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Read this recently published APSR-ATS perspective, the first joint-society publication (in the AJRCCM and Respirology).

Experts from the US, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan, China and Australia have worked together to bring you:

We hope to bring you results of further APSR assembly collaboration activities with our sister societies in the future.

Abstracts are now being accepted for the 2019 Congress to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, 14-17 November 2019:

A couple of months ago in Vietnam, Google proudly reminded us that 2019 is the Year of the Pig.

For those who believe that the zodiac has any meaning, the pig represents "Communication and Friendship".

So there couldn't be a better year to declare that 2019 in Vietnam is also the Year of the APSR Congress!

Keep checking apsr2019.com regularly for updates.

Volunteer to live-tweet and upload to the APSR's social networking accounts during the ATS International Conference 2019 in Dallas and get a free registration for the APSR Congress 2019 in Hanoi.

We are looking for a volunteer to contribute to the APSR's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts; in particular, APSR-related activities at the Conference.

This is an open invitation for any young APSR member who is attending the ATS International Conference to apply. The successful applicant will have excellent SNS skills, and plans to attend all (or most) of the ATS International Conference from 17–May 2019.

Preference will be given to those aged ≤ 30.

The successful volunteer will be offered complimentary registration for the APSR Congress in Hanoi, November 2019. He or she will be required to contact the APSR Secretariat staff each day to agree the next day's schedule and receive any special instructions, and provide around 10–20 tweets and uploads each day to the APSR's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Examples of items of interest include the:

• opening ceremony
• major sessions
• APSR young investigator sessions
• APSR-ISRD joint session on 18 May
• notices from the APSR booth
• notices from the venue
• etc.

To apply for this opportunity, please submit to Ms Kishigami at the APSR Secretariat rina.kishigami@theapsr.org:

• a brief (one page) curriculum vitae
• the dates you plan to attend the Conference
• your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts for the APSR Secretariat to see your past tweets and uploads

Application deadline:

• 25 April 2019

Contact the APSR Secretariat APSR@theapsr.org if you have any queries.

We are looking forward to working with you!

The January 2019 issue of the APSR Newsletter includes glowing reports from last year's award winners.

Enjoy similar rewards yourself by taking advantage of the following opportunities:

• 

  APTA Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting the best overall paper at the APSR Congress.

• 

  APSR / KYF Geriatric Respirology Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting original work on geriatric respirology at the APSR Congress.

• 

  APSR / Malcolm Winterburn Lung Cancer Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting original work on lung cancer at the APSR Congress.

• 

  APSR / Norbert Berend COPD Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting original work on COPD at the APSR Congress.

• 

  APSR / Paul Zimmerman Physiology Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting original work on physiology at the APSR Congress.

• 

  APSR / Peter Sly Paediatric Young Investigator Award

  Awarded to an APSR Young Investigator from an Asia-Pacific LMIC who is presenting original work on paediatric respiratory medicine at the APSR Congress.

• Awards and opportunities for APSR Assembly members

  Awards are presented on an ad hoc basis by Assembly Heads, with various prizes for various achievements. Assembly Heads will notify their members of opportunities that arise.

Continuing this series we are delighted to share a tribute to Prof. Yoshinosuke Fukuchi, prepared by Prof. Michiaki Mishima.

This series complements our APSR Members' Honour Roll, on which as a member, you are welcome to add your appreciation of your mentor(s) at any time.

Prof. Fukuchi

A tribute to Yoshinosuke Fukuchi MD PhD
Professor Emeritus Juntendo University Tokyo Japan

Lifelong commitment in research and promotion of respirology

Dr Yoshinosuke Fukuchi graduated from Department of Medicine, Gunma University in 1964, After completing an internship/medical residency at US Air Force Hospital in Tachikawa, Tokyo, he started his early training at Department of Geriatrics, the University of Tokyo Japan in 1966. Under warm but stringent mentorship of Professor Michiyoshi Harasawa, he was awarded a Ph.D. for an experimental study aiming at age effects on bronchial circulation in 1972. He spent a two-year research/clinical fellowship at Meakins-Christie Laboratories (MCL), McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 1974-1976. The MCL was a highly reputed centre for cutting-edge research in pulmonary physiology under the directorship of Professor Peter T Macklem. MCL enabled him to make lasting friendship with many distinguished investigators including Professor Ann J Woolcock. Among nine research papers published during those years, the most notable was a novel finding of cardiogenic oscillation facilitating intrapulmonary diffusive mixing (CGM). CGM may have heralded later development of high frequency ventilation.

He stayed at Tokyo University serving as senior lecture (1979) and associate professor (1986) for 30 years. He was among the first to point out the importance of accelerated aging in the pathogenesis of COPD through physio-chemical studies in Senescent Accelerated Mouse (SAM) around 1990 to 2000. He took the chair of the department of respiratory medicine at Juntendo University in 1996. His research interest in animal model of COPD (SAM and SMP-30 KO) was relentlessly maintained and produced significant papers through his tenure at Juntendo University.

He worked hard always with 4D (Diligence, Dedication, Diversity, Decision) in mind, as principles to fulfill the mission of the chairmanship. We witnessed the department attracting many young doctors who completed successful clinical as well as academic training.

Since the early days of his career the promotion of respiratory science, both in Japan and Asia-Pacific countries, became the priority in addition to his own research interest. This wish grew further when he was appointed Chairman of the International Relations Committee (IRC) of the Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS). In close collaboration with Professors Yoshihiro Hayata, Shiro Kira and J Patrick Barron, IRC could convince the Board of Directors of the JRS to move forward to launch an academic society in the Asia-Pacific region to promote respiratory science and clinical practice toward higher quality. The JRS held an international respiratory conference in Tokyo, 1985. An international panel of distinguished clinician scientists representing the Asia-Pacific region, North/South America and Europe, were called upon to discuss the need and feasibility of such venture in this region. All delegates agreed upon the momentum to step forward to formulate an independent academic society in the Asia-Pacific region. Whenever asked, he recalled an enormous zeal and sagacious advice by which Professor Ann J Woolcock suggested a list of eminent academicians in the Asia-Pacific region to be invited. All the listed delegates in fact made core members of a steering committee of the proposed society. In 1986 the society was officially established under the name of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR) during the IUATLD congress in Singapore.

It was decided that a biannual congress was to be organized and the first Congress was held in Tokyo with Professor Michiyoshi Harasawa as presiding president in 1988. The JRS fully supported this congress together with participating member country societies with a great success. This outcome paved a road towards further progress for the APSR. The APSR Secretariat was located in the department of geriatrics in the early days after the launch and he assisted Professor Shiro Kira in business communications with his personal secretary.

In 1996, Respirology was published as the official journal of the Society every 6 months when the Secretariat relocated to a new office in Hongo, Tokyo. Due to the limited membership size and marginal financial income from the congress, it was hard to maintain regular publication of the journal. He, together with Professor J Patrick Barron, managed to overcome this financial difficulty by printing extended abstracts for additional donation to supplement the deficit.

He organized the 41st JRS annual congress in Tokyo and introduced its International Programme in English to meet the mounting need for globalization of the Society's activities. He offered an occasion for delegates from the APSR, ATS, ERS, IUATLAD and ALAT to meet face to face for the first time. This meeting was highly appreciated among global leaders and stimulated later development of Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS).

In 2003, as Chairman of the JRS Board of Directors (BOD) he played a pivotal role in convincing the Board to apply for en bloc membership of the APSR. This was a novel system of securing large number of members on regular basis which gave the APSR greater financial stability thereafter.

His 4D principles has helped him to achieve a productive life and accomplish what he aimed at in his youth.

Prof. Mishima

Prepared by Michiaki Mishima, M.D./Ph.D.

