Teruo Omae
Year: October 22nd, 2006
Location: Japan
Interviewed by: Labarthe, Darwin
Abstract
Professor Omae has held a central role in CVD prevention in Japan, including Director of the National Cardiovascular Center. He participated in the epidemiologic transition from tuberculosis to stroke and CVD as the leading causes of death in Japan from the mid-1950s, after extensive screening and public health measures were taken for infection control. He describes this transition and impressions of the breadth, efficiency, and effectiveness of public health programs for mass diseases, with an infrastructure based on tuberculosis control.
Quotes
DL: Now what about the National Cardiovascular Center? When did that begin and what was the idea behind organizing the national center?
TO: We are celebrating the 30-year anniversary next year. . . the National Cancer Institute was established before the Cardiovascular Center. Cancer, because cancer is very popular, particularly stomach cancer, in Tokyo. And then in Osaka, Professor Yoshida and his colleagues insisted that the National Cardiovascular Center was very, very important for public health . . . so they pushed the Department of Health and Welfare not only for cancer, but also cardiovascular disease; a National Center was necessary. And they wanted to have the National Cardiovascular Center in Osaka, not in Tokyo. And a very good amount of effort to establish a new Cardiovascular Center in Osaka at that time was supported by Japanese Science – what do you call it in English, I don’t know, “Japanese Association for the Promotion of Science.”
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