Letter of Invitation

Dear Colleagues,

“Think global and not local”.
Our ECCO Congress has become the leading world congress for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases with over 7000 attendees from more than 87 different countries. The 15^th Congress will be held on February 12-15, 2020 in Vienna, Austria. 2020 is a crucial year to look back to the major achievements in research and clinical care, and strategically rethink the future of IBD for our patients.

The theme of the programme is “IBD beyond 2020”, and the organizing committee has planned a fantastic programme. Major themes will tackle hot debates such as the future of TNF treatment, the challenge of using surgery before medical therapy, and novel tools to monitor disease activity. In addition, sessions will focus on better patient stratification at the molecular level as well as strategies to reduce disease burden.

Presentations from the major IBD consortia worldwide will highlight the breakthrough achievements and the future for genetics, microbiome, prevention strategies and therapeutic drug monitoring inviting key representatives of the global consortia. Futuristic lectures will include multi-omics, BIG data and deep learning, with the potential implications for IBD management. We will continue our tradition of having multiple tandem talks, and several sessions that involve all the different ECCO committees with live discussions during the presentation of clinical cases.

Beside the Scientific Programme, we have planned multiple educational activities before the start of the Congress, such as the 18^th IBD Intensive Advanced Course for junior gastroenterologists, the 6^th Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop, the 7^th ClinCom Workshop directed at clinical trialists, and the 14^th N-ECCO Network Meeting and the 11^th N-ECCO School for nurses. So check out our ECCO 2020 Congress website at www.ecco-ibd.eu/ecco20 and register on time to secure your seat for our educational activities!

Looking forward to welcome you in Vienna at ECCO Congress for IBD: Beyond 2020.

Yours sincerely,
Silvio Danese
ECCO President 2018-2020