Tetsuya Tanimoto

Background: Contraceptive counseling for cancer patients, especially during periods of treatment-induced amenorrhea, is often overlooked. This can lead to unexpected pregnancies with significant implications for patient care and outcomes. Case Presentation: We report a case of a 38-year-old BRCA2-positive breast cancer patient who experienced an un...

Background Financial conflicts of interest (FCOIs) between pharmaceutical companies and clinical practice guideline (CPG) authors can influence guideline recommendations, posing challenges to patient care. Despite global concerns, limited research exists on FCOI awareness among healthcare professionals in lower‐middle‐income countries like Nepal....

Introduction and background Non-consensual sex, including rape and sexual assault, has been a global concern and may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, information on this topic is limited. Therefore, our objective was to survey the incidence rate of non-consensual sex among Japanese women aged 15-79 years between April and Sep...

Introduction The introduction of new drugs often leads to aggressive promotion and potential financial conflicts of interest, which may bias treatment decisions and potentially harm patients. The breast cancer therapeutics market is rapidly evolving globally, and Japan is no exception. This study aimed to analyze trends in pharmaceutical payments t...

This study aimed to investigate the advantages, disadvantages, working methods, and support needs of physicians practicing teleradiology from home in Japan, as well as to explore challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 physicians (12 radiologists and 3 neurosurgeons) engaged in teleradiology serv...

In the medical field, the importance of online reviews is escalating. However, the complexity of responding to these reviews is profound, as such anonymous critiques may encompass not only emotionally distressing content but also potentially malicious criticisms directed at healthcare professionals. While recognizing the vital role of patient feedb...

In recent years, Japan has faced a significant demographic crisis, which was further exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. By 2022, the country experienced a 1.5% decrease in population, which is in contrast to other G7 nations, and had the highest rate of excess mortality among Organization for Economic Cooperation and D...

Both public and academic scrutiny of the financial relationships between the medical device industry and the healthcare society occur less frequently than those involving the pharmaceutical industry, and Japan is no exception to these shortcomings. This paper examines the ethical and legal challenges inherent in Japan's medical device industry thro...

Introduction ChatGPT, a large‐scale language model, is a notable example of AI's potential in health care. However, its effectiveness in clinical settings, especially when compared to human physicians, is not fully understood. This study evaluates ChatGPT's capabilities and limitations in answering questions for Japanese internal medicine specialis...

Plastic pollution is increasingly becoming a threatening problem worldwide, with highlighted health risks associated with plastic waste incineration. Among the immediate measures to address this problem, proper recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles is a pertinent strategy. Considering the urgent need for administrative-led reforms,...

Background The field of breast cancer care has experienced a rapid influx of new treatments, making it a potential focus for promotional activities by pharmaceutical companies. These financial relationships could turn into significant sources of conflict of interest within the healthcare sector, possibly leading to undue influence on breast cancer...

Background: Non-consensual sex including rape and sexual assault has been a global concern and may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, however the information on this topic is limited. Therefore, our objective was to survey the incidence rate of non-consensual sex among Japanese women aged 15-79 years between April to September 2020, fol...

Objective: There is insufficient data on the financial relationships between Japanese neurologists and pharmaceutical companies prior to the advent of new-generation Alzheimer’s disease drugs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the magnitude, prevalence, and trend of the financial relationship between Japanese neurologists and pharmaceutical...

Introduction The interplay between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals is a critical facet of modern medicine, with financial relationships often influencing clinical practice. This study examines its impact on clinical practice in Japan, particularly in breast cancer treatment. It aims to uncover the prevalence, magnitude, and tr...

On 19 November 2023, Nagoya University Hospital declared that physicians’ educational and research pursuits beyond regular hours would be classified as self-improvement activities rather than work-related tasks.¹ As a result, starting in April 2024, such activities will not be eligible for compensation. Nagoya University, renowned as one of Japan’s...

Background/aim: Disasters can jeopardize breast cancer care and Japan's triple disaster in 2011 (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident) is no exception. However, detailed information is lacking regarding the care of breast cancer related lymphedema (BCRL) following the disaster. We aimed to explore the process by which local patients become aw...

Accurate disclosure of financial conflicts of interest (COI) among clinical practice guideline (CPG) developers is critical to ensure the quality of CPGs. However, there is limited evidence on the impact of underreporting COIs on the quality of CPGs. This study aimed to examine the proportion of underreported COI disclosures in the development of J...

