healthcare – Page 13 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

The Gairdner Award

Posted on 2009/11/062014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

The day of the award begins with a series of excellent lectures by 2009 Gairdner laureates, rich content of outstanding science with passion for science of those laureates who contributed and those who supported their work; each has his/her own beautiful stories to tell. Lucy Shapiro’s story was outstanding, of a bacterial 3 dimensional dynamic molecular mystery of her life work including collaborations of her husband, a physicist. I know her personally, and her one son is a urologist who worked recently for 3 years at US Naval Hospital in Okinawa, and her daughter-in-law is a marine officer just returned from Afghanistan. What a family she has!

Dr Mori’s story was also moving in that he left Japan from his tenured position because he felt what he was supposed to do then was something wrong and boring; he decided to venture to US; through a lot of struggles, but found a right career he loved as he told us. He was very grateful for his parents who are not wealthy, but supported him to go through university and let him go to US. He of course brought with him his parents, family, and several staff researchers, and it was good to congratulate his entire family.

Dr Yamanaka focused on how he came over through these years after 2 years of clinical training, graduate study in research in Japan, and moved to California for completely new research project. There, he encountered seemingly a totally failure, but hanged on to pursue what may be happening. From unexpected findings with full of struggles, he came back to Nara with three graduate students, then Kyoto, where he finally made his landmark discovery with a few graduate students and technicians in the last few years

Dr Sackett’s historical story of major errors made by excellent clinicians being observers, which includes William Osler. He told me personally, he was also surprised by his findings on Dr Osler.

All lectures reveal core personality of each laureate. The day was ended with unquestionably thoughts-provoking guest, Sydney Brenner, who talked about ‘Humanity Gene’ with his usual sense of humor, but a serious message.

Photo 1：Honorable Ambassador Nishida and Mrs.Nishida
Photo 2: From left Dr. Pierre Chartrand, Vice-President, CIHR., Dr Peter Singer (Ref. １、２）

Photo:

In the evening, the award ceremony was held at the Royal Ontario Museum. Proud Ambassador Nishida was on the stage to accompany the ceremony of two Japanese laureates.

After return to the hotel, I had drinks in our hotel bar with Dr Yamanaka and his staff and Dr Mori just dropped by.

It was a very good few days in Toronto for me and for all Japanese science community. This year also celebrates Japan-Canada’s 80th year of Diplomatic Relation. As you may recall, earlier this year Emperor and Empress of Japan visited Canada (Ref.１）.

I will leave for San Diego early tomorrow morning.

From Toronto -2, Gairdner Foundation Global Health Symposium

Posted on 2009/11/042014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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One major new initiative of the Gairdner Award at the occasion of its 50th anniversary is the launch of Global Health Award, an important issue and challenge for our global age, which thus is quite timely. The inaugural laureate is Dr. Nubia Munoz for her global epidemiological study to identify papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer and effects of its vaccine.

Thus, in the afternoon of October 28th, Gairdner Global Health Symposium was held at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto and Dr Munoz as our honorable guest. I moderated the first session (of two) with Drs Jeffrey Koplan of Emory University, Tachi Yamada, of Gates Foundation, Mark Walport of Wellcome Trust, and Peter Singer (Ref.1), of University of Toronto, as panelists, a powerful quartet of Global Health. It was fun to moderate this powerful session; I felt enthusiasm of the full audience.

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Photo 1-4: At the reception, photo 1; Dr Oliver Smithie (humorous speech typical of him); photo 2; Dr David Sackett (left), of McMaster, well known to us for clinical epidemiology and EBM, of Gairdner Wightman award, and John Dirks (President of the Gairdner Foundation); photo 3; Dr and Mrs Ogawa, Dr Yamanaka and me; and photo 4; Drs Ogawa, Mori and me

The reception of the evening was held at MaRS of the University of Toronto. It was a very enjoyable evening with friends and many past Gairdner laureates and this year’s laureates. Three Japanese laureates are there, Drs Seiji Ogawa, Shinya Yanamaka, and Kazutoshi Mori .

Photo5: with Dr Blackburn

Among many guests was Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, this year’s Nobel laureate in medicine and physiology for her discovery of telomerase; one of three co-recipients with her is one of her former graduate student, Dr Carol Greider. Dr Blackburn is also a recipient of the Gairdner and of the L’Oreal Woman in Science Award at its 10th anniversary, which I served as a proud member of the Jury.

What a wonderful and stimulating day it was, indeed, my honor and privilege.

