Message from the President

The National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) has long history starting from 1868. At present, the NCGM is a National Center functioning as a hospital and takes on a diversity of roles. These include undertaking basic medical research directly connected to clinical practice, promoting international health cooperation, and developing human resources at the National College of Nursing, Japan, and other institutions. Its comprehensive, broad range of activities can be expressed as the three Gs.

The first G stands for "Global health contribution." Starting from healthcare cooperation in Bolivia in the 1980s, the NCGM has dispatched more than 4,500 staff members to 134 countries in total. It has provided assistance in overall healthcare policies in Asia, Africa and other countries, including health insurance systems, maternity healthcare, and nurse certification systems.

The second G stands for "Grand general hospital." The NCGM specializes in treating AIDS, infectious and immune diseases such as hepatitis, metabolic diseases such as diabetes, child and adolescent psychiatry. It also functions as a general hospital that is able to handle any disease or condition, including cancer and stroke, amidst Japan’s increasingly aging population.

The third G stands for "Gateway to the precision medicine." Particularly in genome medicine, the NCGM systematically retains the samples of many diseases in the Biobank to utilize along with clinical data in our R&D activities.

In response to the outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020, the NCGM functioned as the National Center for handling infection crisis. We undertook wide-ranging measures including the establishment of PCR test sites, the provision of advanced medical services for patients in moderate to severe condition, the development of new drugs and plasma therapy from recovered patients, support in hotel accommodations for patients in mild condition, and the handling of infection clusters on cruise ships. In particular, the NCGM fully exercised its capabilities as a general hospital for advanced medicine in the treatment of patients in severe condition and clinical trials for therapeutic drugs. The NCGM Research Institute is undertaking the analysis of COVID-19 severity factors utilizing the Biobank, the design of new drugs targeted at COVID-19, and the development of vaccines and plasma therapy from recovered patients.

We at the NCGM will continue to respond to infectious diseases and other healthcare crises while promoting advanced medicine and R&D activities through close collaboration between the general hospitals and the Research Institute, as well as human resource development and international cooperation.