Pei-Chang WU MD

Authority of Myopia

Pediatric Myopia Control, Cataract Surgery, Retinal Detachment Surgery, and Treatment of High Myopia Complications

Intro

Diagnosed with myopia back in the primary school years, Dr. Wu, Pei-Chang knew the inconvenience for children with nearsightedness. After becoming an ophthalmologist, Dr. Wu became fully aware that myopia not only causes sufferers to wear glasses but also becomes the main cause of blindness in Taiwan due to myopic complications. Since the government and the general public were not fully aware of and not paying attention to the issue of nearsightedness, Dr. Wu decided to pursue a PhD degree and start from both basic medicine and epidemiology to prevent myopia in Taiwan. In order to treat the complication of blindness caused by high myopia, Dr. Wu introduced a new treatment for choroidal neovascularization in high myopia. An intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor gave a fairly good therapeutic effect. In terms of epidemiology, Dr. Wu was working hard to prevent the next generation from developing high myopia by publishing the world's first study using education policy and that involves government intervention in the schoolchildren's eye care in the later. By promoting outdoor activity during class recess for primary school students, the incidence of myopia had been significantly reduced by half. With these world-renowned achievements, Dr. Wu actively promoted public eye care to the Ministry of Education and the Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, supplemented by evidence-based medicine (EBM) to provide the government with a standard guideline for myopia prevention and policy development. All these are done with a view to reducing the harm caused by myopia to the general public. In the clinical, Dr. Wu introduced the latest 0.01% to 0.05% low concentration of Atropine and Orthokeratology in pediatric ophthalmology, which effectively reduced the myopia progression in school students by more than 50%, and prevented the children from developing high myopia and further blindness.

Playing piano and practicing calligraphy since childhood, Dr. Wu had laid a solid foundation for his outstanding surgical skills of cataract surgery or retinal detachment surgery with high levels of complexity including scleral buckling, vitrectomy, posterior macular buckling for foveoschisis, and macular hole retinal detachment. Always striving for perfection, Dr. Wu has been working hard to reduce the incidence of cataract infections and complications of high myopia with a view to providing better clinical services to benefit more patients.

Specialties

Pediatric Myopia Control, Cataract Surgery, Retinal Detachment Surgery, and Treatment of High Myopia Complications

Treatment Experiences

Effectively Reduces the Rate of New Nearsightedness by 50% (8% vs.17.5%)

The prevalence rate of myopia in Taiwan college students is as high as 90%, among which 20-30% of high myopia is at the risk of developing blindness. Dr. Wu advocates that the outdoor activity during class recess can effectively reduce the rate of new myopia by 50% (8% vs. 17.5%). The outstanding achievement was published in the top journal of ophthalmology and was listed as the headline news of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Furthermore, it was also reported by Nature and attracted global attention.(Fig1) Figure 2 shows the effective retard of myopia progression in children treated with low concentration atropine in long-term in comparison to the controls.

Experiences

Education

MD and PhD, Kaohsiung Medical University

Experiences

1999/10~2000/9: Director-General, Southern District Ophthalmologists Association

2005: Infection Prevention & Control Commissioner, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

2006: Director of Local Medical Conference, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2006: Medical Record Management Commissioner, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

2006/2 ~ 2008/12: Information Commissioner, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2006/2 ~ 2008/12: Eye Care Commissioner, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2008~2009: Medical Record Reviewing and Supervising Physician, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

2009: Animal Laboratory Management Commissioner, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

2009: Consultant of Sports Administration, Ministry of Education

2009: Specialist Qualifications Board Officer, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2009: Reviewer of the Medical Journal, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2007: Eye Care Advisory Commissioner of Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare

2009~Today: Reviewer of the Medical Journal “Ophthalmic Laser and Surgery Image”

2011~Today: Reviewer of the Medical Journal “Plos one”

2012~Today: Reviewer of the Medical Journal “Experimental Eye Research”

2010.1~ 2010.12: Visiting Scholar in University of Southern California, USA

2012.11~Today: Director of Taiwan Retina Society

2014.12~Today: Supervisor of the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2014.12~2017 12: Educational Commissioner, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2014.12~Today: Member of the Review Committee, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2014.12~2017 12: Co-Convener of Vision Protection and Blindness Prevention Committee, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2014.12~2017 12: Editorial and Publishing Commissioner, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2015: Director of the 50th Local Medical Conference, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2017~Today: Director of Taiwan Macula Society

2017~Today: Convener of the Optometry Committee, the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

2015~Today: Principle investigator of Schoolchildren eye care Program in Ministry of Education

2011~Today: Chair of the Hospital Dormitory Community Management Committee, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

2018 Commissioner of Kaohsiung City School Health Committee

Current Appointment

Director and Associate Professor of Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Director of Myopia Prevention & Control Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Associate Professor of Chang Gung University

Commissioner of Kaohsiung City School Health Committee

Principle investigator of Schoolchildren eye care Program in Ministry of Education

