Kunihiro Yamaoka, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of Kitasato University Hospital, a role he has held since 2024. He also serves as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases at Kitasato University School of Medicine, a position he has held since 2018. Prior to this, he was Associate Professor in the Division of Rheumatology at Keio University School of Medicine (2014), and Lecturer and Assistant Professor at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan, from 2005 to 2011. His early academic career included a Visiting Fellowship at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), NIH, in 2001, and a Research Fellowship at Kyushu University in 1995. He began his medical career in 1994 at the First Department of Internal Medicine, Kyushu University Hospital.