City, Eye Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University and Eye Valley, China. She said that Bausch & Lomb is very willing to establish stable and complementary strategic partnerships with social forces to further develop the brand, investment, talent and research.
The final session of the Forum was chaired by Yan Hong, executive member of the Specialized Committee and President of Shaanxi Ophthalmology Hospital.
Professor Xu Xun, Vice Chairman of the Specialized Committee and (Shanghai) Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Ocular Diseases, made a presentation titled “Myopia in Children and Adolescents and Standard Values of Related Eye Parameters”. Starting from clinical practice, he introduced criteria related to myopia screening and application criteria for axial length, analyzed the shortcomings, and expressed the expectation that deeper axis and hyperopia reserved surveys can be conducted nationwide in the future.
Feng Jun, Vice President of Aier Eye Hospital Group, introduced the situation of “Ophthalmic Industry Chain Investment”. She said that the development direction of patient satisfaction, employee pride, social recognition, counterpart respect and partner win-win has paved the way for the high-quality development of Aier Eye Hospital Group. She said that the Group currently has a presence in Europe, Asia and America, with more than 15 million outpatients received and more than 1.20 million surgical procedures performed annually, with 816 ophthalmic institutions worldwide. She introduced Aier Eye Hospital Group’s international layout, hierarchical chain model, platform department building, talent development channels, Aier School of Ophthalmology, Aier Research Institute of Ophthalmology, digital intelligent management system and practice of social responsibility.
The final part of theme sharing was concluded with the presentation titled “Future Work Planning for Ophthalmic Devices Specialized Committee, CAMDI” by Professor Liu Wu, Secretary General of the Specialized Committee and Deputy Director of Ophthalmology of Beijing Tongren Hospital. In conjunction with CAMDI’s advantages and the Specialized Committee’s characteristics, Secretary General Liu Wu focused on introducing the Specialized Committee’s working mechanism and plans to interact and communicate with related competent industry departments and hold meetings, training sessions and research projects in the field of ophthalmic devices.
The final roundtable forum was chaired by President Yan Hong and attended by Bi Hongsheng, President of Affiliated Eye Hospital of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xie Xin, China Director of Clinical & Professional Affairs and Greater China Director of Medical Affairs of Beijing Bausch & Lomb Eyecare Co., Ltd., Feng Jun, Vice President of Aier Eye Hospital Group, and Dr. Liu Dong from the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University. The experts discussed the future development of the Specialized Committee, large enterprises’ support of innovation, clinicians’ participation in product innovation and international experience, and demands for support policies.
Finally, Mr. Wang Liping, Chairman of the Specialized Committee, made the concluding remarks. Once again, he thanked the experts and enterprises that supported the Forum and industry colleagues who listened to the remarks and presentations throughout the process. He expressed the expectation that the Specialized Committee could bring into play its platform advantages in connecting industry-university-research-application in the field of ophthalmic medical devices and promoting medical-industrial integration and create an ecosystem for the benign development of ophthalmology with the joint support of multi-faceted and multi-channel talents, technologies and industries, and invited colleagues in the industry to keep following the dynamics of the Specialized Committee and actively participate in various activities to contribute to the ophthalmic medical device industry.