Introduction Foreign residents in Japan often face challenges accessing healthcare due to language barriers, potentially leading to health inequities. This study aimed to assess the utilization and impact of human-mediated translation services in a specific medical setting in Tokyo. Methods A retrospective investigation was conducted on medical re...

In Japan, a considerable number of foreigners encounter challenges in accessing appropriate healthcare services due to the lack of insurance coverage. However, the absence of a public database on these individuals makes it difficult to assess their health problems and healthcare access status. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of v...

Background During the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, segments of the public relied on social media platforms such as Twitter for medical information shared by medical personnel. Although physicians are likely to disseminate more accurate information on Twitter than non-medical individuals, it cannot be taken for granted. As such, twe...

In breast cancer surgery, some medical facilities lack the necessary resources to conduct sentinel lymph node biopsy and its intraoperative frozen section consultation. In the coastal rural area of Fukushima, Japan, which has suffered from physician undersupply following the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, we explo...

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI (San Francisco, CA, USA), is making significant strides in the medical field. In a simulated case study, a 66-year-old Japanese female patient's dialogue with a physician was transcribed and inputted into ChatGPT to assess its efficacy in drafting medical records, formulating d...

Purpose Transparency in healthcare has led to increased public disclosure of doctors' conflicts of interest, with the "Yen for Docs Database" in Japan emerging as a pivotal source. Nevertheless, there remains ambiguity regarding the backgrounds and influence of highly-searched persons, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary objective...

Key Clinical Message During disasters, multiple factors can cause significant delays in medical visits. Regular patient monitoring, high‐risk individual alerts, and telemedicine enhancements can potentially alleviate these issues and ensure timely interventions. Abstract During the COVID‐19 pandemic, a Japanese woman in her 70s delayed her regular...

Purpose Allergic rhinitis impacts a significant portion of the Japanese population, leading to the rise of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) as an alternative treatment. Despite its growing popularity, there is limited safety information. Therefore, this study aimed to consolidate data on its adverse effects in an academic context. Methods We conduct...

This study scrutinizes Japan's coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) medication policy, focusing on three approved oral drugs: molnupiravir, nirmatrelvir, and ensitrelvir. The study highlights a potential bias favoring domestic drugs, suggesting politics may influence clinical decisions, as shown in the previous Japan polio vaccine policy. Regulatory...

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the performance and acceptance of responses generated by ChatGPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to Japanese childcare-related questions to assess their potential applicability and limitations in the childcare field, specifically focusing on the accuracy, usefulness, and empathy of the generated answers. Methods We evaluated answ...

Background: Financial relationships between healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical companies can lead to conflicts of interest (COIs), potentially compromising patients’ care. In Japan, scholarship donations, unique type of payments made to healthcare institutions and their subunits by pharmaceutical industries without restricting their use inc...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the changes in capabilities between the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT)-3.5 and GPT-4 versions of the large-scale language model ChatGPT within a Japanese medical context. Methods The study involved ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4 responding to questions from the 112th Japanese National Nursing...

The “Hiroshima Vision”, unveiled at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in 2023, leaves room for enhancement in the specific content of equitable global vaccine distribution plans. Despite the efforts of COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), vaccine supply faces severe disparities, with high-income countries receiving a disproportionately larger share. To m...

Numerous undocumented and uninsured foreigners living in Japan have faced barriers when trying to obtain appropriate healthcare services, which have occasionally led to issues with unpaid medical bills to medical institutions. Although information on health and socioeconomic status is essential to tackle such issues, relevant data has been unavaila...

With the recent development of neonatal medicine, the number of children with medical complexities (CMCs) is increasing. Outdoor activities are important for their psychosocial development, and the principles of accessibility should be addressed. We report the experience of 2 CMCs' high-altitude mountaineering with the necessary support. The partic...

Rationale: Pharmaceutical companies make payments to physicians such as compensations for lecturing or consulting. Of particular, financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and leaders of professional medical societies are concern in medical community. However, little was known about them in Japan. Aims and objectives: This study a...

Cervical cancer is prevalent among women, with a reported 604,127 cases in 2020 worldwide. The incidence of cervical cancer has been mitigated in most high-income countries by promoting the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine. However, in Japan, cervical cancer is still a leading cause of mortality and the most prevalent cancer among women aged bet...

