Congress president Dr. Kazuto Hoshi Professor and chairperson, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Sensory and Motor System Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo

Dear friends and colleagues of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation,

I am Dr. Kazuto Hoshi, Professor and chairperson of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo. Additionally, I am the Congress President of the 16th World Congress of the ICPF, CLEFT TOKYO 2024.

It is my great honor to welcome you to our CLEFT TOKYO 2024. This congress will be held from July 17 (Wed) - 19 (Fri), 2024. The main venue is at the Yasuda Auditorium in Tokyo, Japan. Yasuda Auditorium is the central symbol of the University of Tokyo. In this auditorium, special events as well as the graduation ceremony are held every year, where you can enjoy an academic environment while surrounded by beautiful gothic architecture.

The main theme of this congress is “Break the limit, bring the innovation." Despite the noble and untiring efforts of past contributors, there still remain limitations in prevention, care and treatment of cleft lip and palate. The ICPF gathers highly qualified specialists across the world who have the potential to solve these problems.

During this congress, our program includes keynote lectures, symposium, panel discussions and free papers, all of which are full of exciting talks. There will also be excursions and other activities for participants to enjoy at the University of Tokyo and the city of Tokyo.

Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to the active discussions on the various topics regarding basic, translational and clinical researches of CLP, to ultimately innovate the field for better patient care.

Thank you again, and please enjoy.

Sincerely yours,

Congress president
Dr. Kazuto Hoshi
Professor and chairperson, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery,
Department of Sensory and Motor System Medicine,
Graduate School of Medicine,
The University of Tokyo

President of ICPF
Marie M. Tolarova, MD, PhD, D.Sc.
Professor and Executive Director, Pacific Craniofacial Team and Cleft Prevention Program
University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
San Francisco, California, USA

Dear colleagues and friends,

I am Marie Tolarova, President of the International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation. On behalf of Professor Natsume, founder of ICPF and Secretary and Treasurer, and our Board of Trustees, let me join Professor Hoshi in inviting you to participate in our 16^th World Cleft Congress.

For the 3^rd time, we are having this congress in Japan – in the cradle of ICPF, which was founded in 1997 in Kyoto. In the beginning of Covid in 2019, we had an amazing congress in Nagoya and then with enormous effort, still under the cloud of Covid, colleagues in Osaka created a fantastic environment for a very successful congress in Osaka in 2022.

There is no better theme than the one that Professor Hoshi and his team selected for this congress: “Break the limit, bring innovation”. And as he said in his message, there is a lot in the orofacial cleft field – in clinical, in prevention, and in basic science that will benefit from innovations and where, in order to implement them, we will need to break the limits.
In talking to students and residents – I often say “Good doctors follow the rules, the best doctors break them and make new ones”.

We will hear from the best in Tokyo, we will share our knowledge and experience, and reach high together, to break the limits.
While in our first ICPF congresses and workshops, we focused almost entirely on improvement of treatments, a decade ago, with the congress in Mahe, presided by Professor SM Balaji, we implemented cleft prevention and basic science.

While prevalence of cleft lip and palate didn’t change for several decades, the multidisciplinary treatment and its outcome improved dramatically. And the same, our understanding of etiology of orofacial clefts improved tremendously!

So, in the way of collaboration, no competition, we need to work together and implement all the most recent knowledge for breaking the limits and bringing innovations!

This is the only way we will improve our overall care for the benefit of individuals with clefts.
I am looking forward to seeing you in Tokyo this July!

Warmly,

Marie M. Tolarová, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.
Professor of Orthodontics
Executive Director, Pacific Craniofacial Team, and Cleft Prevention Program
Founder and President, Cleft Prevention International Foundation, Inc.
President, International Cleft Lip and Palate Foundation
Director Emerita, Rotaplast Intl., Inc.
University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry