Message from the President (January 2026)
Over the course of 2025, JCIC has made steady progress across many areas. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the Board of Directors, committee members, the members of the Executive Committee, and all JCIC members whose continued support has sustained our activities.
This year, each committee—education, safety, surveillance, health insurance affairs, and editorial affairs—reached important milestones in its respective domain. Within the Educational Committee, the Regulations and Bylaws Division finalized the new regulations and appropriate use guidelines for ASD and PDA, in coordination with multiple related societies and the PMDA, culminating in official publication by the end of 2025 and implementation beginning in 2026. In addition, the Educational Project Division established a regular schedule of four webinars per year, with one webinar jointly organized with the Medical Safety Division, thereby strengthening a sustainable framework that balances education and safety. The JCIC–CVIT Educational Committee, which had been jointly operated with CVIT, fulfilled its role and was dissolved in a developmental manner. Going forward, this collaboration will transition to a restructured “Adult Congenital Catheter Intervention Study Group” held during the CVIT annual meeting, as well as the establishment of medical safety seminars/sessions at the JCIC Annual Scientific Meeting. Furthermore, as a joint initiative, an information-sharing framework has been enhanced, including the organization and publication of recall manuals and recommendation documents to support safe clinical practice.
Within the Surveillance Committee, we strengthened our financial foundation by improving the annual membership fee collection system and by updating and publishing prospectus materials to secure corporate sponsorship and advertising support. We also reinforced our external communication platform by expanding the website's English pages and updating the overall content, including the newly established structures of the Board of Directors and committees. The JCIC Registry (JCIC-R) has also been further enhanced, promoting research and award applications, facilitating registration, and supporting the use of real-world data for the introduction of new medical devices—accomplishments too numerous to enumerate here.
In addition, the Certification Program Committee, newly established in relation to the Surveillance Committee, has initiated registration and new applications under the revised detailed rules and bylaws, and the development of an expert credentialing system for congenital heart disease catheter interventions is now fully underway.
The Health Insurance Affairs Committee, in collaboration with HBD for Children, has been building a strong negotiation framework through industry–government–academia collaboration for each new medical device project. These efforts have borne fruit, including the successful domestic introduction of a new large-diameter ultra-high-pressure balloon. Furthermore, JCIC officially joined The Federation of Surgical Societies’ Social Insurance Committees (Gaihoren) in April 2024, and within 2025, the transition was completed, with JCIC becoming the lead society for reimbursement-related procedures, including TPVI, for pediatric and congenital heart disease catheter interventions.
Within the Editorial Committee, preparations for the relaunch of the JCIC Newsletter progressed steadily, and in January 2026, the commemorative first issue was published. Through this platform, together with the Journal of JCIC, we hope to convey our members’ endeavors and the voices of the clinical front lines in a vivid and timely manner.
As these examples show, the activities of many committees are now working in concert and beginning to yield tangible outcomes. At the same time, these initiatives represent only the beginning. JCIC will continue to serve as a platform that connects data with frontline clinical practice, maintaining an appropriate balance between education and safety, deepening collaboration among industry, government, and academia, and creating new value. In 2026 as well, we shall advance these efforts further with the continued engagement and support of our members.
January 2026
Japanese Society of Congenital Interventional Cardiology (JCIC)
President, Sung-Hae Kim