The "infallibility principle" in Japanese government bureaucracy has led to conservative responses in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, with adherence to initial methods, like the 3Cs (crowded places, close-contact settings, and confined and enclosed spaces), and resistance to policy changes, despite evolving scientific findings on airborne transmiss...

Disasters could jeopardize breast cancer care, and the 2011 Japan’s triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident) has been no exception. However, the information is lacking regarding its details, including that concerning breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). We aimed to explore the process of becoming aware of BCRL among the local...

Using payment data disclosed by 92 major pharmaceutical companies, this study evaluated personal payments to executive board members (EBMs) among each specialized field of internal medicine in Japan. A total of 63,405 personal payments worth of $70,796,014 in payment amounts were made to 99.2% of all EBMs of the 15 leading professional societies of...

Objectives Limited evidence is available regarding the financial relationships between gastroenterologists and pharmaceutical companies in Japan. This study analysed the magnitude, prevalence and trends of personal payments made by major pharmaceutical companies to board-certified gastroenterologists in Japan in recent years. Design Cross-sectiona...

In the published publication, there was an error regarding the affiliation for “Tomoya Suzuki” [...]

Rationale: The healthcare industry sometimes makes payments to physicians for non-research and research purposes in the United States. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the trends in non-research and research industry payments to pulmonologists since the inception of the Open Payments Database in 2013. Methods: Using the Open Payments Database...

ChatGPT is gaining widespread acceptance for its ability to generate natural language sentences in response to various inputs and is expected to become a supplementary tool for diagnosing and determining treatment policies in clinical settings. ChatGPT was used to evaluate its ability to perform clinical inference and accuracy in answering question...

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the mental health of people in Japan. Healthcare workers (HCWs) especially suffered from poor mental health, engaging with COVID-19 patients while protecting themselves from infection. However, a long-term assessment of their mental health in comparison to the general population remains to be conducted. Thi...

Objective To evaluate the magnitude, prevalence, and trend of the financial relationship between Japanese head and neck surgeons and pharmaceutical companies between 2016 and 2019. Study Design Cross‐sectional analysis. Setting Japan. Methods This study evaluated personal payments concerning lecturing, consulting, and writing paid by 92 major ph...

Japan's Diovan® /valsartan 'scandal' has received sensational coverage in the nation's media since 2012. Publication of fraudulent research and their subsequent retraction boosted and then curtailed the use of what was a useful therapeutic drug. Some authors of the papers resigned, others disputed the retractions and resorted to legal counsel to pr...

Objective: To evaluate the magnitude and trends in personal payments from pharmaceutical companies to urologists in Japan. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined the personal payments made to urologists by the major pharmaceutical companies in Japan between 2016 and 2019. Descriptive analyses were performed on the payment data. All urologi...

This cross-sectional analysis aimed to assess the extent of conflicts of interest among the Japanese government coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) advisory board members and elucidate the accuracy of conflicts of interest (COI) disclosure and management strategies. Using the payment data from all 79 pharmaceutical companies in Japan between 2017 a...

Objective To assess financial conflicts of interest (COI) and nonfinancial COI among psoriatic arthritis (PsA) clinical practice guideline (CPG) authors in Japan and the US, and to evaluate the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations of PsA CPGs. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis using payment data from major Japanese pharm...

Background Although the sudden coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would have significantly influenced financial relationships between the healthcare industry and gastroenterologists and hepatologists, little is known about the trend in financial relations in the United States. This study, thus, aimed to examine the trends in industry paym...

Various studies have reported the vaccine's efficacy against coronavirus disease 2019; however, there has been little discussion regarding the test frequency since the emergence of the Omicron strain. In this context, the United Kingdom has abolished its free testing program. Our analysis revealed that the decrease in case fatality rate was heavily...

Introduction Limited evidence suggests there were substantial amounts of payments from the healthcare industry to diabetologists and endocrinologists in the United States before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period. However, there is no study on how these industry payments changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to...

Background Clinical practice guidelines assist healthcare professionals in providing evidence-based care. However, pharmaceutical companies’ financial interests often influence guideline content. This study aimed to elucidate the magnitude of financial ties among Japanese gastroenterology guideline authors and the pharmaceutical industry. Methods...

Little is known about how the psychological stress of having experienced a natural disaster affects cancer patients. We experienced a patient who was treated with breast cancer after having been stricken by a typhoon, which resulted in significant psychological damage. Treatment strategies should incorporate patients' mental health appropriately af...