From Toronto -1, Encounter to a ‘Wikinomics’ figure

Posted on 2009/11/032014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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As reported in my last posting, I am in Toronto working with University of Toronto for our collaborative program with GRIPS from early this year (Ref.1).

After my session at Munk Center, I was invited to dinner reception for the 50th anniversary of the Gairdner Award hosted by Rob McEwen, a major business leader of Canada (Ref.1), and a significant figure in the Wiki-age business as I will explain to you below.

His huge house is located in the most exclusive area of Toronto, as you may expect, as I know him one of major supporters of medical research and education. He founded McEwen Center of Regenerative Medicine focusing on stem cell research, at Toronto General Hospital, an affiliated hospital of the University of Toronto. I knew his support of medical research, thus he is particularly pleased to meet Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University (Ref.1), one of this year’s Gairdner Laureates; Dr Yamanaka made a landmark discovery of iPS, reprogramming of skin and other cells to stem cells, bypassing ethical issues of using embryonic stem cells.

Photo; with Rob McEwen

As I discussed with Rob various issues of mutual interests including his business, suddenly it occurred to me that he MUST be a person who appeared as a major innovator entrepreneur on Open Innovation in a book ‘Wikinomics’, in its Chapter one. I asked him ‘Is that YOU?’’ and his reply was’ Yes.’ In my recent speaking engagements I often cite him as a most remarkable ‘out-of-box’ thinker which saved and led to his gold-mine company, Goldcorp. This was a huge success as one can imagine based on the performance of the company. We had quite an enjoyable chatting session over how he thought of it and how he did it.

It is always fun to encounter unexpected encounters enriching your own thinking as I often posted in my blog posting. So I say “Think and Act Global, it a lot of fun.’

Ottawa, on Global Health, and Toronto, on Innovation

Posted on 2009/10/312014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Canada will host G8 Summit next year (could be the last G8 and first G20). Naturally, as part of effort to make Global Health as a major agenda for the Summit, various efforts, negotiation, processes must have been taking place among various sectors of Canada.

CCGHR hosted one of such meetings (October 25th). The meeting is more research oriented, with about 150 member attendance with 25% being members abroad and I was invited to give a keynote. It was full of enthusiasm and I joined a couple of workshops, its board meeting as a guest, and a private session for Canadian perspective for G8 agenda setting. It was a very interesting and learning day getting to know many new friends and colleagues.

Ottawa in late October is reasonably cold, but weather was nice. I met a Japanese scholar, a woman, well educated undergraduate at McMaster and at MS and PhD in Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill; she lived only several years when she was very young, now studies as a post-doctoral fellow in South Africa participating a joint project with UK on Mental Health and Poverty Project in Africa. A challenging mission!

Next day, I flew to Toronto as my re-visit (Ref.1) to join a few activities. Munk Center of the University of Toronto was kind to host a dinner in honor of me at Massey College. Next day, a panel was held at Munk Center on ‘Innovation, Globalization and the University’; after my brief keynote, the panel session was quite lively and constructive. It seems everyone agree that leading universities must become an open ground to nurture, connect, and prepare future leaders in more and more interconnected world. We must realize that problems of the developing and underdeveloped countries and the regions are not theirs, but ours as well in interconnected global world. There, I met another women medical doctor radiologist from Tokyo Woman’s Medical College, just began her study on Medical Education Research as resident junior fellow at Massey College. Such is a valuable opportunity to widen her vision and scope for her career. University of Toronto is a great institution which is characterized by heterogeneity, diversity and a wide spectrum of programs and courses.

Communication with students, a new friend through blogs, an encounter from the past

Posted on 2009/10/092014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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It is always a pleasure to see and talk with students. The day after my return from Paris, October 4th, I went to Osaka.

Professor Kurachi, an old friend of mine and director of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at Osaka University, took initiatives in organizing annual forum for students from 5 universities in Osaka and invited me as a speaker this year. Core message of my talk was almost the same as what I write in my blog, and I enjoyed greatly talking with the students at the reception afterwards.
It is always my impression, as I point out in every occasion, that female students are more lively and active. (Ref.1, 2) Male students standing around wouldn't easily respond even if I urged them to come and join in the conversation. There was one very outgoing male student however, and he apparently had a concrete vision on what he want to do. Why? Answer to this question is again the　‘3 speeches’, especially the ‘Last Lecture’ by Randy Pausch and in this case not the speech by Steve Jobs.
I also had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Inoue at the reception. She had written in her blog that she was looking forward to coming to my lecture. This kind of unexpected encounter is another example of the power of sending out messages in this ‘flattening’world. You experience connecting to people in an unimaginable way.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　On 5th, I went to a session of STS Forum in Kyoto with ‘Young Scientists’. This was also something very nice. I will post a separate column on this later.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　On 9th, I went to Mie University to give a lecture at its 60th anniversary. My message was focused mainly to the students, but the President and professors seem to have enjoyed it as well. There were also guests from Thai and Spain to congratulate the occasion. Students entertained audience by their brass band performance (I learned that this band is well known as a topclass among Japan college bands), chorus, and dance. Some students came up to me with my book in their hand and asked for my autograph. This made me very happy.
I met a lady in the eaudience who once had visited my house in Los Angeles when she was an elementary school student. I vaguely remembered her, but a memory came up more clearly after some time. Time flies so quickly.

