The University of Tokyo Hospital

A combination of cognitive and behavioral strategies, ideally delivered in person by a therapist, maximizes the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), according to new research. CBT-I is a form of talk therapy, which can be delivered in person or through self-help guides. By analyzing 241 studies, involving over 30,000 adults, researchers identified the most beneficial components of CBT-I. A combination of cognitive and behavioral strategies, ideally delivered in person by a therapist, maximizes the benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), according to new research. CBT-I is a form of talk therapy, which can be delivered in person or through self-help guides. By analyzing 241 studies, involving over 30,000 adults, researchers identified the most beneficial components of CBT-I. These included: cognitive restructuring, third-wave components, sleep restriction, stimulus control and in-person delivery. Self-help with human encouragement could also be beneficial, while waiting for active treatment and enforcing relaxation procedures appeared to be potentially harmful. Understanding which components of CBT-I can offer the most benefit will hopefully help practitioners help their patients get a better night's sleep. It's time for bed but your mind is racing. Maybe you get up several times a night or wake up early in the morning feeling hardly rested at all. It's estimated that up to a third of adults experience insomnia at some point, and anywhere from 4% to 22% chronically. Chronic insomnia can impact daily life, making it difficult to function when awake or causing distress. More serious cases may require support and treatment, and one medication-free option is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. CBT-I is a form of therapy that uses educational, cognitive or behavioral strategies to help patients improve their quality of sleep. It may be delivered in person or online, through an app or a guidebook, with the support of a therapist or independently. Previous studies have shown that CBT-I can be a beneficial and low-risk option for patients with chronic insomnia. However, as it encompasses a broad range of strategies which can be delivered in different ways, it has been difficult to determine which are most successful and if all are necessary for a patient to experience an improvement. A team led by researchers at the University of Tokyo Hospital analyzed 241 studies of chronic insomnia from 1980-2023, to try and connect the different threads of CBT-I with their outcomes. The studies included 31,452 adult participants, mainly from North America and Europe, with an average age of 45.4 years. "We expected to find some behavioral components (such as sleep restriction and stimulus control) beneficial, but it was surprising to find that some cognitive components (such as cognitive restructuring and third-wave components) were also effective," explained Yuki Furukawa, lead author and a medical doctor at the university hospital. Using a statistical method called component network meta-analysis, the team ranked the effects of different interventions. According to their results, although following a self-help guide with encouragement from other people was helpful, in-person interaction with a therapist was more beneficial. Other critical components included: cognitive restructuring (skills to identify, challenge and change unhelpful beliefs about sleep), sleep restriction (limiting time in bed), stimulus control (re-associating bed with sleep) and third-wave components (mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy). On the other hand, sleep hygiene education (explaining the biology of sleep and providing recommendations about lifestyle and environment) did not appear to be essential. Trying to follow relaxation procedures (such as structured physical or cognitive exercises) could be counterproductive, while knowingly having to wait for treatment to begin appeared to have a harmful effect. "Overall, our findings identified several essential components of CBT-I which can lead to an intervention that maximizes treatment efficacy, minimizes treatment burden and increases scalability, that is, makes it easier to offer this treatment to more patients. Further large-scale trials are needed to confirm these contributions," said Furukawa. "We hope that our research encourages practitioners who are interested in CBT-I to learn streamlined CBT-I, so that in turn more people who experience insomnia can be offered this relatively simple, noninvasive yet potentially powerful psychotherapy."

