About Us

In 2024, the 14th IKDS was held in Montréal, Canada. This marked the 40th anniversary of the first IKDS that took place in Hawaii in 1984. This meeting is a wonderful tradition, bringing our Kawasaki disease (KD) community together every three years to advance the science of KD and honor the late Dr Tomisaku Kawasaki.

This said, wouldn’t it be great if we had a KD “house”, a harbor, a hub? Traditionally, after every IKDS meeting we all return home, back to our daily business, looking forward to the next IKDS in 3 years. The time is ripe now to bridge the gap between meetings and set goals as a KD community for the benefit of past, present, and future patients. Now is the moment to create a formal international society of KD scientists, clinicians, and advocates that brings everyone under one roof… The International Kawasaki Disease Society (ikds.org).

The ikds.org is not intended to replace any current groups, consortia, national societies, or foundations. The purpose of the ikds.org is to bridge all these entities, to facilitate exchange, and to leverage various potentials exponentially towards higher efficiency.

The “S” in ikds.org needs to be repurposed and elevated from one objective to a wide range of objectives, hence the “S” should represent:

Symposium – a scientific exchange forum and knowledge sharing

Summit – where decisions are made, and the future is planned

Scholastic – with a learning track and a window for young investigators & early career

Society – a society of societies, with a new identity created and a mission is stated