Hamamatsu University School of Medicine (HUSM) will celebrate its 50th anniversary in June 2024. Thanks to the work of the academic staff and graduates, HUSM has established a strong presence as a national university corporation. At the end of the last academic year, the number of graduates reached 4,641 in the Faculty of Medicine and 1,757 in the Faculty of Nursing. Our graduates are active not only in community medicine, but also in nationwide medical practice, research, and government-related fields. This is my ninth year as president of HUSM, and from the first year onwards, I have consistently set the operational guidelines based on our Foundation Vision "to nurture excellent medical personnel, to promote globally relevant original research results, and to play a leading role in local medical treatments", and which unwaveringly remains the compass for the university's operation even after half a century, and even in the present age of remarkable advancement and specialization in medical care and nursing.
It has been 20 years since this national university has been incorporated, and we are now in the third year of the fourth Mid-term Objectives (a 6-year unit). HUSM is a single-department medical school, thereby will provide the overviews of education, research, medical care, and social and regional collaboration.

In education, we have been promoting educational reformation along with admissions reformation. In terms of entrance exams, we have increased the weight of individual entrance exams, implemented presentations as part of the interview process, and anticipated the nation's recent shift of direction away from exams that test 'memorization' and towards testing 'logical thinking, judgment, and expressiveness.' For undergraduate education, we implemented drastic curriculum reformation in the Faculty of Medicine in 2021. In our new curriculum, the study of behavioral sciences such as ethics and psychology are taught throughout the undergraduate education, in order to help students to acquire inner qualities such as rich humanity, empathy based on ethics, and communication skills, which are also specified in our diploma policy. Furthermore, the curriculum focuses not only on internationalism, but also on the cultivation of the English language, which is essential for understanding diversity, including different cultures and races. In addition to taking TOEIC, which is part of the study program for all students in odd-numbered years, the Faculty of Medicine provides 6 years of English education starting with e-learning (online education), and including case presentations in English and overseas clinical training to develop the language skills to discuss medicine and medical treatment in English upon graduation. By expanding the functions of the International Center, which includes three native English-speaking faculty members, and by making it more convenient for HUSM and international students, we have promoted further international education and international academic exchange, and the number of our students who study abroad has increased significantly.
Furthermore, we will continue to nurture highly specialized doctors and nurses with advanced abilities, and medical personnel who can provide the best medical care that respects the will of patients and understands the diversity of patient values and characteristics while cooperating with other occupations. In addition, we will nurture diligent and creative medical and nursing researchers who can share their valuable research results that lead to elucidation of unknown biological phenomena and overcoming diseases with the world. And we have also adopted the study of entrepreneurship as a formal curriculum from 2022, along with the study of mathematics and data science to develop human resources with entrepreneurship who will challenge social issues such as social implementation of new medical technology beyond existing academic fields.
As for postgraduate education, Graduate School of Medicine ＆ Nursing consistently receives more applications than it can accommodate, including from overseas students, making it possible to secure excellent postgraduate students. Additionally, the Doctoral Degree Program in Nursing has started from 2022. The Master's Degree Program in Nursing offers advanced practice nursing courses in gerontological nursing and psychiatric nursing and will train a diverse range of nurses who are committed to advanced healthcare, including specialist nurses and certified nurses.

In terms of research, the number of research achievements per full-time faculty member and the amount and number of research grants received are consistently among the highest in the national universities. We have achieved various results by utilizing the Imaging Complex system consisting of the latest research equipment and highly skilled technical staff and accumulated knowledge in photo medical research, which is one of the strengths of our university. To further develop excellence in photo medical, the Institute of Photonics Medicine was established in April this year. In the Institute, basic and clinical researchers will work together to address unresolved issues such as mental illness and genetic disorders, aiming to elucidate the pathophysiology of unmet medical needs and create innovative diagnostic treatments using photonics technology.
We will also promote distinctive cross-disciplinary research, incorporating knowledge from other fields such as engineering and informatics. At the same time, we aim to create a society that is physically and mentally healthy by developing new medical technologies and systems and analyzing big data. To achieve this, we will continue to focus on strategic research support, including support for promising young researchers who will play a central role in the next generation.
Moreover, in April this year, we externalized our university's industry-government-academia collaboration department and established a new corporation dedicated to implementing such collaborations. We have achieved a great deal in the past in collaboration with private companies, universities, government, financial organizations and core hospitals. In the future, the implementation corporation will produce joint research and development with more speedy and consistent management to promote research and create business. The Next Generation Creative Education Center for Medicine, Engineering, and Informatics was opened in 2022 to nurture students and workers who have the attainments of design thinking and entrepreneurship that can challenge social issues and develop human resources capable of promoting innovative medical collaboration and creating a medical innovation ecosystem in the region. In 2023, we also established the Regional Creative Education Center for Disaster Preparation and Community Development to strengthen and promote HUSM's regional contribution activities, such as training disaster prevention support personnel, medical experts, equipment development and system construction, in collaboration with local authorities and regional companies, in order to solve regional issues such as emergency and disaster medicine, including infectious diseases.

