Network for Clinical Stroke Trials (NeCST) for the Next Stroke Researchers in Japan

See related article, p 301. Stroke imposes a severe burden in Asia.1 In Japan, stroke is the leading cause of disability requiring intensive nursing care and the fourth leading cause of death. Because the baby boomers born in the later 1940s have reached ages at which they have become susceptible to stroke, the burden is expected to increase further. Thus, research on stroke is being actively conducted in Japan. However, few Japanese researchers have been authors of multinational stroke papers.2The National Institutes of Health (NIH)–funded United States–Japan collaborative research on stroke circumstances conducted in 1962 by Prof Baker (University of Minnesota) and Prof Katsuki (Kyushu University) was likely the first multinational collaboration on stroke research in Japan.3 That research triggered the initiation of the Hisayama study, a well-known, population-based, prospective, cohort study.4 Thereafter, Japanese researchers participated in some investigator-initiated trials, including the NIH-funded international EC/IC (Extracranial–Intracranial Artery) Bypass Study.5 However, even in recent years, few Japanese investigators have been contributing to international investigator-initiated trials.Several potential factors may be involved in the infrequent multicenter and multinational collaboration of Japanese investigators. As has been previously reported, repeatedly assembling the necessary personnel and infrastructure each time trials begin and their disassembly each time trials end has made for an inefficient environment for conducting trials.6 Furthermore, there are overwhelming shortages of study coordinators …