National Clinical Database feedback implementation for quality improvement of cancer treatment in Japan: from good to great through transparency.

"Conflict of interest None of the authors have any commercial sponsorship to disclose regarding this research."

"We thank all the data managers and hospitals participating in this NCD project for their continued efforts in entering the data. We also thank Noboru Motomura, MD, for providing direction for the foundation of the NCD project, the initial members of the JSGS database (Yuko Kitagawa, MD; Mitsuo Shimada, MD; Hideo Baba, MD; Naohiro Tomita, MD; Wataru Kimura, MD; and Tohru Nakagoe MD), and the working members of the JSGS database committee (Masayuki Watanabe, MD; Satoru Imura, MD; Fumihiko Miura, MD; Hiroya Takeuchi, MD; Ichiro Hirai, MD; Yoshio Takesue, MD; Hiroyuki Suzuki, MD; Megumi Ishiguro, MD; Makoto Gega, MD; Nagahide Matsubara MD; and Akihiko Horiguch, MD). We also acknowledge the members participating in the Site-specific cancer registries in the NCD, which has been supported by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan (Koichi Hirata, MD; Masato Nagino, MD; Yuko Kitagawa, MD; Tetsuo Ohta, MD; Tomotaka Sobue, MD; Yasushi Toh, MD; Atsushi Nashimoto, MD; Kenjiro Kotake, MD; Masakazu Yamamoto, MD; Masao Tanaka, MD; Toru Shimosegawa, MD; Masami Sato, MD; and Yutaka Tokuda, MD.) This study was supported by Health and Labor Sciences Research Grants by Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare in Japan. Part of this paper was presented as a presidential address by MG at the 69th Annual Meeting of the JSGS held from July 16–18, 2014 in Koriyama, Fukushima."