Presenting Japan Digestive Disease Week 2015 (JDDW 2015)

It is our pleasure to announce that JDDW 2015 will be held from Thursday, October 8th to Sunday, 11th, 2015, at Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa et al, Shinagawa, Tokyo. This conference represents a collaboration of five societies: the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology (57th Annual Meeting, President: Hajime Takikawa), the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society (90th Congress, President: Mototsugu Kato), the Japan Society of Hepatology (19th General Meeting, President: Masayoshi Kage), the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery (13th Annual Meeting, President: Masato Kusunoki), and the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening (53rd General Meeting, President: Masafumi Suyama).

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 2,962 presentations (2,240 for the digital poster session, and 722 for the theme session) were accepted for this year. Themes were carefully selected to ensure that each society’s uniqueness will be fully featured and that overlapping themes were prevented. The program has been designed to cover all general topics within gastroenterology, providing 7 symposia, 19 panel discussions, 19 workshops, and 1 special program. To further promote the integrated program previously offered by JDDW, we have chosen six themes of common interest to all five societies. In addition, there will be a medical seminar “Towards clinical research in the future - A new stage” as well as meetings of the Women’s Committee of the Japanese Gastroenterology Study Group “How to have female doctors and scientists display their ability to the full”.

We started medical staff program this year, and educational lecture will be held independently on Sunday, October 11th.

Special considerations have also been made in order to accelerate the efforts to become internationalized. We have 8 international sessions, all of which will be conducted in English. As a result, there will be programs available in English every day. In addition to these sessions, all theme presenters have been asked to prepare their slides in English. Starting last year, JDDW will be putting together the English presentations for general sessions, and international poster sessions are planned. Overall, we have collected 80 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 less than 85% of the general presentations submitted from each society and to scrutinize reviews of studies on rare cases more carefully. 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 and considers 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 our five societies increase collaboration and integrity while continuing to shape our unique attributes.”

We are confident that you will find the program 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 Tokyo this fall.

Sincerely,

The Steering Committee, JDDW 2015

Chairman, Hajime Takikawa

Sponsoring Societies:

The 57th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology,

President: Hajime Takikawa

The 90th Congress of the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society,

President: Mototsugu Kato

The 19th General Meeting of the Japan Society of Hepatology,

President: Masayoshi Kage

The 13th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterological Surgery,

President: Masato Kusunoki

The 53rd General Meeting of the Japanese Society of Gastrointestinal Cancer Screening,

President: Masafumi Suyama