Funds acquired from Takagi Seiko Co., Ltd.

MITAS Medical Inc., a provider of ophthalmologic examination service “MITAS” (Located in Minato-ku, Tokyo. CEO: Naofumi Kita) has secured a funding from TAKAGI SEIKO CO. (Located in Nakano-shi, Nagano. CEO: Kazushige Takagi).

Background on Ophthalmology

It is common to find ophthalmologists in cities, but that might not be the case as you go out of cities.Remote areas and islands may not have any ophthalmologists at all. The record says that there are about 690 communities like that in Japan.

If we look outside of Japan, there are countries like Mongolia with difficulties accessing ophthalmologic services due to a big landmass, or like Cambodia with a lack of ophthalmologists to begin with. Many other countries have the same problems resulting in having only one ophthalmologist for 200 thousand people (Japan has one ophthalmologist for 10 thousand people).

As of September 2020, there are about 36 million people losing eye sights in the world including many cases that could have been prevented.

MITAS’ action plan

With the mission of “To provide medical services where it cannot be reached” and collaboration with TAKAGI SEIKO CO., we have created a device which can be attached to a smartphone for anyone to be able to take quality photos of eyes (MS1). These devices are now on market for 80 countries in the world.

Also, with the use of the designated app we have created for “MS1”, we made it possible for non-specialist to consult remotely with an ophthalmologist using information of patients and photos of their eyes.

This service provides Doctor to Doctor examination support to prevent eye diseases by contributing to an early detection for prompt treatment.

MS1

Projects

We have been active in developing countries with problems in ophthalmologic services.

In Mongolia, we have implemented tele-examination system by delivering “MS1” along with the designated app to all clinics in a western prefecture from October 2019 collaborated with Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences and the Ministry of Public Health. As a result, more than 100 cases per month get diagnosed through tele-examination and prevented vision loss due to glaucoma attack in some cases. These results made us realize the impact this service made to the society and the medical service. Not only we contributed to the public health in Mongolia, but also we got many opportunities to grow such as developing a know-how on operating tele-medicine services and gathering data which may be used to make AI examination possible in the future.

Also in Cambodia, our tele-examination has been in place at a foreign-owned general hospital located in Phnom Penh since January 2020. Moreover, being a recipient of “JICA’s SDGs Business Supporting Surveys” at 2020 first round adds motivation to grow more.

We also have started projects in Japan as COVID-19 outbreak has brought more attention to non-contact examination and lead to a change in restriction on tele-examination.

MS1

With the funding we secured, we will strengthen our team, develop new POC (Point Of Contact) devices to broaden the range in examination, and more effort on AI implementation. We will aim to deliver services which prevent sight losses all over the world.

Comment from TAKAGI SEIKO CO.

TAKAGI SEIKO CO, CEO Kazushige Takagi

MITAS MEDICAL has been moving forward with the mission of “To provide medical services where it cannot be reached”. We believe that we can work together to contribute towards the social problem of eye health. As we own production facility and sales channel, MITAS MEDICAL has strong knowledge in software which we are not too good at. We look forward to what we can do in the future as we can complement each other.

Company info.

Company name：MITAS Medical Inc.
CEO：Dr. Naofumi Kita
Founded：April, 2017
Location：8F AOYAMA TOWER PLACE 8-4-14, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 107-0052, Japan https://www.mitasmedical.com/