The opening address for the 5th Annual Meeting of Japanese Pulmonary Circulation and Pulmonary Hypertension Society

It is our honor to hold the 5th Annual Meeting of Japanese Pulmonary Circulation and Pulmonary Hypertension Society on Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, 2020, at the Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo, Japan, which will be still vibrant with the lingering excitement of the Tokyo Olympics. We feel a deep responsibility as well as a great sense of honor to hold this scientific meeting, where many experts from all branches of medicine can engage in lively discussions on pulmonary hypertension and circulation. I sincerely thank all the members who have made it possible. In association with the Olympics, we have decided that the theme will be “Pulmonary Hypertension Olympiad.” The content will represent a scientific meeting in the year of the Olympics, including international-level discussions by experts from Japan and abroad, discussions on diversity and team medicine (which has been recently increasing its importance while transcending barriers of diagnosis and treatment departments as well as occupations), transmission of knowledge and techniques to future generations, and the abundant use of English. From the early stages of preparation, we plan to publicize information on the meeting as widely as possible on the Web. During the meeting, we will hold discussions that close the gap between the audience and speakers by fully utilizing the Internet, which will give us all a sense of the future of scientific meetings.

I first encountered pulmonary hypertension in 1982, when I was a resident in the Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery Department of Kobe General Hospital. Most of the cases in those days had pulmonary hypertension due to congenital heart disease and mitral valve stenosis. I also occasionally encountered Eisenmenger syndrome, which left me hopeless day after day about the treatment then available in Japan. Nevertheless, I found that heart and lung transplants were being done overseas, which persuaded me to go abroad to study. I went to England in 1992. There, I found heart, lung, and heart-and-lung transplants conducted daily. I was granted many chances to be involved with them. Nonetheless, it was not until I started pulmonary endarterectomy surgery (PEA) to deal with Group IV chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) in National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in 2000 that I began to squarely face pulmonary hypertension as a surgeon. Since then, I have been doing my best as one of the few PEA surgeons to promote CTEPH treatment in Japan by exerting all of my ability, however small it may be. In 20 years of practice, I have witnessed the emergence of new pharmacotherapy as well as balloon pulmonary angioplasty, which originated in Japan.

This experience makes me keenly feel the importance of multidisciplinary team medicine combining the three. The International CTEPH Conference 2020 is to be held in Germany in June 2020. We will invite ICA key members to hold a joint meeting at the Conference Ｈall of Tokyo Medical University Hospital on Friday, September 25, one day before our scientific meeting.

Although this scientific meeting originated in diversity as its fundamental principle, it is the very first time for a surgeon to be responsible for holding the meeting. In order to fully cover pulmonary hypertension, which is the main subject, as well as rudimentary medicine to clinical medicine, and especially internal medical aspects, we have invited Dr. Takeshi Ogo from National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Dr. Aiko Ogawa from National Hospital Organization Okayama Medical Center, and Dr. Yuichi Tamura from International University of Health and Welfare to be our Vice Presidentss, as well as Dr. Jun Yamashita as our Head of the Secretariat, to form a diversity team, aiming at making this scientific meeting fruitful.

We are looking forward to all of you speaking passionately about the neo-futuristic aspect of pulmonary hypertension treatment in Japan in the new heart of spectacularly developing Tokyo right after the Olympic Games. We hope many of you will apply for the abstract as well as participate in the meeting. “Gambare! Nippon”