Mitsunori Miyashita1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Division of Palliative Nursing, Health Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; 2APM Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. APM Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: apm@amepc.org.
This interview can be cited as: Miyashita M, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of APM: Prof. Mitsunori Miyashita. Ann Palliat Med. 2025. Available from: https://apm.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-apm-prof-mitsunori-miyashita.
Expert introduction
Prof. Mitsunori Miyashita (Figure 1) graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1994 and became a nurse. After his clinical experience as a nurse, he worked as an assistant professor and lecturer at the University of Tokyo, and since 2009, he has been a professor in the Department of Palliative Nursing, Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University. Prof. Miyashita’s specialty is in the evaluation of the quality of palliative care. He explored a ‘good death’ for cancer patients and developed a scale called the Good Death Inventory. He is also conducting research on the evaluation of the quality of palliative care from a variety of perspectives, including post-bereavement surveys, administrative data analysis, and other surveys. His team has developed many assessment scales related to palliative care. Recently, his team has been researching the clinical application of patient-reported outcomes in palliative care, the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing in palliative care, and palliative care for non-cancer patients.
Figure 1 Prof. Mitsunori Miyashita
Interview
APM: What inspired you to pursue a career in palliative care?
Prof. Miyashita: As a nurse, I was involved in the care of cancer patients and patients with neurological disorders such as stroke. In particular, 30 years ago, patients with neurological disorders were subjected to futile life-prolonging treatment, and their dignity was lost. I thought that palliative care could help restore patients' dignity and achieve a good death.
APM: How has your experience in oncology influenced your approach to palliative care, and how do you see these fields intersecting in your work?
Prof. Miyashita: For cancer patients, I was involved in the care of head and neck cancer patients and also received training in the palliative care unit. Supportive cancer care has advanced greatly over the past 30 years, but there are still many cancer patients who suffer and die. I would like to use a public health approach to improve the quality of palliative care throughout Japan so that there are no more cancer patients who suffer and die.
APM: Your research includes a focus on end-of-life care. Can you elaborate on the specific challenges you have studied, and what are some of the most impactful findings from your research?
Prof. Miyashita: My most impactful work is that I clarified what a good death is for Japanese people. Based on this, I developed a scale for evaluating the achievement of a good death from the bereaved family, called the Good Death Inventory. This scale has been translated and used in many countries in Asia and South America. In Japan, a mortality follow-up survey based on death certificates from all over the country using this scale is being conducted.
APM: How do you approach the psychological and emotional aspects of care for patients at the end of life, and what role does nursing play in this aspect?
Prof. Miyashita: My specialty is post-bereavement survey, so I am investigating depression and grief among bereaved families. I think that, regardless of whether dealing with bereaved families or not, as a nurse, it is most important to be there for your patients.
APM: What research advancements do you think are needed to enhance palliative care practices and outcomes for terminally ill patients?
Prof. Miyashita: Recently, there has been remarkable progress in artificial intelligence (AI). We want to use AI and natural language processing to make things possible for those that were not possible before. For example, extracting quality indicators from medical records was difficult due to time constraints when done manually. We are currently trying to make this possible using an approach that uses AI and natural language processing.
APM: For those looking to pursue a career in palliative care and nursing, what advice would you give them to help them succeed and thrive in this specialized field?
Prof. Miyashita: I believe that there is a lot of potential for non-pharmacological treatment by nurses to relieve distressing symptoms. I hope that research by nurses will be revitalized so that even one more patient suffering from cancer can be saved.
APM: As an Editorial Board Member of APM, what are your aspirations for yourself and the journal?
Prof. Miyashita: APM is a journal with a low article processing charge, so even researchers with limited research funds can submit articles with little difficulty. I hope that it will be indexed by Pubmed soon and that its impact factor will be restored.