Summary of 36^th Annual Conference of Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS)

The 36^th annual conference of the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS) was held on May 16^th and 17^th at Osaka International Convention Center, Osaka City, Japan. I am honored to be given this opportunity report a summary of the conference in the current issue of Journal of Visualized Surgery.

We are now facing a world that is rapidly progressing in science and innovation, especially in regard to information technology, artificial intelligence, robotic technology, genome analysis, and precision medicine. Notably, Da Vinci robot-assisted surgery was approved by the public health insurance system in Japan last year. Because of such advancements, surgeons are expected to apply novel technologies to their surgical practice. Thus, the theme of the conference this year was “General thoracic surgery in the era of technology innovation”.

For addressing the theme, a presidential address and special lecture regarding androids, as well as several keynote lectures were provided by 12 invited speakers (Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro, Prof. Shigeki Wada, Prof. Masaru Ishii, Alessandro Brunelli, Prof. Enrico Ruffini, Prof. David Waller, Prof. Joshua Sonnet, Prof. Calvin S. H. Ng, Prof. Alan D. L. Sihoe, Prof. Ali Zamir Khan, Prof. Hongxu Liu, and Prof. Norihisa Shigemura) and myself during the 2 days of the conference. In addition, oral sessions including 2 symposiums, 2 special sessions, 3 panel discussions, 5 workshops, a JACS-ESTS joint session, 46 abstract oral sessions, 28 video sessions, and 4 international sessions, as well as 114 poster sessions were presented. A total of 1,545 abstracts were submitted, with 1,264 finally accepted (acceptance rate 82%) for 333 oral, 183 video, and 748 poster presentations. Additionally, 23 seminars supported by industry were also provided. The conference was highly successful with a total of 2,301 participants.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to all of the JACS members, along with the guests from Osaka University and overseas for their sincere cooperation. I am also grateful for the very helpful support from all the members of the Department of General Thoracic Surgery at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Journal of Visualized Surgery for the series “Dedicated to the 36th Annual Conference of Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS)”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jovs.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jovs.2019.11.14/coif). The series “Dedicated to the 36th Annual Conference of Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS)” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. MO served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Journal of Visualized Surgery from August 2018 to July 2022. The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

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Meinoshin Okumura