What we should do for the future of children—A report on the Joint Meeting of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Teratology Society and the 13th World Congress of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation‐CLEFT 2019

Abstract

The Joint Meeting of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Teratology Society and the 13th World Congress of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation—CLEFT 2019—was held at Meijo-Koen Campus of Aichi Gakuin University in Nagoya, Aichi in Japan, from 26 to 29 July 2019. The main theme of the meeting was advocated to be “For the Future of Children.—Disseminating a philosophy of “Medicine is Jinjutsu” from Japan to the world.” And for the meeting, the following topics were suggested: (a) What you can do to protect the lives of fetuses, (b) Treatment and research for congenital anomalies.—Introduce the delicate skills and techniques and the latest research from Japan, (c) Current status and outlook for international medical assistance in congenital anomalies.—Dissemination the philosophy of “Medicine is Jinjutsu (a benevolent art),” (d) The role of monitoring of congenital anomalies in Japan.—Including the data of “Fukushima” after the 2011 nuclear accident, (e) Possible roles of the folic acid for prevention of congenital anomalies. We appointed Mr. Akihisa Mizuno (President, Japanese Cleft Palate Foundation; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.) as the Honorary Congress President and Prof. Nagato Natsume (Director, Cleft Lip and Palate Center Aichi Gakuin University Hospital; Professor, Division of Research and Treatment for Oral and Maxillofacial Congenital Anomalies, Aichi Gakuin University) as the Congress President. As Vice Congress Presidents, Prof. Yuri Fujiwara (Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapy, Osaka Health Science University), Prof. Koichi Ueda (Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Osaka Medical College), Prof. Noriaki Yoshida (Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Nagasaki University), Dr. Jun Takebe (Department of Removable Prosthodontics, Aichi Gakuin University) were appointed. Dr. Hideto Imura and Dr. Toko Hayakawa acted as Chairs of the Preparatory Committee, and Dr. Masaaki Ito played a role of the Vice Chair of the Preparatory Committee (Figure 1). The joint meeting has gotten 723 participants from a total of 41 countries and regions. The countries and regions included Belgium, Cambodia, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Lao PDR, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam (Figure 1). The number of presentations counted 323 titles. The Presidential Lecture was titled “Dedicating my life to treat cleft lip and palate with deep appreciation to ICPF and JTS.” The program included seven other Special Lectures: “Towards establishment of “Embryatrics”; revisited and to be continued,” by Prof. Hiroki Otani; “An Update from the Teratology Society (North America),” by Prof. Elise M. Lewis; “Identification of new syndromes and its implications,” by Prof. Kenjiro Kosaki; “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?—A teratologist's personal perspective,” by Prof. Kohei Shiota; “My Experience as a Member of the Japanese Teratology Society for 56 Years,” by Prof. Mineo Yasuda; “Surgical Technique in Unilateral Primary Lip/Nose Complex Repair,” by Prof. Kenneth Received: 30 September 2019 Accepted: 2 October 2019 DOI: 10.1111/cga.12355