I sincerely wish that each student grasp their bright future. ‘Go out and see the world, make lots of friends in this wide world ? this is the way things should be in this global age’; this was my core message. My message remains the same anywhere, anytime. Universities must open up their doors to the world. They should also mind their great responsibility in educating and nurturing young students because our future is in their hands. I made several suggestions on what they can do.

Now, a year later, what will be happening here? I will be expecting a lot from every and each one of you!

D-Lab of MIT, starting businesses with students

Posted on 2009/10/082014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In my recent posting I wrote about D-Lab of MIT. Mr. Endo, a student at this Lab, came to visit me upon his travel to Japan. I asked Dr. William Saito who is helping me with research on innovations and educational activities to join and we all had nice conversations. Mr. Endo is currently enrolled in PhD course at MIT, working hard on his research while participating also in D-Lab. He had his undergraduate and master’s education at Keio University.

The theme that Mr. Endo and his group is working on at D-Lab is prosthetics (artificial legs, arms, etc.) ? to provide affordable and good prosthetics to people in need at developing countries. There are many people who suffer loss of their limbs through traffic accidents, wars, or land mines. Prosthetics made in developing countries are often not so useful because of low qualities, poor fitting, tendency to break easily, etc. Such weaknesses are understandable if you think about the infrastructures or technologies they have at hand in these countries. So Mr. Endo came up with this great plan of developing good prosthetics and providing them to people in need to help them become more independent ? financially and physically. It is a wonderful project.

Photo: From left Dr. Saito, Mr. Endo, and myself.

Many of these projects expand into social activities or businesses but then quite a number of them will fail and disappear, which is very understandable. However, those listed here are still continuing meaning 26% of projects that deveoped into businesses are still alive. Dr. William Saito responded immediately saying “This is an astonishingly good rate!” I totally agree with him. Dr. Saito himself launched a business when he was a student at U.S. and made it a great success.

I understand that Mr. Endo is also involved in development of high quality prosthetic legs that have potentials for enabling the atheletes to break world records. Apparently he has high goals and broad views. Mr. Endo also said that he has an experience of having worked with Dr. Hiroaki Kitano in the project on AIBO at Sony Computer Science Laboratories Ltd. when he was studying at Keio University.

Paris, UNESCO-L’Oreal Award, and “Soft Power”

Posted on 2009/10/022014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Photo 1: In front of Saint-Germain-des-Pres Church

Paris in autumn is lovely. I was there on September 28th . L’Oreal Award selection committee is scheduled to meet on 29th to select and honor female scientists that performed wonderful achievements. I have written on this several times in my blog (Ref.1) before.

In the evening of 28th, the day of my arrival, I had dinner with Dr. Mimura and his wife. Dr. Mimura finished his clerkship in America and has recently assumed a position at American Hospital of Paris. I have been corresponding with this hospital for more than 10 years now. By the way, Dr. Mimura and I are friends but so are our families. Especially my family and I have a long history of friendship with Dr. Mimura’s wife Nacchan (who is also a medical doctor) and her family.

After dinner, the three of us went for a walk to St Germain de Pres near my hotel. The photo at the top is Saint-Germain-des-Pres Church (Vicor Hugo was active in the restoration of this church, I hear.) Paris in autumn is beautiful.

Photo 2: With Drs. Mimura at a Cafe in St German de Pres

At the selection committee of 29th , we selected 5 wonderful winners. Although the discussion was heated during selection, in the end we came to unanimous decision. I will write on this again after the winners are announced officially. Activities such as this L’Oreal Award have a great IR impact that appeals to the world. This is a true soft power.

Photos 3, 4: Snap shots from the selection committe

In the evening, like 2 years before, L’Oreal invited us to a concert. (Photo 5). Last time I had to leave for the airport during intermission, but this time I was able to listen to the end. I came across Mr. Akiba of UNESCO embassy at the concert. We had a cocktail together at intermission, went for dinner in the concert hall after the program, and departed some time after 12pm.

