Professional Biography
Aya is a Japanese orthopaedic surgeon specialising in hand surgery. She graduated from School of Medicine at Chiba University and completed a training programme at Chiba University Hospital. She also enrolled in the Graduate School of Medicine and engaged in anatomical doctoral studies with her doctoral dissertation on “An anatomic study of the Hypertrophic Thenar Muscle overlying the transverse carpal ligament in relation to the abnormal course of the motor branch of the median nerve”.
Aya is a pianist, violinist and ex-classical ballet dancer. She experienced an injury, which had affected her ability to play the violin. Based on this experience, in 2015, she carried out an epidemiological study to survey the morbidity rate of Performing-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (PRMDs) among Japanese amateur and professional musicians. This research was granted by the Kao Foundation for Arts and Science. Her involvement in this research had a strong impact on her further appreciation of musicians’ injuries and sparked her passion to study Performing Arts Medicine.
She has visited an Interdisciplinary Competence Centre of Musician’s Medicine at Charite Medical University in Berlin aiming to help her establish a similar centre in Japan. Then, she enrolled on the Diploma in Performing Arts Medicine at University College London (UCL) in 2017, where Mr. Ian Winspur, Dr. Hara Trouli and many other PAM specialists gave Aya the opportunity to learn in depth the conditions affecting all performers. During her time in London she was given a chance to give a lecture at the department of keyboard in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama by Professor Noriko Ogawa on “Hand Injuries in Pianists”. Her study at the UCL was funded by Yoshida Scholarship Foundation and Aya graduated successfully in 2018 with a distinction. Returning recently to Japan, she launched an outpatient clinic specialising in PAM at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Chiba University Hospital.