Tokyo Women's Medical University

School of Medicine

Anesthesiology

Overview

At Tokyo Women's Medical University, each department is united in promoting state-of-the-art medical care, and is engaged in clinical practice, education, research, and the development of new medical technologies and treatments. Our Department of Anesthesiology was established in July 1965, with the late Professor Masao Fujita as the Chief Professor. After graduating from Hokkaido University and completing an internship at St. Luke's International Hospital in 1946, Dr. Masao Fujita started working at a US Army hospital in Japan and went to the United States in 1952 to study at Albany Medical College. He also worked at Children’s Hospital Boston and other institutions before returning to Japan, and adopted a North American-style anesthesia training system at Tokyo Women’s Medical College from the very early days in Japan. Just then, it was the time Professor Shigeru Sakakibara, a leading figure in cardiac surgery, and Professor Komei Nakayama, the first gastrointestinal surgeon to successfully perform esophageal cancer surgery in Japan, were assigned to our hospital, and they played a part in the perioperative care of the rapidly increasing number of surgical operations. Inheriting this trend, we have introduced the North American style of anesthesiology at MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University in the U.S. to Japan since 2020, aiming to provide safe and high-quality anesthesiology care.

Education Details

The Department of Anesthesiology at Tokyo Women's Medical University is committed not only to providing the best medical care available today, but also to training future anesthesiologists and providing post-graduate education.
We believe that the following three elements are essential to nurture excellent anesthesiologists: ① an abundant number of severe cases, ② senior anesthesiologists who are eager to educate, and ③ colleagues who are willing to do their best and share lifelong friendship to each other.
Cases and medical care system: The Department of Surgery at Tokyo Women's Medical University Hospital has one of the highest numbers of anesthesiology cases in Japan (10968 cases per year, 7785 anesthesia managing cases in FY2019), and provides guidance based on pathophysiology through rare and severe cases unique to a university hospital. The feature of our department is that surgeons take the initiative in performing highly difficult surgeries with themselves as the last resort, and also we are equipped to contribute to patient outcomes during the perianesthesia period from preoperative to postoperative periods in collaboration with the Department of Intensive Care Medicine.
Knowledge and Education: Not only on the clinical studies, but we are also committed to training anesthesiologists for both literal and scientific aspects by organizing the "Tokyo Women's Medical University Anesthesiology Grand Rounds", in which world-class speakers are invited, and through the reading of original English texts and occasional hands-on seminars throughout the year. Medical training program at The Tokyo Women's Medical University Anesthesiology Department blends the anesthesiology residency programs of Japan and the United States and is handmade for young physicians who desire a high-quality education as a pathway to becoming an anesthesiologist.
“Studying only by books without examining patients is like not going on a voyage at all. On the other hand, studying the phenomenon of disease without reading books is like going on a voyage without a chart.” - Words of Dr. William Osler, the father of internal medicine (translated by Shigeaki Hinohara).
Qualifications:
Qualification as an anesthesia advocate by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in the second year of residency (first year depending on initial residency experience) and as a board-certified anesthesiologist
Anesthesiologist examination in the third year of residency
Aims qualification as a specialist in anesthesia in the fourth year of residency
In the fifth and sixth years of the residency program, they will be required to complete two more years of sub-specialization in anesthesiology and study the followings.
●　Cardiac, macrovascular and thoracic surgery anesthesia: JB-POT (Japanese Board Certification in Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography) NBE (National Board Certification in Perioperative Transesophageal --Echocardiography-Advanced), Cardiovascular Anesthesiologist
●　Area anesthesia block: Japanese board-certified area anesthesiologist, ESRA (European regional anesthesia accreditation)
●　Intensive care area: Intensive care specialist
●　Pediatric anesthesia (in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesiology, National Center for Child Health and Development): board-certified pediatric anesthesiologist
●　Pain Clinic (in the future)
●　Obstetric anesthesia (in the future)
●　Palliative care (in the future)
We also support those who wish to take the specialist and certification examinations in each field through training, and provide opportunities to be involved in international clinical research and support for study abroad (basic and clinical).

Research Details

Our department actively supports medical students who wish to study abroad. Study abroad includes not only basic research (using animals and cells), but also clinical research using volunteers and patient specimens.
There are also practical study abroad programs in which students work as anesthesiologists and improve their skills in clinical techniques (cardiac anesthesia, echocardiography, etc.).
The main study abroad destinations are listed below, but new destinations can be added upon request.
At any of these institutions, you will have opportunities for high-level training, research, and clinical work that you would not be able to experience in Japan. Living and working abroad will have a profound impact on your values and way of thinking.
We tend to be myopic in our thinking, but believe this will help broadening physicians' perspectives from various aspects.
● California State University, San Francisco (USA)
● Cleveland Clinic (USA)
● Massachusetts General Hospital (USA)
● University of Western Ontario (Canada)
We are proud of our top-class number of cases, severe cases, and special cases in Japan, but for those with fewer cases, we can gain a wide range of knowledge, experience, and personal connections by conducting clinical training at other facilities through study abroad programs in Japan.
By bringing back the distinctive know-how of each facility to our medical staff, it leads to be able to improve the overall level of our department.
● Department of Anesthesiology, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center, Kanagawa, Japan; Pediatric Anesthesia
● Department of Anesthesiology, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan; Pediatric and Obstetric Anesthesia
● Department of Pain Clinic, NTT East Kanto Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Faculty

Yasuko Nagasaka
Satoshi Kurokawa
Minoru Nomura
Tomoki Sasakawa
Motoyo Iwade

Related links

Research Achievements Database

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