In terms of medical care, the Advanced Medical Treatment Center, which was completed in 2021, has added operating rooms, making it possible to update our radiotherapy unit, and to expand operations of the Chemotherapy Center, Endoscopic & Photodynamic Medicine (Endoscope), NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit), and GCU (Growing Care Unit). In addition, we reorganized organ-specific wards and established organ-specific centers to improve patient convenience, medical care efficiency, bed control efficiency, and strengthen the medical care cooperation system.
We have also been reinforcing post-graduate education, and our Postgraduate Clinical Education Center provides consistent support from junior resident training to specialist training. Additionally, the Center for Career Development in Nursing trains nurses who perform specific actions, under medical safety, to accelerate team medical care. We hope that such efforts will improve the quality of medical care and nursing.
Furthermore, we will promote medical Digital Transformation in consideration of the Hamamatsu Super City Concept. By utilizing information technology, we will provide safer and more advanced healthcare, improving the quality of care and convenience for patients. We will also promote consolidation and functional differentiation through cooperation with neighboring medical institutions, including the sharing of medical information by constructing a system for using electronic medical records from outside our hospital. And, we aim to create a sustainable wellness society by building a resilient medical network even in the event of a disaster or emerging infectious disease.
In addition, we will work on task shifts (Transferring tasks that were previously handled by one profession to another) by improving the quality of diverse medical staff, including nurses, and reform work style for medical professionals.
Regarding regional contributions, we play a leading role in medical care not only in the western region of Shizuoka prefecture but also in the entire prefecture. Approximately 30% of the doctors working in Shizuoka are graduates of HUSM or those related to its medical departments, and nearly 30 among them have been promoted to the position of hospital director in their respective hospitals including three large hospitals with more than 600 beds. In addition, people related to HUSM are active as president of the Japan Medical Association, directors of Prefectural Medical Associations, chairpersons of Municipal Medical Associations, and executives of medical administration in multiple prefectures and municipalities. In recent years,
more than half of the medical school graduates have been employed in various jobs in Shizuoka prefecture, which makes it one of the universities with extremely high local retention rates in Japan.
Furthermore, we will strengthen industry-academia-government collaboration, which is one of the strong points of our university, and aim to create an industry based on medical care by creating innovative technologies and fostering venture companies in partnership with our external implementation corporation of industry-academia-government collaboration. As the core of regional revitalization and value creation, we will contribute to the creation of an inclusive and sustainable "wellness society" in collaboration with local communities and other universities.
Going forward, we will continue to dialogue with concerned parties to understand the functions and roles expected of the university, and with the advice of outside experts, we will enhance our research and studies and, in principle, operate the university based on objective indicators. In addition, we will strive to secure various financial resources other than Management Expenses Grants from the government and expand asset management, etc. to ensure stable financial management. And, through the development of facilities and equipment, we will strengthen the functions of the affiliated hospital, which supports regional medical care, while combining advanced information technology to organically link the entire campus. We will also work to make the campus a center of co-creation (innovation commons) not only within the university but also with local authorities, industry, and other educational and research institutes.
I hope that HUSM will be an organization in which each individual fulfills their responsibilities, has their own dreams and realizes their own career formation autonomously, which will eventually lead to the sustainable growth of Hamamatsu University School of Medicine.