- AIM Is First Japanese Company to Establish Joint Research Agreement in Field of Endoscopic AI - TOKYO, July 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AI Medical Service Inc. (hereinafter AIM), a medical start-up specializing in the development of diagnostic endoscopic AI, has signed a joint research agreement with Stanford University School of Medicine (hereinafter Stanford Medicine), one of the world's top medical research institutes, and will begin research activities in August 2023. AIM is the first Japanese company to sign a joint research agreement with Stanford Medicine in the field of endoscopic AI. Content and Objective of Joint Research AIM is now working toward receiving regulatory approval in Japan for its endoscopic AI product designed to identify early-stage gastric cancer. Its collaboration with Stanford Medicine will facilitate joint research designed to verify the applicability of Japanese endoscopic AI in the United States. Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death worldwide, and approximately 26,000 cases of gastric cancer are newly diagnosed in the United States each year. Stanford Medicine is located in the center of America's West Coast, a diverse region where 58% of the population belongs to various minority groups. Gastric cancer is noteworthy for its high prevalence among Asian communities. Stanford Medicine established CARE (Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education) in 2018 with the mission to improve health outcomes among members of the Asian community through increased knowledge and education. Comment from Dr. Joo Ha Hwang, Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology & Hepatology) and, by courtesy, of Surgery Photo1: "We are excited to collaborate with AI Medical Service Inc. in evaluating their AI platform for detecting early gastric cancer. This is an important issue in the United States because the incidence of early gastric cancer is relatively high in several immigrant populations, especially East Asians; however, the detection of early gastric cancer remains low because lesions are often subtle and difficult to identify. We look forward to evaluating this technology in clinical studies at Stanford Medicine where we have a diverse population of ethnicities who are considered to be at higher risk for gastric cancer." About AI Medical Service Inc. AI Medical Service (AIM) is a Tokyo-based med-tech company established with the mission to "Save Lives All Over the World." Japan leads the world in endoscopic diagnosis and treatment, providing firms and researchers with access to large amounts of high-quality data. AIM is the leading player in the field of endoscopic AI, engaging in joint research with more than 100 medical institutions. By bringing endoscopic AI to the real-world clinical setting as soon as possible, AIM aims to reduce the number of missed cancer diagnoses and save lives around the world. For more company information, please visit: About CEO of AI Medical Service Inc., Dr. Tomohiro TADA, M.D., Ph.D. Photo2: Dr. Tomohiro TADA is the CEO of AI Medical Service Inc., the chairperson of Tada Tomohiro The Institute of Gastroenterology & Proctology as well as Visiting Lecturer, Department of Surgical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo Hospital. Dr. TADA received his M.D. in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of Tokyo. He trained in colorectal surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital. For related press release, please visit: SOURCE AI Medical Service Inc.

MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- PacBio (NASDAQ: PACB), a leading developer of highly accurate sequencing solutions, today announced a collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine to study the use of long-read sequencing and novel bioinformatics methods in the hopes of better understanding the genetic causes of certain rare diseases in individuals and cohorts within the Japanese population. "Through this collaboration with the University of Tokyo, we plan on developing and applying new methods in the hopes of identifying genetic mutations of many diseases impacting the Japanese population," said Michael Eberle, Vice President of Computational Biology at PacBio. "This will help improve our understanding of difficult genetic regions and variants that we hope will benefit the Japanese population." High-throughput bioinformatics software applications that are optimized for PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing data, such as the Tandem Repeat Genotyping Tool (TRGT), are designed to enable researchers in Japan and the international community to more effectively uncover disease-associated variants, including structural variants such as tandem repeats. PacBio has worked with University of Tokyo researchers for years and has assisted their work around sequencing hundreds of human genomes and structural variants associated with neurological disorders and leukemia (some of this research was published in Nature Genetics in 2018 and 2019 and in Oxford Bioinformatics in 2016). "Collaborating with PacBio in applying advanced bioinformatics workflows should accelerate our in-progress work characterizing structural variants and making these findings more accessible to the broader scientific community. We believe this collaboration will complement our previous work and help us identify many more disease-causing structural variations in the human genome," said Dr. Shoji Tsuji, a senior investigator for the University of Tokyo Hospital, Department of Neurology. About PacBio Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB) is a premier life science technology company that is designing, developing, and manufacturing advanced sequencing solutions to help scientists and clinical researchers resolve genetically complex problems. Our products and technology under development stem from two highly differentiated core technologies focused on accuracy, quality, and completeness which include our existing HiFi long-read sequencing and our emerging SBB® short-read sequencing technologies. Our products address solutions across a broad set of research applications, including human germline sequencing, plant and animal sciences, infectious disease and microbiology, oncology, and other emerging applications. For more information, please visit and follow @PacBio. Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including statements related to the collaboration with and the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, the anticipated outcomes and results of such collaboration, such as identifying certain disease-causing variants associated with rare disease, and other future events. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and any such forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the following cautionary statements. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on current expectations, and involve a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, including, among others, potential product and quality issues, and risks inherent in conducting a research study. Readers are strongly encouraged to read the full cautionary statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Forms 8-K, 10-K, and 10-Q. The Company disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Contacts Investors: Todd Friedman [email protected] Media: Lizelda Lopez [email protected] SOURCE Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.