HICARE and its Activities over the Past 25 Years
HICARE Executive Secretary and Chief Scientist of Radiation Eﬀects Research Foundation

Kazunori Kodama● I n t ro d u cti o nThis organization is known

as HICARE, an abbreviation taken
mainly from the ﬁrst letters of its
English name, the Hiroshima
International Council for HealthCare of the Radiation Exposed. Itwas originally known by anotherJapanese abbreviation, but
nowadays is more commonly calledHICARE.
HICARE is a consortium
comprised of eight agencies and two
administrative agencies involved inthe medical care of atomic bomb1survivors and medical study on

atomic bomb radiation exposure in Hiroshima. Speciﬁcally, it was established in 1991, consisting of Hiroshima
University Faculty of Medicine, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima University Research Institute forRadiation Biology and Medicine, Radiation Eﬀects Research Foundation, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Casualty Council,
Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital, Hiroshima Prefectural Medical Association,
Hiroshima City Medical Association, Hiroshima Prefecture, and Hiroshima City. Now, almost 25 years have passed
since its founding, and it has made many signiﬁcant contributions to medical care of the exposed around the world.
● P u rp o s e o f E st abl i sh m e n t

HICARE was established

wi t h t h e p u r p os e of us i ng t heexperience in treating atomic bomb
survivors and the achievement ofinvestigative research regarding
radiation disorders gained by
Hiroshima which were the ﬁrst
mankind to suﬀer from the atomic
bombing tragedy, and creating asystem to eﬀectively apply thatknowledge to medical care ofradiation-exposed individuals bothin Japan and overseas, thus
allowing Hiroshima to contribute tothe world and help promoteinternational cooperation.

2● A cti v i t i e s an d A ch i e v e m e n t s

HICARE's projects involves①accepting training requests, ②dispatching experts, and ③enhancing

public awareness, which can be further categorized into holding lectures and the like, and publishing.

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① A cce p t i n g t rai n i n g re qu e st s

Potential training participants are physicians or other medical professionals engaged in medical care or

health management for persons exposed to radiation. Accepting is done if applications are submitted by aninternational agency, foreign government, medical association, or other relevant organizations through a publicagency in Japan. Training courses includes radiation dosimetry, assessment of biological eﬀects of radiation,
diagnosis of radiation disorders, epidemiological and statistical methods, lasting from one week to three months.
Training is carried out at the six agencies out of eight involved in the medical study and medical care of
atomic bomb radiation comprising HICARE and at Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Foundation, andsince HICARE's founding in 1991 until March 2015, we have accepted a total of 455 trainees from 20 countries.
Also, if we include training carried out through requests from other organizations such as the Japan
International Cooperation Agency（JICA）,that number of accepted persons reaches 1,379.
② D i s p a tch i ng e xpe rt s

From HICARE's establishment until March 2015, we have dispatched a total of 201 experts to 16countries, in Asia, North America, Central and South America, and Europe. The purpose of dispatching is tohold training seminars and provide technical guidance related to medical care for individuals exposed toradiation, as well as for attending international conferences including Radiation Emergency MedicalPreparedness and Assistance Network（REMPAN）meetings run by the World Health Organization（WHO）,conferences related to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, and International Atomic Energy Agency（IAEA）international conferences, etc.
Furthermore, we also dispatched experts to radiation disasters in Japan, namely the Tokaimura
nuclear accident in 1999 and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011. For the Fukushima
Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, we formed a radiation dosimetry team consisting of 6 members,
who were radiation technologists and nurses, and carried out measurements of evacuees' dosages and oﬀeredhealth consultation.
③ En h a n ci n g pu bl i c aware n e ssa）Holding lectures, etc.
At HICARE, we have held lectures to spread awareness of the signiﬁcance and necessity forpromoting international cooperation related to medical care for radiation-exposed individuals. In the past tenyears, we have held the HICARE Symposium in the commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the AtomicBombing（2005）, International Symposium Commemorating the 15th Anniversary of HICARE（2006）, theInternational Cooperation Symposium of Medical Care for the Radiation-exposed（2008）, and the HICAREInternational Symposium - in cooperation with the IAEA（2011）. Lectures are open to the public and many
residents attended.
b）Publishing projects
The other pillar of our projects for enhancing public awareness is our publishing. First, "Eﬀect ofA-bomb Radiation on the Human Body 1992", a handbook of the medical care for A-bomb survivors, waspublished in 1992, one year after HICARE was founded. This handbook was written for people engaged in
medical care; however, it covered all the latest knowledge at that time, and it is no exaggeration to say that
this medical handbook was a white paper on medical treatment of atomic bomb survivors. An English version
was also published in 1995. Then, in 2012, results from later research were included for a full revision, and "TheEﬀects of A-Bomb Radiation on the Human Body 2nd Revised Edition" was published.
As stated, HICARE has continued to make steady eﬀorts since its founding, and those eﬀorts havegained several recognitions.
First, in 1996, ﬁve years after our founding, we received the Public Health Award. In 2006, 15 years after ourfounding, we received the Foreign Minister's Commendation Award, then in 2013, we received a letter ofappreciation from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare for our response to the Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant accident.

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●P ro m o ti n g n e w i n t e rn at i on al con tributions
In addition to the activities

described thus far, HICARE began
a new project in 2010.
On August 6, 2010, Yukiya Amano,
the Director General of theInternational Atomic Energy
Agency（IAEA）visited Hiroshima,exchanging

Practical

Arrangements for collaboration in
the medical treatment andresearch for radiation-exposed
individuals, with the purpose ofcontributing to international peaceand stability. In response, HICARE
held the "Training Course on
Biodosimetry" as a new eﬀort in3

collaboration with IAEA inHiroshima in June 2013. IAEA dispatched the lecturers, and 15 trainees from various countries in Asia
attended. Then, in October that year, we held a "Training Course on the Radiation Emergency Medicine" inHiroshima in collaboration with IAEA, with 31 trainees from Asia and the Paciﬁc attending.
Through these kinds of activities, our collaboration with IAEA has developed even further, and in May
2014, HICARE was designated as an IAEA Collaborating Centre for the "Capacity Building in Radiation Eﬀects
and Human Health" project. It was the ﬁrst time a consortium organization like HICARE was designated as an
IAEA Collaborating Centre.
Then, in January 2015, "HICARE/IAEA International Training Course IAEA/RCA Regional Training
Course: An update on Advanced Technologies in Radiotherapy" was held in Hiroshima, with 27 trainees from
Asia and the Paciﬁc.
Also, aiming to cultivate human resources that will make international contributions in the future,
HICARE decided to dispatch medical students to the IAEA intern program, and dispatched two students fromthe Hiroshima University Faculty of Medicine, each for three months, from October 2013 and October 2015.
While the dispatching period was short, it provided a perfect opportunity for gaining an international
perspective, and we plan to continue this in the future.
●C o n cl u s i o n

As I have described,

throughout the almost 25 years
since its founding in 1991, HICARE
has developed its project ofaccepting training requests,
dispatching experts, and enhancing
public awareness, working to apply
the experience in treating atomic
bomb survivors and theachievement of investigative
research regarding eﬀects ofradiation gained by Hiroshima to
medical care of radiation-exposed
individuals both in Japan andoverseas. Furthermore, we havebegun collaborative project with464

IAEA in recent years, bringing HICARE's activities to a new level. In the future, we hope to continue andexpand these eﬀorts, cooperating with the Nagasaki Association for Hibakushas' Medical Care（NASHIM）,
which works for the same goals, and further promote our contributions to humanity.

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