Past President, APSR
President, Osaka Saiseikai Noe Medical Welfare Center, Japan
President, Osaka Saiseikai Noe Hospital, Japan
Emeritus Professor, Kyoto University, Japan

Professor Mishima highly appreciates that Professor Fukuchi has been a great mentor and a mariner's compass of his life in the past 40 years.

March 2019

The March issue (Vol 11.3) features Invited review series: Tuberculosis update 2018:

• Tuberculosis updates 2018: Innovations and developments to end TB
• Tuberculosis vaccines: Opportunities and challenges
• Update on tuberculosis biomarkers: From correlates of risk, to correlates of active disease and of cure from disease
• Epidemiological, clinical and mechanistic perspectives of tuberculosis in older people
• Drug-resistant tuberculosis: An update on disease burden, diagnosis and treatment
• Where is tuberculosis transmission happening? Insights from the literature, new tools to study transmission and implications for the elimination of tuberculosis
• Implementing the End TB Strategy in the Western Pacific Region: Translating vision into reality
• Latent tuberculosis infection: Opportunities and challenges
• New drugs and regimens for tuberculosis
• Drug resistance mechanisms and drug susceptibility testing for tuberculosis
• Applying new tools to control tuberculosis

The following cases have been selected for inclusion in the new May 2019 Respirology Case Reports, Volume 07 Issue 4

Case Reports

Clinical Images

The 59th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Respiratory Society will be held on 12-14 April 2019 at the Tokyo International Forum.

The Meeting's president will be Prof. Koichiro Tatsumi (Department of Respirology, Chiba University)

Details: www.jrs.or.jp/english/?content_id=27

We are delighted to announce three APSR Travel Awardees for this Meeting:

• 

  Dr Rachel Ee Lin Foong
  NHMRC Early Career Fellow, Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, Australia

  Dr Foong will present "Ability of the Lung Clearance Index to Monitor the Progression of Early Lung Disease in Children with Cystic Fibrosis"

• 

  Dr Ralph Elvi M Villalobos
  Philippine College of Chest Physicians

  Dr Villalobos will present "Safety and Efficacy of Beta Blockers in COPD: A review"

• 

  Dr Ching-Yao Yang
  Graduate school of Pathology, National Taiwan University

  Dr Yang will present "The Impact of Pre-Treatment PD-L 1 on Clinical Outcomes of Lung Adenocarcinoma Patients with EGFR mutations Receiving Targeted Therapies"

The 12th Congress of the Asociación Latinoamericana del Tórax (ALAT) will take place at the ATLAPA Convention Center in Panama City 3–6 July 2019.

By the kind invitation of Congress Scientific Committee, Dr Kwun Fong (APSR President) and Dr David C L Lam (Immediate Past Chair of the APSR Education Committee) will be the APSR's representative speakers at the Congress.

The symposium APSR–ALAT–WHO essential medicine for respiratory illnesses: unique window of opportunity to address global equity, will be held on 08:00 – 10:00 on 6 July in La Huaca Room of the conference centre:

• "Access of essential medicines in smoking cessation"
  Dr David C L Lam
• "Access of essential drugs in COPD: LAMA"
  Dr Rogelio Perez Padilla
• "Access of essential medicines in lung cancer"
  Dr Kwun Fong
• "Access of essential medicines in Asthma: LABA / ICS"
  Dr Federico Daniel Colodenco
• Q&A

The APSR is looking forward to collaborating further with the ALAT in the future.

Acceleration of UN High-Level Meeting Commitments on TB Focus of International Respiratory Societies

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On World TB Day, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) urges governments to leverage the success of the first-ever United Nation (UN) High-Level Meeting (HLM) on the fight against tuberculosis (TB), held in 2018. The meeting produced a UN political declaration on TB and endorsement at the highest level to take the necessary steps to end the TB epidemic.

