The Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group in Japan, Health Labor Science Research Grants from Research on Measures for Intractable Diseases

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History

Last Update: February 21, 2022

The Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group in Japan has a long history. It was founded in 1972 as the Intractable Hepatitis Study Group. Over the years, the group has gathered the top clinicians and researchers in Japan who, with the assistance of funding from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, have engaged in the clinical study of intractable diseases of the liver and biliary tract. Since the 1990s, hepatitis C, a previously unknown condition that was non-type A and non-type B hepatitis, was identified and removed from the scope of this group's study. As a result, the group was renamed the "Intractable Liver Disease Study Group." Its focus of study has primarily been on the clinical study of autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, and fulminant hepatitis. Since 2005, primary sclerosing cholangitis was added to the subjects of the group's study, and the name of the group was changed to the Intractable Liver and Biliary Tract Disease Group.

The Idiopathic Portal Hypertension Study Group, which studies portal vein circulatory anomalies, was founded in 1975. Its name was changed to the Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormality Study Group in 1984. The Intrahepatic Bile Duct Disorder Study Group, which studies intrahepatic stones, was founded in 1978, but its name was changed to the Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group three years later. These study groups have continued their research over many years. However, as a result of a Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare policy demanding that study groups in the field of liver and biliary duct diseases consolidate, the Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormality Study Group (2014) and the Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group (2008) were amalgamated into the Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group in Japan, which still exists under that name today.

Timeline for each study group (honorifics are not indicated, affiliations show the names in use at the time)

(1) Hepatitis/Liver Diseases

Years Study Group Name Principal Researcher (affiliation)
1972-74 Intractable Hepatitis Study Group Yoshitoshi Yawara (Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
(1972-3)
Oda Toshitsugu (Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
(1974)
1975-77 Refractory hepatitis / Intrahepatic Cholestasis Study Group Oda Toshitsugu
1978-79 Intractable Hepatitis Study Group Oda Toshitsugu
1980-85 Intractable Hepatitis Study Group Suzuki Hiroshi (Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
1986-88 Intractable Hepatitis Study Group Oka Hiroshi (Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
1989-93 Intractable Hepatitis Study Group Muto Yasutoshi (Department of Gastroenterology, Gifu University)
1994-98 Intractable Liver Disease Study Group Omata Masao (Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
1999-2004 Intractable Liver Diseases Study Group Toda Gotaro (Department of Internal Medicine [Gastroenterology & Hepatology], Jikei University)
2005-2007 Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group Onishi Saburo (Department of Gastroenterology, Faculty of Medicine, Kochi University)
2008-2013 Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group Tsubouchi Hirohito
(Digestive and Lifestyle Diseases, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences)
Since 2014 Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group Takikawa Hajime (Department of Internal Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine)
Since 2020 Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group Tanaka Atsushi (Department of Internal Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine)

(2) Portal vein circulatory abnormalities

1975-1977 Idiopathic Portal Hypertension Study Group Sugiura Mitsuo (Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo)
1978-1981 Idiopathic Portal Hypertension Study Group Okuda Kunio (Department of Gastroenterology, Chiba University School of Medicine)
1984-1987 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Kameda Haruo (Department of Internal Medicine [Gastroenterology & Hepatology], Jikei University)
1989-1992 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Obata Hiroshi (Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women's Medical University)
1993-1995 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Futagawa Shunji (Department of Thoracic Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine)
1996-2001 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Sugimachi Keizo (Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University)
2002-2007 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Hashizume Makoto (Department of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyushu University)
2008-2013 Portal Vein Circulatory Abnormalities Study Group Moriyasu Fuminori (Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Tokyo Medical University)
Since 2014 (Combined with the Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group)

(3) Intrahepatic calculosis

1978-1980 Intrahepatic Biliary Damage Study Group Kusama Satoru (Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, University of Tokyo)
1981-1986 Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group Nakayama Fumio (Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Kyushu University)
1987-1991 Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group Ozawa Kazue (Division of Hepato-Biliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Transplantation, Kyoto University)
1992-1995 Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group Tanimura Hiroshi (Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Wakayama Medical University)
1996-2001 Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group Nimura Yuji (Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine)
2002-2007 Intrahepatic Calculosis Study Group Atomi Yutaka (Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Kyorin University)
Since 2008 (Combined with the Intractable Hepato-Biliary Diseases Study Group)
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