A survey was conducted by sending questionnaires to 466 doctors working at nine hospitals affiliated with the Aichi Prefectural Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives for Health and Welfare (Kohseiren).
The survey found that the length of service was under 5 years in 60% of the respondents and that many of them identified themselves strongly with the department of the teaching hospital where they were trained.
They were found to be little intersted in the present situation of the agricultural cooperatives and Japanese agriculture. However, they said they were satisfied with the present working conditions, because they could show their skills. Most approved of organ transplants after brain death but disapproved of human cloning. They showed a positive attitude toward the allowing of each patient to give access to his or her clinical records and standardization of medical treatment. Some 67% of the doctors admitted they had made medical mistakes and keenly realized the necessity of risk management.
While feeling uneasy about the recent upsurge of lawsuits brought by patients about medical treatment, they said they are endeavoring to provide safe and high quality medical service. Their recent concerns were rearrangement of dispensaries based on the subspecialty, reinforcement of postgraduate courses in medical schools and the postgraduate training system which will be a legal obligation from 2005. They suported the reform plans for the national medical service for aged patients and recognized the necessity of joining hands with local agricultural cooperatives in providing nursing care services. They said they wish to continue their career as a physican at the Kohseiren hospital.

Academic dissertations on Kampo medicine have a certain peculiarity about them, when they are drawn up by the rules of western medical writing. Compared to western medicine, oriental medicine tends to employ more subjective terms, because of its many humanistic elements.Study objectives, methods, results and discussions however, need to be stated objectively in a way that makes a paper easy to understand for both referees and readers. Although it would be ideal to use designated terms when making objective statements, there are in fact many terms that have multiple meanings, which need to be clarified in a paper. And when presenting new evidence, one must declare how far any problems have been resolved, as clearly as possible.We have explained the recent changes to our regulations for contributors, regarding Kampo formulae naming conventions, abstract word counts, and contributions by mail. Here we discuss how our editing work proceeds, and our thoughts on how papers are re-reviewed or rejected.
Medicine, Kampo ; Medicine ; Academic Dissertations [Publication Type] ; counts ; Review [Publication Type]

Objective: BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers are recommended to undergo risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) by age 40 and 45, respectively. However, the carriers have a different way of thinking about their life plan. We aimed to investigate the distribution of age at diagnosis of ovarian cancer (OC) patients to examine the optimal timing of RRSO in the carriers. Methods: We examined a correlation between age at diagnosis of OC and common mutation types in 3,517 probands that received BRCA genetic testing. Among them, germline BRCA1 mutation (gBRCA1m), germline BRCA2 mutation (gBRCA2 m) and germline BRCA wild-type (gBRCAwt) were found in 185, 42 and 241 OC patients, respectively. Results: The average age at diagnosis of OC in gBRCA1m and gBRCA2 m was 51.3 and 58.3 years, respectively, and the difference from gBRCAwt (53.8 years) was significant. The gBRCA2 m carriers did not develop OC under the age of 40. The average age was 50.1 years for L63X and 52.8 years for Q934X in BRCA1, and 55.1 years for R2318X and 61.1 years for STOP1861 in BRCA2 . The age at diagnosis in L63X or R2318X carriers was relatively younger than other BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers, however their differences were not significant. With L63X and R2318X carriers, 89.4% (42/47) and 100% (7/7) of women were able to prevent the development of OC, respectively, when RRSO was performed at age 40. Conclusion There appears to be no difference in the age at diagnosis of OC depending on the type of BRCA common mutation. Further analysis would be needed.