To analyze the relationship of cause and effect between the onset of throwing disorders of the shoulder and decreased muscle strength, two studies were conducted at a baseball field. In study 1, shoulder joint muscle strength was measured when pain developed during practice and the relationship between pain onset and muscle strength was investigated. Decreased muscle strength was noted at the time of pain onset in 8.1% of players. Study 2 was a prospective study in which the relationship between changes in shoulder joint muscle strength from the start of pitching at the beginning of the season to one month later when competitive games began, and shoulder pain that appeared at the beginning of competitive games was analyzed. Based on the results, the possibility of shoulder joint muscle strength being a predictive factor for the onset of throwing disorders of the shoulder was investigated. However the pain group had greater muscle strength than the normal group at the beginning of the season. On the baseball field, the players’ throwing motions and joint function change daily, making it difficult to determine the reason for onset of disorders and injuries. These results suggest that onset of pain at the start of competitive games cannot be predicted from muscle strength at the beginning of the season.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is the first restraint against anterior tibial translation (ATT) in the knee joint. Previous studies suggested that knee joint laxity might be increased by the repeated stress imposed on the knee joint. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effect of the repeated soccer ball kicking actions on the ATT in healthy knees. Forty female collegiate students volunteered for this study. KT-2000 knee arthrometer was used to measure ATT before and after the task. The findings demonstrated that the repeated kicking actions had no significant effect on the ATT in healthy knees. The maximum knee extension angle on the striking side was greater than the supporting side (p<0.05). Significant correlations between mean anterior translation and maximum knee extension angle were observed on both sides (p<0.05). The kicking force on a soccer ball resulted in no increase in the knee laxity.

The purpose of this study was to identify the angles of the shoulder complex which consist of glenohumeral joint, scapulothracic joint, and thoracic joint at the maximum external rotation (MER) of the shoulder complex during throwing in baseball players, and to analyze the correlation of each angle.The subjects were 19 collegiate baseball players. Throwing motion data was collected by three high-speed cameras and the three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of the shoulder complex were established by direct leaner translation method for the MER calculation. A 3D analysis was performed to obtain the external rotation (ER) angle of the glenohumeral joint, the posterior tilt angle of the scapula, and the extension angles of thoracic at MER of shoulder complex. The mean (±SD) value of the MER was 145.5±10.3°. The mean (±SD) values of the glenohumeral ER, the scapula posterior tilt angle and the thoracic extension angle at MER were 105.3±16.0°, 24.3±15.0°, and 9.1±7.2°respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to relate the MER angle to each joint angle. The final linear regression model included the posterior tilting angle of scapula ( r=0.56, p＜0.05), and external rotation of the glenohumeral joint ( r=0.40, p＜0.05). Significant negative correlation was observed between the posterior tilting angle of the scapula and external rotation of the glenohumeral joint ( r=-0.52, p＜0.05). This finding suggested that scapula motion could be very important for the prevention of throwing injuries.

Objective: In the Drug Informatics in Department of Pharmacy, Kitasato Institute Hospital (hereinafter “the hospital”), we have had question-and-answer sessions regarding doping agents (banned drugs) among doctors and other workers and prepared an Anti-doping Quick Reference List (hereinafter “the list”), facing an urgent need to provide precise information quickly.
Methods: The list consists of drugs adopted by the hospital and over-the-counter drugs according to package inserts, interview forms, and other sources of information.
Results: In the list, hospital and over-the-counter drugs are classified into three categories in terms of a doping test: (1) “Non-banned” (drugs that can be used), (2) “Banned” (drugs that cannot be used), and (3) “Suspected” (unclear drugs) with their half lives for elimination as an indicator of the disappearance time from the body and divided by medicinal effect.  In addition, we indicated any drug for which the Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) application (hereinafter, TUE application) is required before use.
Conclusion: The list prepared in this investigation offers many benefits, including precise and quickly available information on banned and non-banned drugs, ease in suggesting alternatives, and avoidance of failure in TUE application.

To demonstrate the quality assurance of the comprehensive examination of sixth-year students at Nippon Medical School, 4 undergraduate examinations were compared with the national examination for medical practitioners (NEMP) using scatter graphs and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Of the 93 sixth-year students at Nippon Medical School, 57%(n=53) reported their scores on the NEMP in response to a request from the Academic Quality and Development Office. Correlation coefficients of the grade point average (years 1 to 5), average scores on graduation examinations of 24 subjects, scores on the trial examination of NEMP, and scores on the sixth-year comprehensive examination with overall scores on the NEMP were 0.62, 0.46, 0.68, and 0.63, respectively. These results suggest that the sixth-year comprehensive examination is more suitable than are graduation examinations for predicting the NEMP score.

To demonstrate the quality assurance of comprehensive examinations for fourth-year students at Nippon Medical School, scores on comprehensive examinations were compared with those on a trial of computer-based testing (CBT) of a nationwide medical and dental student evaluation system in 2003. Pearson's correlation coefficients between scores of two comprehensive examinations and the CBT score were 0.45 and 0.67, and the correlation coefficient between the average score of the two comprehensive examinations and the CBT score was 0.55. Fourth-year comprehensive examinations are useful tools for summative evaluation and prediction of CBT performance.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of a patient registry system for assessing PCT (palliative care team) by PRO (Patient-reported outcome) in Japan. Methods: We operated a patient registry system with electronic data collection at eight hospitals in 2021 in Japan. We consecutively included newly referred patients for a month and followed up with them for a month. IPOS or ESAS obtained as PRO at the start of the intervention, three days later, and every week after. The primary endpoint was the response rate to the symptom rating scale by patients and providers. Results: 318 patients were enrolled. The patient response rate was 59.1% at intervention and 37.0% after intervention, and the medical provider response rate was 98.4% at intervention and 70.3% after intervention. Interviews with PCT members indicated that participants required support to input PRO responses required support and paper questionnaire was better and that managing the survey date and overall management was burdensome. Discussion: Although only about half of the patients were able to respond to the PRO, this was the same level as in previous studies. The system and its operation method have many problems. We found that improvements such as reducing items and making the patient interviews paper-based are necessary to expand the system nationwide.