Director of Taiwan Retina Society

Supervisor of the Ophthalmological Society of Taiwan

Awards

2014 Who’s Who in the World

2014World Leading Expert: Lifetime Medical Achievement Award

2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century

Outdoor activity during class recess is the world's first case of public health policy that involves government intervention in the school children's eye care. By promoting outdoor activity during class recess for primary school students, the incidence of myopia has been reduced significantly. The outstanding results were published as the headline news on the official website of American Academy of Ophthalmology, covered by a wide range of famous media throughout the world including The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Mediscape, and other popular medical journals. Furthermore, Nature magazine also made a story coverage of the study result of Southern Taiwan in 2015. Pei-Chang Wu, Chia-Ling Tsai, Yi-Hsin Yang, Hsi-Kung Kuo. Outdoor activity during class recess reduces myopia onset and progression in school children. 2013, Ophthalmology (Impact factor 8.02) & Ophthalmology. 2014 Apr;121(4):e20-1
From 2012 to 2014, Dr. Wu hosted and completed a multicenter myopia prevention & control program for primary schoolchildren whose schools were distributed to northern, central, southern, and eastern parts of Taiwan as promulgated by Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare. Afterward, the study results were awarded the Dr. Mel Shipp Best Abstract Award at the 43rd Annual American Public Health Association (APHA) conference of 2015. In January 2018, Dr. Wu published an important paper in the medical journal "Ophthalmology" of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (impact factor 7.5), which was the first time in the world that outdoor activities were proven to be effective in preventing myopia even without exposed to intensive sunlight. Also, outdoors activities were proven to be partially beneficial in slowing down the deterioration of myopia in schoolchildren who have already developed nearsightedness.

Medical Contributions

As our earliest concept that was first proposed to the global medical community in 2006, clinical physicians may choose to prescribe a low dose of Atropine to treat myopic children with fewer side effects. At present, a patent was granted to the medical technology and a technology transfer has been carried out.

It was found that the deterioration of myopia can be effectively slowed down with a low dose of Atropine that exhibits a great treatment effect in the long run.
(1) Prevention of myopia progression with 0.05% atropine solution. Lee JJ, Fang PC, Yang IH, Chen CH, Lin PW, Lin SA, Kuo HK, Wu PC. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther. 2006 Feb;22(1):41-6.
(2) The long-term results of using low-concentration atropine eye drops for controlling myopia progression in schoolchildren. Wu PC, Yang YH, Fang PC. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther. 2011 Oct;27(5):461-6.
A low dose of atropine with 0.025% that prevents schoolchildren from developing myopia was published in the 2010 Journal of Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Publications

70 seminar papers published both domestically and aboard;

84 research papers published both domestically and aboard;

Book

Child Could Be Free From Developing Nearsightedness (publisher: Owl)

Representative Papers: from 2013 to 2018

Case Sharing

Retina Detachment Without Seeking for Medical Help for One Week: The School Girl Nearly Lost Her Eye Sight

Liberty Times 2016-09-01

Reported By Journalist FANG,CHIH-HSIEN from Kaohsiung

A high school girl was nearsighted with 9.0 diopters in both eyes and had obscured vision in one eyes. After one week, she sought help from an ophthalmologist and was diagnosed with retina detachment in her left eye. Just like the entire wallpaper peeling off, the retina detachment had invaded her macula and reduced her vision to 20/200. By performing scleral buckling, the ophthalmologist had successfully saved her left eye from the risk of blindness.

High Myopia May Cause Thinner Retina

Dr. Wu, Pei-Chang, Director of the Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, pointed out that the high school girl was diagnosed with high myopia. Since the patient with high myopia has longer eyeball diameters, they are more likely than others to develop retinal detachment. Despite her obscured vision, the high school girl did not seek medical help for one week. It was not until the school opened on the 30th day of the month and she couldn't see any words written on the blackboard did she sought for medical help under the companionship by her family members.

Dr. Wu explained that the optical coherence tomography revealed that the high school girl had three small holes in her retina, causing eye fluid to leak from her vitreous humor. With retina detachment invading her macula, there was only a 40% chance that her vision can be restored to 20/40 or better even if the eye surgery was successful.

Among eye surgeries that treat retina detachment, both scleral buckling and vitrectomy had a success rate of 80%~90%. However, since the latter might lead to early cataract after surgery, it was not suitable for the young patient and scleral buckling was chosen instead. After emergency surgery in the afternoon of the 30th day of the month, the young patient's retina was attached and she was discharged from the hospital 2 days later.

Since the high school girl's mother and elder brother were both high myopic patients, the family suspected that she had inherited high myopia from her mother. However, Dr. Wu pointed out that heredity only accounts for 5% for any patient to develop serious nearsightedness, most of which was caused by environmental factors, infrequent outdoors activities, or early myopia development as high-risk factors for the patient to develop high myopia.

Patients who were diagnosed with myopia during their primary school years or junior high school years would on average have their visions increased by 1.0 diopters each year while patients who were diagnosed with myopia during their high school years would on average have their visions increased by 0.5 diopters each year. The earlier the patients were diagnosed with myopia, the more likely they were to develop high myopia, the longer their eyeball diameters would be, and the more likely their retina would become thinner which gave rise to holes or ruptures easily. Neither laser refractive surgery nor wearing eyeglasses would cure long eyeball diameters. The best way was to seek medical help from a professional ophthalmologist to have treatment to control the progression for preventing disastrous complications of myopia due to long eyeball axial length.

News

Public Television Service: Ophthalmologist Interview Documentary film “Myopia Boom”

Education and news reports for myopia prevention.

Watch Video：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKRSCMN7lCs