Welcome Greeting

Ken-ichi Hirata MD, PhD, FJCS, FESC Congress Chairperson of the 88th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS2024) Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine (President of the Japanese Circulation Society)

Message from the Congress Chairperson

The 88th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) will be held over the three days from Friday, March 8 to Sunday, March 10, 2024 at the Kobe International Conference Center, Kobe International Exhibition Hall, and Kobe Portopia Hotel. This is the 88th year since the JCS was established in 1936, since when it has grown massively and now numbers over 27,000 regular members. It is a great honor for me to be appointed President of an Annual Meeting with such a history.

The Annual Meeting is a highly significant occasion at which a large number of members can gather together, gain knowledge of cardiology, and boost their networking. Since 2019, however, the impact of COVID-19 has required that it be held mostly online, as well as necessitating many changes and reductions in scale, and this has been a major hindrance both for networking between members and for opportunities for young doctors to present their work. As it now seems that COVID-19 is finally being vanquished, with its categorization under the Infectious Disease Control Law revised and infection prevention measures relaxed, we are going ahead with preparations for this Annual Meeting in Kobe to enable face-to-face presentations and lively discussion.

That said, post-COVID society is not the same as it was pre-COVID. Not only is Japan continuing to have an increasingly low birthrate and a higher proportion of older people, meaning that the disease structure of the population has greatly changed, but we have also now learned that the ways of life and the lives themselves of its residents can be threatened by an unanticipated disease such as COVID-19. Accordingly, in this Annual Meeting my intention is that we should not merely revert to our pre-COVID status, but rather make this an opportunity to go back to the origin of the Annual Meeting and link this to the future of cardiology, and the chosen theme is “The Future of Cardiology: Challenges in Overcoming Cardiovascular Disease.”Specifically, while emphasizing opportunities for presentations by the doctors, medical staff, and researchers who will take responsibility for cardiology in future, we are also considering augmenting the general oral presentations and moderated poster sessions, among others. We will also press ahead with cooperation with the government and private companies in order to advance the Stroke and Cardiovascular Disease Control Act and the Japanese National Plan for Promotion of Measures Against Cerebrovascular and Cardiovascular Disease, and intend to hold events for patients and the general public. We are further considering events with an emphasis on collaboration with other disciplines including physical science, engineering, and pharmacy.

Professor Joseph C. Wu (Stanford University School of Medicine, USA) has been invited to give the Mikamo Lecture, and Dr. Hitoshi Nakagama (President, National Cancer Center, Tokyo) to give the Mashimo Memorial Lecture.

I hope that JCS members will join me in March 2024 in Kobe, rising to the challenge of overcoming cardiovascular disease and linking this to the future of cardiology through the lively discussion and active networking that are the hallmarks of our Annual Meeting. I am very much looking forward to meeting you all in person.