2014 American Pancreatic Association presidential address.

Abstract

I join my friend and esteemed colleague Dr Tooru Shimosegawa for this invitation to join us for a magnificent meeting planned at the Hapuna Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. We feel that this is the perfect location because of its quiet, peaceful, and beautiful surroundings that will allow us an unparalleled opportunity to make significant progress in our joint efforts to share research findings and ideas to improve research and better patient outcomes in the pancreas world. We have planned the meeting to take advantage of the complementary talents of members of both the Japan Pancreas Society and the American Pancreatic Association (APA) as well our admired colleagues from other countries. For this meeting, we have placed a special emphasis on addressing strategies to develop early diagnostic markers for pancreatic cancer and to move forward in developing treatments for acute pancreatitis along with metrics for measuring the quality and performance of the care. We specifically want to thank the Kenner Foundation for sponsoring a workshop devoted to strategies on early diagnostics for pancreatic cancer and the Hirshberg Foundation for their continued support of topics in pancreatic cancer. I join Dr Shimosegawa in thanking Dr Ashok Saluja for his inspiration in suggesting the site for our meeting and ensuring that we continue this collaboration between our societies and Dr Kiochi Takehara for his magnificent organizational skills in helping us to rapidly come to consensus on the planning aspects of the meeting. We also thank Erin Brudvik in the APA office for her tireless efforts to arrange each and every detail of the meeting. As Dr Shimosegawa indicated, we are blessed to have had a long history of meaningful interactions between our societies initiated by the APA and the Japan Pancreas Society pioneers. We are entrusted to continue this tradition with the expectation that our combined efforts will have a significant and beneficial impact for patients who develop pancreatic diseases. Thank you for joining us and we promise to exceed your expectations.