HELLO, EVERYONE. MY NAME IS ATSUSHI NAKAMURA. I AM A VETERINARIAN AT THE TRVA NIGHT EMERGENCY VETERINARY MEDICAL CENTER IN TOKYO. TRVA OPENED IN 2011, AND SINCE THEN I HAVE BEEN WORKING AS THE DIRECTOR AND LEADER OF THE CENTER.

When I started my career, the concept of emergency animal care in Japan was still very limited, and veterinary care was generally provided as an extension of primary care. I was surprised to learn that emergency intensive care had already been established as a field in Europe and the U.S. Since around 2015, I have been working on the development of a new specialty, including my own experience and the know-how I learned. I started to give academic meetings and lectures, including my own experience, and in 2018, together with Dr. Kawase of Sapporo Night Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Ueda of North Carolina State University, I founded the Japanese Society of Veterinary Intensive Care. Emergency intensive care is essential not only as an infrastructure but also for postoperative management of severe cases and for the future development of veterinary medicine in Japan, so I will work to make it a field that can be taught in university education as well as internal medicine and surgery.

Eleven years have passed since I started living in Tokyo, but Towada City in Aomori Prefecture, where I spent my second through sixth grades, is a memorable place full of nature that I sometimes like to visit. During my college years, I spent most of my time surfing and snowboarding. Surrounded by nature, friends, and my teachers, the five years I spent there were invaluable to me. I think I was able to have big dreams because I spent a lot of time playing in nature and talking with my friends. Looking back, I think it was a great advantage for me to be able to live in an environment that I would never have had the chance to experience in the city. I hope you make this wonderful college experience yours!

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