Backgrounds: Given the increasing number of novel and expensive drugs for rheumatoid diseases, the financial relationships between pharmaceutical companies and rheumatologists could be prevalent and substantial. However, little was known about the information in Japan. Methods: Using payment data publicly disclosed by 92 major pharmaceutical com...

Background: Financial relationships between healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies have historically caused conflicts of interest and unduly influenced patient care. However, little was known about such relationship and its effect in clinical practice among specialists in respiratory medicine. Methods: Based on the retrospective a...

Anisakiasis is a parasitic disease caused by Anisakis simplex and has become an emerging zoonosis as preferences for eating raw or undercooked seafood have become more common. Few case reports of asymptomatic anisakiasis have been published to date. A 79-year-old asymptomatic man underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) for gastric cancer screeni...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to figure out the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination, which has been reported as a rare adverse reaction. Methods Elucidating the characteristics, we performed a secondary analysis of the cases from February 2020 through January 2022, based on the publicl...

There are prevalent financial relationships between dermatologists and pharmaceutical companies in Japan. However little was known about the extent of whole picture of the personal payments made to dermatologists by pharmaceutical companies. This study aimed to examine the personal payments to the board-certified dermatologists by the Japanese Derm...

ABSTRACT Acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC) is one of the common subtypes of AML. It accounts for approximately 20% of newly diagnosed AML. The World Health Organization classification 2017 defines AML-MRC as acute leukemia with ≥20% blasts in the peripheral blood or bone marrow with morphological features of myelo...

It is imperative to properly manage financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) in clinical trials. Non-profit or other third-party organizations obviously should be considered potential FCOI. This chapter discusses this under-recognized type of FCOI based on the Capecitabine for Residual Cancer as Adjuvant Therapy (CREATE-X) trial conducted targeting h...

Internationally, efforts promoting greater transparency and improved management strategies for conflicts of interest (COI) have gained traction in healthcare settings. This particularly pertains to the development and use of clinical practice guidelines (CPG). Mounting evidence indicates that pharmaceutical industry payments to GPG authors and deve...

Objectives: This study aimed to examine whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the postponement or cancellation of elective surgeries in Japan. Design and setting: A cross-sectional, web-based, self-administered survey was conducted nationwide from August 25 to September 30 2020. We used data from the Japan 'COVID-19 and Society' Int...

Specific background information on cancer patients affected more severely by crisis and disasters is lacking. We experienced an advanced breast cancer patient whose hospital visits were interrupted for two years due to multiple internal and external factors. These factors need to be taken more into account for breast cancer management.

Dear Editor, The clinical practice guidelines for esophageal cancer issued by the Japan Esophageal Society (JES) are widely referenced for the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer.¹ However, little is known about the financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) in the guidelines. We performed descriptive analyses on the personal payments (lecturi...

This cross‐sectional study evaluated the magnitude of personal payments made by pharmaceutical companies to pediatric hematologist‐oncologists (PHOs) board‐certified by the Japanese Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (JSPHO), using publicly disclosed data. Among all 307 PHOs, 215 (70.0%) PHOs received $916 703 personal payments from 54 pharma...

We experienced the case of a patient with advanced breast cancer who failed to receive comprehensive care despite regular video conferencing with her physician during the COVID‐19 pandemic, resulting in delayed detection of liver metastasis. Inter‐hospital collaboration is required to provide uninterrupted cancer care to those disproportionately af...

Objectives To evaluate the trend in non-research payments made by the industries to the infectious disease physicians in the United States since the launch of the Open Payments Database and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Descriptive analysis was performed for the non-research payments made to all infectious disease physicians listed in the...

Little is known about the participation rate of newly implemented colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programs in China. Our goals were to identify factors associated with nonparticipation for CRC screening in Songjiang District, Shanghai. We analyzed individuals included in an observational cohort study from 4 towns (Xin Qiao, She Shan, Mao Gang, an...

Introduction: In recent years, public hospitals have seen an increasing need for management reform in light of increasing social security costs due to the aging population. This study investigated the relationship between collaboration with neighboring medical institutions and management efficiency in public hospitals. Methods: Data envelopment...

Home care can present many challenges without management. During COVID‐19 pandemic, when an informal caregiver becomes infected and had to isolate themselves, finding another caregiver becomes extremely challenging. For terminally ill patients, who relies on other for even minor tasks, interruption of care could pose severe negative consequences. I...