Since its founding, Hara Medical Clinic, has produced a number of notable achievements, including the first successful pregnancy from a frozen embryo in the Kanto region, and a successful pregnancy for the oldest recorded patient in Japan through in-vitro fertilization (at 48 years old). The achievement drawing the greatest attention recently, however, is surely our success in the cultivation of menstrual blood-derived stem cells (MenSCs) for the first time in Japan. Although in the field of regenerative medicine, research into iPS cells and other stem cells is advancing day by day, a major research outcome that would enable clinical application in the field of gynecology was yet to be achieved.
As a result of our research, however, we were able to create stem cell supernatant fluid, successfully guaranteeing safety for use using patients’ own menstrual blood. The shortcut to success began in 2016, when we began research focusing our attentions on stem cells in menstrual blood. We began clinical application in 2018, and are currently accumulating foundational data.
Today, the advance of women into society and late marriage is progressing, and the number of infertile couples is increasing year by year. There are many women wishing to have a baby while at the same time maintaining a balance between their work and home lives. In order to cater to this desire we must continue to pursue our studies and to establish a treatment policy that is suited to our key strength of personalized medicine. The female body is very delicate, and every woman has a completely different constitution. For this reason, it is meaningful for us to place greater importance on personalized medicine than anywhere else, and to introduce a style of treatment that is tailor-made to suit each individual patient.
To do so, our clinic has a team of eight doctors to help patients consider treatment plans. As a basic rule, I check patient considerations for treatment myself, in person, and conduct over 90% of consultations myself.
We also have a general medical treatment facility opened to provide finely tuned pregnancy support, and offer an original bone squeezing therapy to patients. By developing our support framework from various angles, and combining it skillfully with our services in personalized and regenerative medicine, we are aiming to further improve pregnancy rates.
Pregnancy rates for in-vitro fertilization in Japan are currently among the lowest in the world. Due to slow progress in amending applicable laws and easing regulations for the medical field as a whole, Japan is struggling to keep up with global advances.
In particular, there is low flexibility in medical support at university hospitals and other such institutions, making it difficult to cater to patients on a personalized basis.
One of the reasons why I decided to open this clinic was that I wanted to resolve those kinds of issues, and to offer personalized medical treatment catering to the needs of individual patients. This enables me to offer what I consider to be the best methods of treatment for each patient. We can also quickly incorporate and offer anything that might be beneficial to our patients, such as by introducing the latest medical devices, or cutting-edge therapies being pioneered overseas.
This approach leads to us finding methods that will enable patients to become pregnant as quickly as possible, with the shortest possible period of treatment. In this way, we have achieved personalized medical care designed to match the needs of each individual patient. We must not miss the chance of a pregnancy (for which there are only 12 opportunities per year) due to delays in the advancement of Japanese reproductive medicine.
Looking ahead, I want us to continue in our role as doctors offering the best possible methods for enabling pregnancy, and to help as many women—and people struggling with infertility—as possible.
To be useful in supporting all aspects of women’s lives, we are also investing our efforts into enlightening them about key issues such as uterine/cervical cancer, and testing for rubella (also known as German measles).
Moving forward, we will continue to provide safe, cutting-edge technologies with shorter treatment periods based on cognitive information processing, and to provide a diverse range of support, so that the Hara Medical Clinic may be known to many as a clinic where they can become successfully pregnant.
