President's Greetings

Announcing the 66th Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

The 66th Annual Meeting of Japan Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (JSPRS) will be held from Wednesday, April 26 to Friday, April 28, 2023 at Dejima Messe Nagasaki. Following on from the 23rd, 45th and 57th Annual Meetings, this will be the fourth time that the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of Nagasaki University has been privileged to host this Congress, and I am conscious that it is a great honor. I and all the staff of my department are united in our efforts to prepare to welcome you.

Since its establishment in 1958, the JSPRS has held 65 Annual Meetings. At its outset, clinicians from several fields started a variety of initiatives to lay the foundations of plastic surgery in Japan. Through its transitions, the JSPRS has applied established knowledge and finely honed skills to newly developed fields, and has further contributed to medicine through the discovery and development of new findings and technologies. As medicine is becoming increasingly diverse, it is already embarking on efforts toward the identification of treatments tailored to the characteristics of individual patients, as well as the use of new types of advanced medical care such as AI and robot-assisted surgery. At the same time, the JSPRS is facing issues including compliance with the new board-certification system, the elimination of regional disparities, and the reform of doctors’ working conditions, which are urgent issues that are important in all of medical care, education, and research.

The theme of this Annual Meeting is “Channeling the History to a Future Voyage.” We will meet together, give and attend presentations, and engage in debate so that we can foster the academic discipline of plastic surgery built up by our predecessors and contribute to its further development in future. In light of the COVID-19 situation, we are planning the Congress in a format that is unlikely to be affected by the status of infection.

I am very glad to be able to invite you to Nagasaki, the birthplace of modern Western medicine in Japan following its initial introduction from Europe in the 16th century, and look forward to seeing many of you here.