We participated in the “Advanced Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Osaka Trial, ” which was part of the 10th Medical Education Seminar and Workshop in Osaka. OSCEs have been used to assess students' clinical ability before the clinical clerkship program, where the medical interview and the medical examination are introduced as basic clinical skills. The Advanced OSCE is used to assess students' clinical ability after they have done clinical clerkships; it will soon be a part of the national board examination. In the present trial, the students and residents took the Advanced OSCE with 6 themes: pharyngeal pain, palpitations, dyspnea, abdominal pain, hypertension, and cardiac arrest. We examined questionnaires completed by students and residents just after they had taken the Advanced OSCE. We believe that the use of simulators is important for medical students and residents to improve their clinical skills and that appropriate feedback is also extremely important.

Background/Aims: Asymptomatic esophageal eosinophilia (aEE) is considered to be a potential precursor of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). However, there are few clinical parameters that can be used to evaluate the disease. Therefore, we aimed to clarify the factors involved in the symptoms of EoE by examining the clinicopathological differences between aEE and EoE. Methods: We reviewed 41 patients with esophageal eosinophilia who underwent endoscopic ultrasonography and high-resolution manometry. They were divided into the aEE group (n=16) and the EoE group (n=25) using the Frequency Scale for the Symptoms of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease score. The patients’ clinicopathological findings were collected and examined. Results: The median Frequency Scale for the Symptoms of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease score was 3.0 in the aEE group and 10.0 in the EoE group. There was no significant difference in patient characteristics, endoscopic findings and pathological findings. The cutoff value for wall thickening was 3.13 mm for the total esophageal wall thickness and 2.30 mm for the thickness from the surface to the muscular layer (total esophageal wall thickness: 84.0% sensitivity, 75.0% specificity; thickness from the surface to the muscular layer: 84.0% sensitivity, 68.7% specificity).The high-resolution manometry study was abnormal in seven patients (43.8%) in the aEE group and in 12 (48.0%) in the EoE group. The contractile front velocity was slower in the EoE group (p=0.026). Conclusions The esophageal wall thickening in the lower portion of the esophagus is an important clinical factors related to the symptoms in patients with EoE.

Currently, it is difficult to say that young acupuncturists and athletic trainers (ATs) in Japan are advancing smoothly in their clinical practice, fieldwork, and research activities. This symposium aims to report on the current state and challenges faced by these professionals, along with discussing possible solutions for improvement. Kawaguchi introduced the implementation of the Acute: Chronic Workload Ratio for managing training loads in a university American football team, highlighting that maintaining player loads within the "Sweet Spot" could enhance injury prevention. However, he pointed out that insufficient data from players posed a significant challenge to data collection and consistent monitoring. Murakoshi presented on the sports acupuncture support project at Niigata University of Health and Welfare, which establishes a treatment framework for student-athletes, but noted that a lack of understanding among coaches has hindered widespread adoption. Saito discussed condition monitoring in Japan's national hockey team, emphasizing the utility of sleep data and self-reported fatigue in player health management, while stressing that communication with athletes is as crucial as data collection. Hosoi, drawing on his experience in sports settings, underscored the need to improve the status and treatment of acupuncturists due to the shortage of evidence-based approaches, and highlighted the disparity in treatment between Japan and overseas, advocating for an elevated status for acupuncturists in sports environments. Additionally, he presented various sports field activities, particularly focusing on Japan's national soccer team (SAMURAI BLUE), to illustrate the high demand for acupuncturists and ATs. Tamai described his research on salivary biomarkers for fatigue assessment, suggesting the potential of viral nucleic acids as new indicators in the face of limitations in conventional fatigue assessment methods. These five reports emphasized the importance of training load management and acupuncture care in sports settings, underscoring the need for establishing evidence, introducing scientific methods for fatigue evaluation, and implementing reforms to improve the status and working conditions of these professionals.

People with high health knowledge tend to use information and communication technology (ICT) to obtain, maintain, and promote information necessary for health management. Therefore, experts hypothesize that improving health knowledge will increase the use of online medication guidance via ICT. In this study, we investigated the relationship between health knowledge and willingness to use online medication guidance among Iwaki Health Promotion Project health checkup subjects. The 736 examinees participating in this project in 2022 were surveyed on age, gender, number of people living with them, whether they exercise, drink alcohol, or smoke, whether they use smartphones, whether they use medication registers, their health knowledge score, and whether they take any medications. The presence/absence of desire for online medication guidance (1/0) was used as the objective variable to identify influencing factors. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that independence was found for four factors: age (OR: 0.975, P<0.001), gender (male) (OR: 1.914, P<0.001), smartphone use (OR: 2.156, P＝0.004) and health knowledge score (OR: 1.405, P<0.001). This study found that health knowledge plays a role in the intention to use online medication guidance. In order to improve health knowledge, it will be necessary to enhance skills to obtain and use high-quality health information and to improve the environment for using ICT-based communication devices.