Welcome to Nagasaki!　
The Japan Society of Medical Education (JSME) is dedicated to the enrichment and development of research on medical education and the dissemination of its results for the development of medical professionals in Japan. Established in 1969, the JSME has about 2,500 members. It is the oldest and largest academic society for medical education in Japan.
 
The annual conference will be hosted by Nagasaki University on July 28-29, 2023 in Nagasaki. We look forward to welcoming many of you from abroad!
 
During the period of Japan's isolationist national policy (1641-1853), Nagasaki was the only city open to the outside world. Western medicine entered Japan by way of Nagasaki and Nagasaki University is regarded as the birthplace of modern Western medical education in Japan. Many medical pioneers in Japan studied in Nagasaki and spread the acquired knowledge throughout Japan.
https://www.med.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/med/index_e.html
 
　Nagasaki as a shining gateway city to Western culture allowed its people to flourish in great wealth. However, along with Western culture, smallpox, cholera, and other epidemics, also found their way into the city which resulted in the loss of many lives.
 
　In 1861, the Dutch military doctor Johannes Lijdius Catharinus Pompe van Meerdervoort established the first Western-style hospital in Japan,
which would become the Nagasaki Prefectural Hospital Medical School In 1869, then in 1871, was promoted to Nagasaki Medical College, and now has become Nagasaki University.
 
Nagasaki University’s darkest hour came on August 9, 1945 at 11:02 a.m. with the flash of the atomic bomb that exploded over the city, killing 979 Nagasaki University students and faculty members. Nagasaki University is the only university in the world to have been exposed to the atomic bomb and the subsequent reconstruction led by faculty, staff, and students working together as one is a history we must not forget.
 
The theme of the present conference is
〝A paradigm shift in health professions education: reflecting on the history and the bright future ahead〟
 
COVID-19 and its global repercussions has been with us since early 2020 and has had a major impact on medical education. Remote education, which had been discussed for some time, accelerated dramatically. A number of new educational tools were developed and implemented with many positive aspects. However, the lack of face-to-face practical training brought with it difficulties in passing on medical professionalism. The hidden curricula that had been continuously passed on in each university no longer functioned. Multidisciplinary education also suffered because of the Corona disaster, and in some aspects the walls between professions rose higher again.

We are truly looking forward to having people from all over the world discuss the state, future, and possibilities of medical education in the new COVID era in Nagasaki.