BSG – British Society of Gastroenterology

BSG is the major professional society for gastroenterologists in the UK. It is divided into sections with specific interests, and the IBD section has over 800 members, making it one of the largest in the society. The IBD section organises the IBD symposia at the annual meeting, and makes the case for the society over IBD related issues with government and other organisations. In recent years this has meant significant interaction with NICE (the government body on cost-effectiveness of drugs) with regard to biological therapy in IBD, and has had significant influence in trying to make biologic therapy more available. The IBD section is also responsible for the BSG IBD guidelines, and has recently set up the IBD Clinical Studies group. It is working with a number of other organisations to promote better treatment of IBD patients and is currently involved in connection with others in trying to establish and national IBD register, disseminating the results of the national IBD audit and piloting a new self-assessment tool for IBD centres based around the national standards in IBD. It works closely with the patient group Crohn's and Colitis UK in all these fields.