Mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists in Japan: A cross-sectional survey of mentees in six academic medical centers Career choice, professional education and development

Background: Physician-scientists play key roles in biomedical research across the globe, yet prior studies have found that it is increasingly difficult to recruit and retain physician-scientists in research careers. Access to quality research mentorship may help to ameliorate this problem in the U.S., but there is virtually no information on mentoring in academic medicine in Japan. We conducted a survey to determine the availability and quality of mentoring relationships for trainee physician-scientists in Japan. Methods: We surveyed 1700 physician-scientists in post-graduate research training programs in 6 academic medical centers in Japan about mentorship characteristics, mentee perceptions of the mentoring relationship, and attitudes about career development. Results: A total of 683 potential physician-scientist mentees completed the survey. Most reported that they had a departmental mentor (91%) with whom they met at least once a month; 48% reported that they were very satisfied with the mentoring available to them. Mentoring pairs were usually initiated by the mentor (85% of the time); respondents identified translational research skills (55%) and grant writing (50%) as unmet needs. Mentoring concerning long-term career planning was significantly associated with the intention to pursue research careers, however this was also identified by some mentees as an unmet need (35% desired assistance; 15% reported receiving it). Conclusions: More emphasis and formal training in career mentorship may help to support Japanese physician-scientist mentees to develop a sense of self-efficacy to pursue and stay in research careers

Different responses to treatment across classified diseases and severities in Japanese patients with microscopic polyangiitis and granulomatosis with polyangiitis: A nationwide prospective inception cohort study

Introduction: This study aims to elucidate the prognosis and the effectiveness of current treatments for Japanese patients with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Methods: Patients with newly diagnosed MPA and GPA were enrolled in a nationwide, prospective, inception cohort study from 22 tertiary Japanese institutions, and treatment patterns and responses were evaluated for 24 months. Primary outcome measures were rates of remission (Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score, 0) and remission with low-dose glucocorticoids (GC) (prednisolone ≤ 10 mg) (GC remission). Results: Of 156 enrolled patients, 78 MPA patients and 33 GPA patients were included. Concomitant cyclophosphamide (CY) was used in 24 MPA (31 %) and 20 GPA (60 %) patients during the initial 3 weeks of treatment. After 6 months, remission was achieved in 66 MPA (85 %) and 29 GPA (87 %) patients, while GC remission was obtained in only 31 MPA (40 %) and 13 GPA (39 %) patients. During the 24-month period, 14 MPA patients and 2 GPA patients died; end stage renal disease (ESRD) was noted in 13 MPA patients but no GPA patients. Patients with severe disease, according to the European Vasculitis Study Group (EUVAS) classification, showed poorer ESRD-free and overall survival rates than those with generalized disease (p < 0.0001). There were no differences in relapse-free survival rates between GPA and MPA, among EUVAS-defined disease severity categories, and between anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody subspecialties. Conclusions: The majority of Japanese patients with MPA and GPA received treatment with high-dose GC and limited CY use, and showed high remission and relapse-free survival rates but low GC remission rates in clinical practice. Trial registration: University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000001648. Registered 28 February 2009

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Recent heavy-ion collision experiments reported a surprisingly short lifetime for the hypertriton, which has been recognized as the hypertriton lifetime puzzle. Our J-PARC E73 experiment contributes to solve this puzzle with an independent experimental method by employing 3He(K−, π0) 3ΛH reaction. In this contribution, we will demonstrate our capability to provide 3ΛH binding energy information by deriving the production cross section ratio, σ3ΛH/σ4ΛH. The production cross section data for 3ΛH and 4ΛH are already available as the pilot run of E73 experiment and data analysis is in progress