Greeting

It is a great honor to have been appointed as the President of Cardiovascular Surgery Section for the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery (JATS). I could receive no greater accolade than to be asked to take responsibility for such a long-standing congress together with Congress President Jun Nakajima, President of the part of Esophageal Surgery Hisahiro Matsubara, and other leading surgeons, and I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the members of the JATS.

The theme of the meeting, proposed by Congress President Nakajima, is “Concerto in Thoracic Surgery” and this truly expresses and brings out our originality and distinctiveness. The JATS has developed over its long history as a core medical association covering a broader range of fields compared with more specialized associations. Looking overseas, the AATS/STS in the USA and the EACTS in Europe are organizations of similar standing that attract the attention of surgeons from around the world and play a leading role in medical care in this field. As their counterpart, the JATS is firmly international, having as its main propositions the development of thoracic surgical clinical practice and research in Japan, the training of thoracic surgeons, and feedback to benefit the health of the Japanese public. As an elite group of surgeons dealing with vitally important organs, we must stand together as one to engage with important issues including medical safety, the reluctance of newly qualified doctors to become surgeons, issues of pay, reform of working practices, the concentration of medical institutions, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual Scientific Meetings are the main venue where these subjects can be debated, and I anticipate lively discussions at the congress venue.

In the cardiac surgery field for which I am responsible, we have formed 13 working groups, each composed of 7–8 members, and each of these working groups has engaged in exhaustive discussions in order to select the draft program. Members who live overseas have also taken part, and I am full of gratitude for all the efforts made by cardiac surgeons throughout Japan to put the program together. I am proud to say that we have prepared a draft program full of appealing content. While important issues that are emphasized by each group were eagerly deliberated, many problems that people are facing also came to the fore, and I am painfully aware of the heavy responsibility of summarizing these and reflecting them in the program. Even in this field, which is now segmented and specialized, “Concerto in Cardiac Surgery” is similarly a major proposition, and I am prepared to wave the conductor’s baton at the Annual Scientific Meeting toward a bright future for the cardiac surgery field.

Finally, “Concerto in Thoracic Surgery” will embody the nature of the JATS as a scientific society in which each field spurs on the others in the quest for further developments on the road to a brighter future while building both sustainability and resilience, and I am approaching this memorable Annual Scientific Meeting as the culmination of my 39 years career as a cardiac surgeon, which I began in Kobe as a “thoracic-cardiovascular surgeon.” I hope you will join us there, and look forward to your support.

I am greatly honored to be appointed as President of Esophageal Surgery Section for the long-established scientific congress, the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery (JATS). While supporting Professor Jun Nakajima, the Congress President of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting, to the best of my ability, I will make every endeavor to ensure the success of this meeting. As suggested by Professor Nakajima, the theme of this meeting is “Concerto in Thoracic Surgery”, an extremely attractive title that is perfect for a congress in which three different fields are working together in a coordinated manner. With the poster depicting an orchestra giving a concert, I imagine, and am confident, that this Annual Scientific Meeting will produce fascinating results as groups of JATS members each play their own tune.

As we make our preparations, COVID-19 has yet to be fully overcome. So, although there is some uncertainty, we are still preparing for an onsite event in cooperation with Professor Nakajima (Congress President) and Professor Hitoshi Ogino (President of Cardiovascular Surgery Section). At the time the event is to be held, we believe that vaccination rates will be sufficient enough and infection rates low enough, so that the most important and lively discussions of the academic meeting can be held at the venue.

With respect to the esophageal surgery portion of the meeting, after repeated deliberations between members of the Program Committee and myself, we have decided upon the following sessions: the Advanced Session will be a symposium, “Future perspective of esophageal cancer surgery”; the Video Symposium will be, “Indication and ingenuity of minimally invasive esophagectomy for advanced thoracic esophageal cancer”; the Panel Discussion will address, “The significance of open chest surgery in the era of endoscopic and robot-assisted surgery”; and Workshops will comprise of two sessions, “Best practice in esophageal cancer surgery based on health-related quality of life” and “Treatment strategies for cT3b esophageal cancer”; with an additional Video Workshop, “Esophageal cancer surgery utilizing robot-specific techniques”. There will also be a debate on the “Route of esophageal reconstruction: retrosternal versus posterior mediastinal”; and as is the established custom of JATS meetings, we are also preparing the highly popular Techno-Academy on the subject of “Points of surgical video review for qualifying as board certified esophageal surgeons”. As a special event, we also have scheduled a “Commentary on the 12th Edition of the Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer”, which is due to be published in 2022. Focusing on the latest topics, the sessions are sure to be deeply interesting.
After discussions with Professor Nakajima and Professor Ogino, the customary joint sessions, which includes all three fields, is confirmed to cover a wide range of subjects. Therefore, it is my hope that many members will join us and attend the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, and I truly look forward to the many lively discussions which will extend throughout the meeting venue.