TB is preventable and curable, yet it remains the world's most common infectious disease killer. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 million people fell ill from TB in 2017 and 1.6 million people died. Only 64 percent of the estimated 10 million global TB cases were actually diagnosed and notified. In 2017, approximately 558,000 people developed TB that was resistant to rifampicin (RR-TB), and of these, 82 percent had multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Only one in four people who needed treatment for MDR/RR-TB in 2017 actually received it.

For the first time the High-Level Meeting brought together heads of state to give the leadership that is urgently needed to address this terrible disease. This unique opportunity and momentum must not be lost.

FIRS is calling on leaders to follow through on the commitments they have made, including to:

• Successfully treat 40 million people for TB, including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB.
• Provide TB preventive therapy to 30 million people, including four million children under the age of five.
• Include child TB in the child survival agenda and provide family-based TB care.
• Advance all areas of innovation needed to deliver new tools for TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
• Support a human rights-based approach to global TB.
• Mobilise U.S. $13 billion annually for TB care, and U.S. $2 billion annually for TB research and development.

FIRS urges the TB community to hold leaders accountable for their commitments, and to push governments to support the changes needed to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030.

Dean E Schraufnagel, MD, executive director, FIRS, said: "If we are to truly see an end to TB, the world's most common and deadly infectious disease, governments must commit to scale up of research, funding, human rights and accountability. It is our job as the TB community to strive for the commitments we've seen from our leaders to become action and not just promises."

By adopting the UN political declaration on TB, national leaders have said they recognise TB as a threat they are committed to eradicating. They have agreed to specific actions. The day to begin implementing this new agenda begins now.

Notes: All quoted TB statistics are from the Global Tuberculosis Report 2018, The World Health Organization

For more information about FIRS please contact Lisa Roscoe lisa.roscoe@firsnet.org.

The TSANZ are now streaming the following webinars for public viewing:

• The Human Respiratory Virome
  by Prof. Allan Glanville
  recorded 29 August 2018
• NIV Therapy – viewed via a community lens
  by Sally Powell
  recorded 6 August 2018
• Accelerated Silicosis, kitchen benchtops and the emerging epidemic
  by Dr Ryan Hoy & Dr Graeme Edwards
  recorded 11 October 2018
• Research Techniques To Study Respiratory Diseases
  by Prof. Phil Hansbro
  recorded 11 October 2018
• What's in a cough? Implications for the care of people with flu and MROs
  by Prof. Scott Bell
  recorded 27 November 2018
• Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia: Common symptoms from an uncommon condition
  by A/Prof. Phil Robinson
  recorded 11 December 2018
• The Impact of Climate Change on Respiratory Health
  by Professor Hubertus Jersmann
  recorded 14 February 2019
• What we have learned about children who present to hospital with acute wheeze
  by Dr Ingrid Laing
  recorded 26 February 2019
• How respiratory specialists can best assist smoking patients to quit
  by A/Prof. Renee Bittoun
  recorded 8 March 2019

To access any of the above, click www.thoracic.org.au/events/category/past-tsanz-webinars-on-demand-recordings. Note that for non-TSANZ members, some of the above webinars require payment of a A$10 (plus A$1 GST) pay-as-you-view fee to the TSANZ.

has kindly sent his donation towards the Society's goals, as outlined at apsresp.org/members/donors.php.

The APSR is profoundly grateful for his generosity.

Congratulations to the following members who have recently become APSR Fellows.

• Dr David Alvianto FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Dr Iin Chozin FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Dr Jakeer Hussain Shaik FAPSR (India)
• Dr Anung Sri Handayani FAPSR (Indonesia)
• Dr Andi Wijayanto FAPSR (Indonesia)

A warm welcome to the following members who have recently joined APSR assemblies. They will undoubtedly enjoy working with and networking with their assembly colleagues.

If you have news or announcements that may be of interest to other APSR members, please send details to Bulletin Coordinator Dr Arata Azuma (a-azuma@nms.ac.jp) or APSR Bulletin (bulletin@apsresp.org).