The Board of Directors has appointed Dr Okabe Sena as Executive Director of the Foundation from 1 June 2022. She succeeds Hayashida Kōji, who retires after nineteen years as Executive Director and thirty-one years with the Foundation.
Dr Okabe is an ophthalmologist who ran a public eye hospital in Osaka for nine years, where she introduced audits of surgical outcomes that the Foundation later adopted for every hospital it funds. Earlier in her career she worked as a cataract surgeon in Kathmandu and Mombasa, in posts the Foundation funded.
Dr Okabe has said that her first priority will be finding out what happens to patients who do not come back for follow-up, and publishing it.
Mr Hayashida led the Foundation through the founding of the Independent Implant Register and the Chiba Centre, and through its response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.