Date: June 9th, 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Greetings!
Thank you for inviting me to attend the ACP Japan Chapter Annual Meeting 2018. I thank Governor ACP Japan Chapter Dr. Fumiaki Ueno and family for the nice welcome and hospitality. You have chosen the right theme “Mind & Arts as Essentials for Internists: Beyond Evidence & Technology”. The practicing medicine is both science and art. Science of uncertainty and art of probability.
The arrangements, the venue, the registration procedures were really good. The workshop on Statin was very innovative and involved everyone. The participants in the workshop were made to ask clinical questions and also were made to use the internet to search the latest guidelines and articles relevant to the topic. There were debates whether they can trust the answer
they found.
The participant clearly understood the 5 steps of evidence based medicine. With the above background applying and sharing the decisions with the patient was also highlighted. I understood in Japan they use only small dose of Statin to reduce cholesterol. On the whole the workshop was simple and
complete to cover all the points regarding Statin usage.
I could attend only one workshop. There were other useful interesting topics in other halls like How to evaluate jugular venous pulse at bedside – you can do it, from now on, Minds and arts for end of life discussions through case discussions of cancer patients at terminal stage, A workshop to write “letter to the editor” and etc.
We had a good lunch with the dignitaries who include Dr. Jack Ende Past President ACP, Governor Dr. Fumiaki Ueno, Dr. Kenji Maeda Governor Elect and others. Regarding the session on hypertension there was an initial discussion about how to develop guidelines. During my talk on “Recommended Treatment Protocol for Improving Management of Hypertension Globally” I recommended the following 2 protocols.
HYPERTENSION PROTOCOL – SINGLE PILL COMBINATION AS FIRST-LINE TREATMENT
HYPERTENSION PROTOCOL – CALCIUM CHANNEL BLOCKER AS FIRST-LINE TREATMENT
There were lot of questions on hypertension regarding the definition, the target especially for elderly population etc. I always used to promote home blood pressure monitoring in my country. I am very happy to know most of the patients in Japan are using the home blood pressure monitoring. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) is ideal but it is not practical. Sooner there may be some devices like wrist watch which can record ABPM very easily. There were lot of discussion about automated office BP monitors. There were lot of lively questions on various aspects of treatment from the audience and
the hall was full.
I was fortunate to be a referee for the “Kurokawa Prize” for poster presentation. Lot of innovative original research papers were presented by the junior doctors. The talk given by ACP past President Dr. Jack Ende on Professionalism was mind boggling. Overall I learnt lot of new points both in academics and organizing. The award function and reception were well organized. I could meet lot of new fellows during the reception and made friendship with them. This also helped me to initiate exchange programme and other joint activities between Japan and India ACP chapter.
The people in Japan are very nice, cordial, honest and helpful. The transport like bullet train, subway train and busses were amazing. I and my family thoroughly enjoyed every movement of our stay in Japan both at Tokyo and Kyoto. We are looking forward to the next best opportunity to visit Japan again. Congratulations to Dr. Fumiaki Ueno, Dr. Yugo Shibagaki, MD, FACP Chair, ACP Japan Chapter Annual Meeting 2018, Governor Elect Dr. Kenji Maeda and members of the organising committee for the wonderful conference.
Thank you once again.
A. Muruganathan, MD, FACP
Governor, ACP India Chapter
