Presidential Address

It is my great honor to announce that I will hold the 65th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, on June 12th (Fri) -14th (Sun), 2020, in Osaka at Osaka International Convention Center, RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, and RIHGA Royal NCB in the Nakanoshima District, as well as Grand Front Osaka (Congrès Convention Center) in the Umeda District.

The main theme of this meeting is “Toward Improving the Health Expectancy of Patients Undergoing Dialysis in an Era of 100-year Lifespans.” Other scientific programs are now being planned, and they specifically focus on the importance of total patient care from the standpoints of medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, clinical engineers, nutritionists, pharmacists, and other professionals collaboratively working together, for dialysis patients to enjoy the better quality of life on maintenance hemodialysis.
The characteristics of annual meetings of the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy (JSDT) are the participation of many professionals coming together to improve the quality of dialysis therapy, aiming at raising the quality of life (QOL) of patients undergoing dialysis, and extending their health expectancy with high quality medical management. Bearing this in mind, we have designed the poster to symbolize a variety of professionals collaborating to replace the kidney function for dialysis patients. Multiple colors of the logo symbolize multiple professionals working intensively to find new modalities of treatment for patients undergoing dialysis.

To guarantee participants in this scientific meeting to enjoy integrated discussions under this theme, we plan to organize symposiums and workshops, in addition to committee sessions, while seeking advice from the member of Program Committee of this meeting and other leading professionals. We, the Secretariat staff, are going to do our best to make this meeting a great success on the basis of the ideas presented to us to design programs as to help all the participants in the meeting. This will be not only to find solutions to conventional issues but also to comprehend new challenges facing them in their own fields.

We are also ready to co-host the meetings in any possibly-related fields with relevant scientific societies, regarding issues such as osteoporosis/bone fractures insomnia; glycemic control in diabetes; changing aspects of dialysis operation in dealing with the elderly; and the significance of improving fatigue and unpleasant sensation such as itching frequently affecting the elderly; sarcopenia/frailty of the elderly; undernutrition; and improvement of bodily function and promotion of desires by utilizing exercise therapy, which have been recently attracting attention in other scientific meetings..

We plan to invite several distinguished speakers from abroad so that we understand global trends in dialysis treatment. We have also already received consents from many doctors.

We intend to hold this meeting to help participants, to confirm the position of Japan’s dialysis treatment and to understand the solutions available at present as well as future challenges we will have to deal with and how best to tackle them. We also intend to comprehensively introduce programs necessary to extend the time for ever-increasing elderly patients undergoing dialysis to enjoy comfortable lives on their own, recovery methods for those who have had their ADL already lowered in the event, and programs for patients with cognitive disorders.

Although the venues in Osaka are located in two different districts, we plan to integrate both of them through electronic media and let them coordinate organically with one another. It would please us if participants could enjoy the atmosphere of Osaka, which has been recently gaining popularity because of its deep fascinations as a sightseeing spot.

Nothing will make us happier than witnessing this convention, while presenting leading professionals of dialysis medicine with opportunities to interact and share information among themselves and thereby contributing toward developing dialysis treatment and research.

I will be looking forward to seeing many of you at Osaka during the beautiful, sixth month of the lunar calendar—Minazuki—blessed with the fragrance of lush green lingering in the air.