For over 100 years Tohoku University Hospital has contributed to the development of medical care in Japan. Simultaneously, as a key institute in the Tohoku region, we have provided the state-of-art medical care and supported regional medical care. In the Tohoku region, which suffered tremendous damage due to the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, aging and depopulation are advancing and there is a mountain of medical issues that need to be addressed. We believe that the vital duties of Tohoku University Hospital are to enthusiastically introduce all sorts of innovative medical technology, foster excellent medical personnel and exert all its efforts towards improvements and issue-resolution in the medical care of the Tohoku region.

Meanwhile, Tohoku University Hospital has been designated as an “advanced treatment hospital” by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and not only do we safely provide advanced medical care but also place the development of advanced medical care and training of personnel in this field as our mission. With regard to advanced medical care development, as one of the first “clinical research core hospitals” accredited by the government, we take advantage of our strengths as a university-based hospital in the enthusiastic implementation of world-class clinical research, drug discovery and medical equipment development with an array of corporations. Furthermore, we have been designated as a “core hospital for cancer genomic medicine,” and are closely collaborating with the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization and Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in an effort to provide sophisticated cancer genomic medicine.

Accompanying these advances in medical care, medical safety and ethics are becoming even more important than in the past. The safety of medical care is not merely a question of sophisticated and advanced medicine but every aspect of day-to-day medical practice. Centering on the Tohoku University Hospital Medical Safety Promotion Office, which is composed of specialist doctors, nurses and pharmacists, etc., we conduct medical safety and ethical education for the hospital personnel, and everyone at the hospital is united in providing safe medical care and peace of mind on a daily basis.

The ethos of Tohoku University Hospital is to be “a hospital aiming for a harmony between patient-friendly care and advanced medicine.” In order to achieve a harmony between state-of-art medicine and holistic and warm care, the hospital will continue to exert even more effort. We hope that we can rely on everybody’s ongoing understanding and support.