Topics
Asahikawa Medical University Advisory Committee of Experts Established
In December 2019, in order to adhere to our service regulations, we established the Asahikawa Medical University Advisory Committee.
The purpose of the committee is to review our administration and promote compliance so that our university is fair and just, obtains
more social trust and contributes to regional medicine.
The members of the committee are an external lawyer, advisors to the president of our university, and the director of our hospital.
Attended by our consulting lawyer as an observer, the first meeting of the committee was held on January 27, 2020.
For transparency, the committee will announce summary reports on the discussions.

Hokkaido Science and Technology Award Granted
Dr. AZUMA Nobuyoshi, professor of the Division of Vascular, Respiratory and Surgical Oncology at the Department of Surgery, won
the Hokkaido Science and Technology Award.
Acute aortic diseases must be treated surgically or intravascularly as soon as possible. The sooner care is provided, the more likely itsaves lives. Hokkaido is a large place however, and the number of hospitals that can provide such medical care is limited and quick accessto facilities is an issue.
To solve this problem, Dr. AZUMA noticed that cloud-based medical
practice can be clinically applied to patients with acute aortic diseases.
Doctors in remote core hospitals send compressed CT images to the cloud,our cardiovascular surgery specialists look at them, make decisions about
operations, and can start the operation (if needed) as soon as the patient hasarrived. He has further applied this medical practice to other vasculardiseases such as lower limb ischemia and venous thrombus, and to surgicaldiseases such as those in pediatric surgery that fewer doctors specialize in.

Introduction of External Interviewer System into our Entrance Examinations
We introduced the external interviewer system into the recommendation entrance examination. Its introduction was carried out basedon what local communities wish our entrance examination to be. Reform of our university to make it more open to local communities
has been accelerated mainly by the Integrated Medical Educational Center (which was established in April 2019 and renamed the Centerfor Integrated Medical Education and Regional Symbiosis in May 2020) for collaboration and enhancement in medical education atvarious levels, such as admission into our university, educating undergraduate students, and providing post-graduate clinical training.

President YOSHIDA Akitoshi Won an Ito Foundation Award
President YOSHIDA Akitoshi won an award presented by the Ito
Foundation for his enthusiastic research into ocular circulation studies, hisalmost 40-year effort developing a new invention: the world’s first fully
automated Doppler OCT flowmeter, and his devotion to reducing
urban/rural medical-care disparities for a quarter of a century as the world’s
leading authority in telemedicine.
This award is given to those with outstanding research achievements
and future visions in medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry who work foruniversities and research institutes in Hokkaido.

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Grand Opening of the Animal Laboratory for Medical Research after Renovation
The Animal Laboratory for Medical Research started operation in June after one of its buildings, Kurodake (Building K), was renovatedand the other building, Asahidake (Building A), was built last spring. The laboratory is important in that it is designed to be pathogen
free and is equipped with an area where mice and rats are kept and experimented on. To be more specific, it allows us to keep
disease-model mice in a clean, stable environment, and to conduct various
experiments such as infection experiments using immunodeficient animals
and reproductive engineering experiments to produce genetically modified
animals. It is also made a safer and more appropriate environment by
centralizing the care of the animals. We will keep medium- and large-sizedanimals and expand the area for experiments.
While the grand opening was delayed and the operation is limited dueto the outbreak of the coronavirus, all the faculty members are working
hard to make the laboratory more convenient.

Plan to Establish International Medical Educational Institute
Our university is planning to establish the International Medical Educational Institute in which we will train and equip medical
professionals from abroad with our country’s advanced medicine. The institute will provide trainees with both dry labs (virtual training
with surgical simulators) and wet labs (surgical training with animals), and it will be equipped with high-performance operating rooms,ICUs, and medical imaging technology for advanced medical training. Unlike typical national university hospitals, the institute will be
managed in a flexible and elastic manner in a way similar to that of a private company. Our plan for the International Medical Educational
Institute will accelerate our university’s progress and will help our university continue our contribution to the northern part of Hokkaido.

Establishment of Stroke CenterIn emergency medicine, stroke-related diseases including cerebral infarction can affect patients’ lives seriously, depending on how soon
medical treatment is provided.
Since our country’s approval of the Stroke and Cardiovascular Disease Control Act in 2018, we have been determined to serve local
communities as stipulated in the act and, in December 2019, we established the Stroke Center. It allows multiple staff members to work
for a short period of time and maintains its steady working system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
We have been performing thrombectomy, a widely known treatment
method for cerebral infarction that has been proven effective by large-scale
research. We will utilize the Stroke Center to further enhance our 15-year
team for stroke, collaborating with the department of neurosurgery, thedivision of cardiology, nephrology, pulmonology and neurology, thedepartment of emergency medicine, and the department of physicalmedicine and rehabilitation and, as a university hospital, to provide highquality medical services.

Our Hospital Recommended as a Japan International Hospital
Having been reformed and strengthened as a globalization activity, in September 2019, our hospital
was recommended as a Japanese International Hospital by the incorporated association Medical
Excellence JAPAN (MEJ), which fosters medical institutions in Japan to accept inbound patients,
assesses hospitals in their willingness and efforts, recommend those that satisfy criteria as Japan
International Hospitals, and offer, in collaboration with the Japanese government, information about
the recommended hospitals and their medical services.

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Accreditation of the Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education
In July 2019, the School of Medicine at Asahikawa Medical University wasevaluated and audited by the Japan Accreditation Council for Medical Education(JACME) in order to assure the quality of our educational system. We werecertified that we satisfy the global standards for Basic Medical Education. The
accreditation period is for seven years, from February 1st, 2020 to January 31st, 2027.
The report of the evaluation results by JACME and our self-evaluation report are posted
on our website at http://www.asahikawa-med.ac.jp/bureau/kikaku/tenken.html#03n. We
will update our efforts to develop our education system every year.

Other
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Notification of Academic Records to Students’ Guardians (since 2013)●

Course Available in the Postgraduate Clinical Program Admission for Junior Residents to be Admitted into Graduate School (since 2013)
Clinical Professors in Charge of Groups of Students in the Medical Course (since 2013) and Clinical Professors as Advisors (since 2014)●Construction of the Forwarding System Using the CT Scanning System in Emergencies (since 2013)●

Participation in Taisetsu Anshin i Medical Network (since 2014)●

Introduction of Annual Salary Scheme to 10% of the Faculty Members (since 2015)●

Selected as a Base of the Project for Establishing an Open-access-based Center for Sustainable Creation of New Medical Technology forTranslational Research Network Program (since 2017)●

Support for Working Cancer Patients by the Cancer Support Center and Public Employment Security Office (since 2017)●Mentor System (since 2018)

See Telemedicine Center on page 40 for more information about the remarkable activities taking place there.

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Photo by Professor HARABUCHI Yasuaki (Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery of Asahikawa Medical University)