Welcome Greeting

Takashi Akasaka, M.D., Ph.D., FAPSC, FESC, FJCS
(Emeritus Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Wakayama Medical University)

Dear friends and APSC members;

It is our great privilege and honor to host the annual scientific congress of Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC 2022) supported by the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) in Kobe, from March 11 to 13, 2022, in conjunction with the annual scientific meeting of JCS (JCS 2022).
On behalf of the member of JCS and as the congress chairperson, I would like to welcome all participants from Asian Pacific Countries and Communities, especially the member of APSC, to the meeting in Kobe, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the executive council members of APSC for giving us a great chance to host the congress again in 2022 in Kobe. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, as you know very well, APSC 2020 was modified as one day webinars of “APSC/JCS joint session” from three days onsite meeting in Kyoto, and postponed as APSC 2022 in Kobe. Although we have been planning to have APSC 2022 in Kobe in person in this time, we have to modify it on web again finally because of the recent pandemic of Omicron variant of COVID-19. We are so disappointed this condition as the host, but we would be so happy if our Asian friends and APSC members could support us similar to the previous meeting and contribute to the webinars of APSC 2022.

Main theme of APSC 2022 is “Beyond Friendship and Collaboration”, which is thought to be the feeling of “Family” from our heart. As you remember, the main theme of APSC 2020 in Kyoto was “Evolution and Collaboration”. I would like to emphasize the remarkable development of our daily clinical practice and the expectation of further advancement in the field of cardiovascular medicine in Asian Pacific regions as the main theme of “Evolution and Collaboration” in 2020. It seems to be very important to summarize these advancement at the moment for making medical evidences in Asia. Collaboration among Asian Pacific countries and communities may allow us to achieve these actions as part of evolution. For further development of APSC, much more collaboration and information exchange would be required among us, especially among next generation, in Asian Pacific countries and communities not only in the field of medicine but also in many aspects within APSC, and these should be performed “Beyond Friendship and Collaboration” as a “Family”.
According to the previous main theme of APSC 2020, we originally planned to introduce the history of “Dr. Seishu Hanaoka”, the first surgeon and anesthesiologist who operated the breast cancer in the world under general anesthesia using traditional Japanese medicine, as “the evolution of medicine” at the APSC memorial lecture, but we missed to have the session because of one day webinars of “APSC/JCS joint session” in APSC 2020. Therefore, I would like to organize again the same lecture as the memorial lecture in APSC 2022 based on the meaning of the main theme entitled “Beyond Friendship and Collaboration” because he had been taking care of many critical patients.

Furthermore, as interesting and important webinars, the organizing committee and the scientific committee are planning to have several symposia and panel discussions about recent hot topics in cooperating with the presidents of sister societies of APSC in the fields of cardiology including adult congenital heart disease, arrythmia, basic science, coronary intervention, echocardiography, heart failure, and hypertension. To understand and exchange the real world circumstance of lady cardiologists in APSC regions and the problems of daily clinical practice in each region, the special sessions entitled “women cardiologists in each country” and “clinical practice in each zone in APSC” will also be organized by the female leaders and the vice presidents in each APSC zone. Joint symposia between APSC and ESC, JCS and the other societies will be proposed to make much deeper collaboration each other. Furthermore, more than 10 organized session including consensus statement, registries, education, etc. will be presented by the delegates, invited guests and representatives from APSC regions and will be discussed with the attendees and JCS members.
For younger generations under 40 years old, we will have case competition sessions and active and educational discussion would be expected with several experts. To know the annual scientific meeting of JCS, all scientific abstracts in APSC will be presented in the seamless way in each session of JCS, and I would be so happy if all participants from APSC could recognize the annual scientific meeting of JCS as one of the important scientific meetings in the field of cardiology in the world and would plan to attend JCS every year.

Finally, I hope you all would enjoy the congress on web, although we will not be able to meet in person in Kobe unfortunately! I also wish you stay safe from COVID-19 and take care of your health.

Takashi Akasaka
Congress Chairman of APSC 2022