Connecting People with Telemedicine

It is appropriate that we will hold the 25th edition of the ISfTeH International Conference, jointly with the 24th JTTA Annual Academic Conference, in Japan. The ISfTeH was born in Kobe, Japan at the Third International Conference on the Medical Aspects of Telemedicine in May 1997. Since the founding of the Society, we have achieved a great deal in the field of digital health. Today, digitalization is enhancing the range of services available in telemedicine around the globe. However, there still remain challenges to be tackled, even as we explore more opportunities that come along with digitalization in healthcare. With these words, I would like to warmly welcome you to the 25th ISfTeH International Conference and the 24th JTTA Annual Academic Conference, taking place in Takasaki, Japan.

At the moment, we can observe many innovative and promising developments in our field: researchers and organizations are developing AI-driven technologies for healthcare professionals and consumers. Automation through AI technologies holds the potential for increasing clinical and administrative capacity, increase time and process efficiency and eventually for improving treatment quality as a whole.

It goes without saying that technological advancements need to meet one vital condition: they should not take the patient further away from medical professionals. Instead, technological advancements ought to create greater closeness and connect doctors with patients. As the field continues to evolve and expand at a fast pace, it will become an even greater challenge to convey and maintain, if not increase, people's trust in digital health solutions. Moreover, we need to bear in mind that such powerful innovations need to be handled thoughtfully.

I am convinced that the upcoming joint conference with its exciting program will help us to further address the opportunities and challenges of this new era of digitalization in healthcare. I wish all of you successful, productive and fascinating conferences in Takasaki.

Dear colleagues:

Welcome to the 2020 ISfTeH and JTTA joint meeting.

This conference will cover themes spanning updated knowledge about International and Japanese telemedicine and e-Health trends and solutions in the field of clinical medicine, international cooperation, policy, software, hardware, networking, security, wearables, robotics, artificial intelligence, and big data.
Over 500 highly qualified doctors, health care professionals, government officials, medical technology professionals, scholars, and students will convene in one place over two days.
The conference includes parallel English and Japanese tracks as well joint plenaries.
Telemedicine provides medical treatment not confined by time and space, with the help of information and communication technologies.
The base of medical care is the connection between people ; Kizuna, the bonds.
Japan has a tradition to value the human relations called Kizuna.
I’d like propose to realize telemedicine that reifies Kizuna with combination of human kindness and technologies from Japan.
With the theme of Connecting People with Telemedicine, this joint meeting provides attendees with innovative insights and best practices on how to resolve problems in the fields of telemedicine and e-health.