Jun Nakajima, M.D., Ph.D.
Congress President of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of
the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Thoracic Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital
Jun Nakajima, M.D., Ph.D.
Congress President of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of
the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Thoracic Surgery, The University of Tokyo Hospital
The 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery (JATS) will be held from Wednesday, October 5 to Saturday, October 8, 2022 at PACIFICO Yokohama (in the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture). I very much appreciate your support, and am greatly looking forward to meeting you all in the fine weather of autumn.
Since the 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting (2020), the congress has been managed by the Congress President and two Presidents chosen from two other fields, and up-to-date and highly important programs have been put together in all three fields. From this 75th Annual Scientific Meeting, the two Presidents have also been selected by co-option, with Professor Hitoshi Ogino of Tokyo Medical University chosen as the President of Cardiovascular Surgery Section and Professor Hisahiro Matsubara of Chiba University as the President of Esophageal Surgery Section, and we three are working together to administer the congress.
The theme of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting is “Concerto in Thoracic Surgery.” The objective of the congress is for surgeons and medical researchers working in the three fields that make up the JATS to improve our skills and refresh our knowledge together so that we can offer appropriate treatment to our patients, who all have diseases of the same thoracic area. I hope that as well as sharing knowledge and skills and collaborating across different fields, we will spur each other on to improve our skills in surgery. The word “Concerto” of the congress theme incorporates the nuances of sharing, cooperation, and competition, and we are planning a variety of programs based on this theme. In addition to providing highly specialized sessions in each of the three fields, we will also have advanced sessions on common themes. We will also include events such as the Case Presentation Award to encourage active participation by young surgeons and to deepen collaboration with regional associations. Our aim is to make the meeting more interesting for more participants.
The trend for the segmentation of specialists in clinical medicine has continued unabated for the past half a century, and in the surgical field this differentiation into subspecialities started long ago with board certification by the Japan Surgical Society, followed by that of Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery, and now by certification as specialists in cardiovascular surgery, respiratory surgery, and esophageal surgery. However, it is well recognized by physicians in other fields that the surgical treatment of thoracic organs is particularly invasive among surgical fields and requires advanced techniques and knowledge. To master any of the three subspecialities, it is necessary not only to discipline oneself and study every day, but also to cooperate and coordinate with doctors responsible for surgery in the same thoracic area, as well as to invite the active participation of young surgeons, which will also lead to the continued future development of our field.
As Yoshiki Sawa, the President of the JATS, has noted, the JATS has always been run on the basis of a balance between these three fields, with the objective not only of the academic development of all three areas but also of resolving issues with a view to our shared goals and their implementation. In the past few years, the JATS has undergone visible reform, having become an incorporated association, gained an impact factor (IF) for its journal GTCS, and deepened its collaboration with regional associations. The Annual Scientific Meeting is also engaged in reform, including the establishment of the positions of chairpersons responsible for different fields, as mentioned above. We would like to have more presentations and active participation from participants ranging from young surgeons to board-certified instructors, and we will make every effort to organize a meeting that will make everyone feel happy to have attended.
Despite the difficulty of predicting what will happen about COVID-19 before and after the Annual Scientific Meeting, we are aiming to hold it on-site, although this may change if necessary.
I would like to conclude by offering you all my best wishes for your continued success.
Hitoshi Ogino, M.D., Ph.D.
President of the Cardiovascular Surgery Section of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tokyo Medical University
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.
Hisahiro Matsubara, M.D., Ph.D.
President of the Esophageal Surgery Section of the 75th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery
Professor and Chairman‚
Department of Frontier Surgery,
Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine
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.