The artists of that evening were; Piano、Daniel Barenboim, Conductor, Christoph Eschenbach, with Orchestre de Paris. Several Japanese were playing also.

The program was：　
Berlioz; Benvenuto Cellini, ouverture, op. 23; Carnaval romain, ouverture, op 9
Chopin ; Concerto pour piano n. 2 en fa minerur, op. 21 ; 　n. 1 en mi mineur, op. 11

Barenboim was wonderful. I felt his character being reflected in his music.

Photo 5; Barenboim (center) and Eshenbach (left end)

It was an evening full of lovely, rich experience. I think what I experienced that night was truly what we call a “soft power”. Tradition and sophistication were there, and yet the building of the concert hall was not overwhelmingly magnificent. In comparison, I thought about a system of a country somewhere, that in the name of “soft power” builds a ‘box’ for animations, big ‘National’ or ‘Local’ ‘boxes’ of art museums and theaters of various names just to increase debt on its people. But then, we do not have enough “softs” to fill in. So, we invite famous artists from overseas and charge senselessly high fees. I tell you, I heard from a specialist of European music that reputation among musicians of performing in Japan is “lucrative".

Let’s expect our new administration to stop carrying out such weird policies (we had enough of them), and start a “change” to policies that fit our time. Several shady stories are coming into light already, like relations between airport and special account, strange tricks hidden in dam constructions and other civil engineering. We have so many stories that make us ashamed, in fact, too many.

On a television broadcast of a press conference, I noticed that the newly appointed ministers were answering to the questions of correspondents in their own words, not holding on to memos prepared by bureaucrats. You may not have noticed it, but I think many people felt this as a fresh scene. I have told you my thoughts on this issue before (in the 2nd paragraph….) What do you think?

Hanoi and Yangon

Posted on 2009/10/012014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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It’s been a long time since I was at Hanoi last time. Now I am here again for two reasons: to move for YES (Young Engineers and Scientists) Award (Ref.1, 2) of Honda foundation
and to have an informal talk with the officials of government of Vietnam on its Science and Technology policies.

As I always say in every opportunity, it is my deep conviction that the most fundamental goal of education in Japan is to produce human asset that is ready to cope with this speeding global age and it should be done through promotion of active multi layered international exchanges. I am sure that those of you who are frequent visitors of my blog know this…

For this purpose I am helping the Honda foundation on its YES program that is supporting young generation of Vietnam, India, and other ASEAN countries.

While I was waiting for my colleagues to join me from Cambodia, Drs. Thang and Ann (photo1) came to see me at the hotel. I have known them for more than 10 years, ever since I was councilor, and later President, of the International Society of Nephrology. Now, they are leading figures in this field in Vietnam. Dr. Ann has experience of spending 3 months at Tokai University by invitation. I recall that it was 17 or 18 years ago when I first visited Hanoi and saw hospitals operating in unbelievably bad conditions.

Photo 1: From left, Dr. Thang and Dr. Ann.

Dr. Ca, whom I believe is the “number 2” in Science and Technology Department, organized my meeting with the government officials including two former ministers and we enjoyed heated discussions. Dr. Ca and I are familiar with each other because we both participated in the Conference of the Science Council of Asia for these 7, 8 years. Every time I see him, he is promoted to higher responsibilities. I am happy to see this.

Photo 2: With Dr. Ca. From left, Dr. Ishihara of Honda foundation, Dr. Ca, myself, Dr. Sunami of GRIPS, local officer.

Photo 3: Electric wires in the town. So crowded!

In the evening, by chance, I was able to stop by at the wedding party of Dr. Thang’s daughter for 10 minutes before going to the airport. So many guests were there.

I spent one night at Bangkok and left for Yangon, Myanmar. At Yangon, I visited the Yangon Technological University (Ref.1) located in a beautiful simple scene to exchange views with the professors and President on what the best possible YES program of Honda foundation would be. After this, went to pay a visit to H.E. Nogawa at the Embassy of Japan, to JICA office, and Myanmar Association of Japan Alumni (MAJA) (approximately 800 alumni including short stays).

The President of MAJA, Dr. Kyaw was about the same generation as I. He studied as research student at Department of Neurosurgery at School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo and earned his degree under the supervision of Professors Shimizu and Sano. Good old memories! This sort of relationship is even more necessary for tomorrow’s Japan, and I want even more young people go study abroad, to mix and compete with others, but even at this global age, the number of students studying abroad is decreasing in Japan for some reason. In other words, “inward looking, secluding” mentality is spreading – a strange phenomenon. I think this problem is more prominent in boys.

