Horizons for Japanese and Saudi collaboration in gastroenterology and hepatology

Saudi Arabia has seen significant strides in multiple fields in education as well as health care over the last few decades and was significant proportion of the Gross Domestic Product expenditure. Health care related education and training has advanced and postgraduate programs have been developed to cover the ever-expanding health care needs of the country.Gastroenterology has been part of that development and as such there is a specialized training program as well as dedicated subspecialty training in therapeutic endoscopy and hepatology. Also the practice has advanced to include centers with highly skilled endoscopists performing advanced procedures including EUS-guided biliary drainage and vascular interventions as well as centers that perform some of the largest living donor liver transplant programs in the region.The Saudi Gastroenterology Association (SGA) has been medium of the gastroenterology profession that they have used to voice there concerns as well as implementation of policies and practice of the profession in the region. As well as it has an annual conference that are usually proceeded by numerous workshops for health care professionals interested in the field. The SGA also has worked in the field of public education and engagement in numerous healthcare related campaigns.At this stage in its development the SGA as well as its members have achieved a solid base in the fields of clinical practice as well as clinical and basic science research and has started to reach out to other countries and societies to achieve international collaboration and exchange in expertise in areas of training and research that would benefit health care providers and establish a window of opportunity into the unique aspects of health care in Saudi Arabia with multiple challenges in the illness from predominant infectious aetiologies to more of metabolic diseases as well as immune mediated disease like IBD where there is a recent surge in incidence.This presentation will aim at introducing part of what has been achieved in the health care sector in Saudi Arabia in general and gastroenterology specifically and possible ventures of collaboration with other societies and countries.