Presenting Japan Digestive Disease Week 2014 (JDDW 2014)
It is our pleasure to announce that JDDW 2014 will be held from Thursday, October 23rd, to Sunday, 26th, 2014, on Portopia Island, Kobe. This conference represents a collaboration of five societies: the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology (56th Annual Meeting, President: Soichiro Miura), the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (88th Congress, President: Koji Yakabi), the Japan Society of Hepatology (18th General Meeting, President: Hiroshi Fukui), the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery (12th Annual Meeting, President: Mitsuru Sasako), and the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening (52nd General Meeting, President: Kazuhiko Inoue).
We have received a very high number of presentation submissions, as we have in the past. As a result of stringent reviews by the five societies, a total of 3,213 presentations (2,240 for the Digital Poster Session, and 973 for the Theme Session) were accepted for this year. Themes were carefully selected to ensure that each society’s uniquenesses will be fully featured, and that overlapping themes were prevented. The program has been designed to cover all general topics within gastroenterology, providing 27 Symposia, 18 Panel Discussions, 26 Workshops, and 1 Special Program. To further promote the integrated programming previously offered by JDDW, we have chosen six themes of common interest to all five societies. In addition, there will be an educational lecture entitled, “What can we do to prevent inflammation and gastroenterological carcinogenesis?” and a medical seminar, “Future vision of digestive disease specialists,” as well as meetings of the Women’s Committee of the Japanese Gastroenterology Study Group.
Special considerations have also been made in order to accelerate the efforts of past years to become internationalized. We have increased the number of International Sessions to 11, all of which will be conducted in English. As result, there will be programs available in English every day, including a panel discussion hosted by the Society of Gastroenterology, in which a number of gastroenterology leaders from the Asia Pacific region will be participating. The Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society will also be providing an International ESD Hands-on Seminar for young medical professionals from outside Japan. In addition to these international sessions, all Theme presenters have been asked to prepare their slides in English. Starting this year, JDDW will be putting together the English Presentations, and International Poster Sessions are planned. Overall, we have collected 58 English-language abstracts. Additionally, we are pleased to announce that JDDW is officially offering a Travel Award Program, in order to accommodate overseas participants.
This year we have made it a principle to accept only 85% of the presentations submitted from each society, as well as more carefully scrutinizing reviews of studies on rare cases. As a result, some may criticize us for raising the bar too high. However, this results from our efforts to heighten scientific quality by tightening the review process. As the severity of the medical environment increases, JDDW hopes to promote, especially among younger physicians, the importance of scientific integrity, as well as considering it necessary to encourage mid-career physicians to focus on basic clinical studies.
As JDDW moves towards becoming more international in scope, we are searching for a new form of conference by means of which we can continue to grow. We would like to express our appreciation to those who have supported and guided us through the JDDW Steering Committee, as well as the Conference Program Committee, as we seek to answer the question, “How can our five societies increase collaboration and integrity while continuing to shape our unique attributes?”
We are confident that you will find the programming attractive, and hope that this conference will provide you with opportunities to deepen your exchanges with other participants. We also trust it will be an academically productive week.
We look forward to seeing all of you in Kobe this Fall.
Sincerely,
The Steering Committee, JDDW 2014
Chairman, Soichiro Miura
| Sponsoring Societies: |
| The 56th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology, |
| President: Soichiro Miura |
| The 88th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, |
| President: Koji Yakabi |
| The 18th General Meeting of the Japan Society of Hepatology, |
| President: Hiroshi Fukui |
| The 12th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery, |
| President: Mitsuru Sasako |
| The 52nd General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening, |
| President: Kazuhiko Inoue |