I also want more energy in professors. If professors are “inward looking”, nothing much can be done about it, but at least they should put young students at the top priority because they are going to handle this nation in the future. This is really a problem. Same problems exist in companies, too.

I left Yangon in the evening for Japan. It was a busy trip, but there were lots to see and hear, and many nice people to meet.

I arrived at Narita next morning, spent some time at GRIPS, and in the evening went to the recording of “Prime News”, a television program of BS Fuji channel. The topic of that night was “Davos meeting, the world, and Japan”. The guests were Mr. Motohisa Furukara, “secretary-genral” of National Strategy Bureau of Cabinet headed by Deputy Prime Minister Kan and Ms. Kumi Fujisawa of Sofia Bank, and myself. By any chance have you seen it?

Summer Davos at Dalian: ‘D.Light’ and other flourishing Social Entrepreneurs

Posted on 2009/09/122014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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As at elsewhere, ‘Social Entrepreneurs’ is in the spotlight at Summer Davos also. Japan as a high tech country tends to see the world just from her perspective making international contribution with philosophy or products that lack ‘knowledge or sensitivity to the local situation’ or having ‘too much focus on cutting -edge technology’ – both being the ‘weakness’ that Japanese must recognize.

The D-Lab of MIT which I have introduced to you in my blog is a good example of the project that started with consideration to these points.

At IdeasLab, the session on social entrepreneurs, many examples were introduced but I would say Ned Tozan of ‘D.Light’ (Ref.1) caught most attention. In India and Africa, many places are without electricity so some people burn kerosene at night. This is apparently dangerous, unhealthy, and costly for poor people. What can we do about it? Their work starts from this question. Their enthusiasm was felt to all who listened.

Other examples included: 1) Activities to provide modest education and skill training to migrant workers for their possible career opportunity after their return to homeland. 2) Helping people with only small land to be financially independent 3) Helping young women forced in prostitution in Cambodia and other lands to become financially independent.

I asked Mr. Tozan ‘Did your project stem out from D-Lab (Ref.1) ?’ and his answer was ‘Yes’. Recently I posted a column on D-Lab, a wonderful new course that started at MIT. I was told that this activity spread through the alumni and heard about a successful example of a Stanford student. I had a feeling that D.Light was it, and correctly so. Just looking at the background of Sam Goldman (Ref.1), CEO and founder of D.Light, you will see how American youth are aware about the world affairs, have energy and vitality to do something about them. I also admire from the bottom of my heart the innovative ways elite universities of America treat the students and their ambitions.

I think that more social entrepreneurs would emerge from Japan if more Japanese business people or youth see global issues through their own personal experience. Letting them pass time in ‘Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal)’ is ‘mottainai’. I wonder whether young people in Japan find it difficult to draw a bright picture of future when they see people 20-30 years older and think to themselves that those kind of life are their only options. But they are so wrong!

In order to open up Japan to the world, it is crucial to ‘let young people experience and see more of the outside world’ (Ref.1, 2, 3). It is now almost my mantra, but once again, I confirmed its importance. The world is big. As Steve Jobs puts it, ‘Don’t Settle, Keep Looking’(Ref.1)

ACP Japan Chapter

Posted on 2009/07/042014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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This institution is quite unique. Why does American College of Physicians (ACP) have Japan Chapter? This is exactly the point. Please refer to my "Message from the Governor" (in Japanese) at the start of Japan Chapter and my blog (in Japanese) for explanations. Ever since its foundation, we organized annual meetings (reports in Japanese) with the presence of the President from the headquarters. The first meeting was held in April, 2004. I have been involved since the beginning, and am scheduled to serve as Governor for another year.

The annual meeting of ACP-Japan Chapter is different from other domestic meetings in that participants do not care much about his/her position/hierarchy. I hear this especially from young people, i.e. medical students and residents. Here are some of the scence from the meeting for you to enjoy. I posted a report on annual meeting of last year in my blog also.

This year’s annual meeting was, like others, held in Tokyo in April with support from The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. Many enthusiastic discussions took place on topics such as activities of female doctors, case studies, etc. This conference lets us feel high spirits, particularly of young generation.

Two weeks after Japan meeting, the annual meeting of ACP headquarters was held at Philadelphia, and many Japanese members participated in spite of their tight schedule.

A report on series of activities of ACP-Japan Chapter is now uploaded on its web site (in Japanese). Anyone interested are cordially invited to have a look and learn about their activities or browse through messages from the members as well as various photos.