The educational programme of the 16^th Congress of ECCO is scheduled one week prior to the official start of the ECCO Congress and all educational courses take place from July 2-3, 2021. These activities target ECCO’s different interest groups including young gastroenterologists, surgeons, paediatricians, pathologists, IBD Nurses, dietitians, allied health professionals and scientists.

The scientific programme will be held from July 8-10, 2021 including Digital Oral Presentations. In addition we are pleased to announce that the titles of the abstract oral presentations are already included in the online programme.

An overview of these activities can be found below. In order to get more information please click on the respective course link. For ECCO'21 Virtual overlapping courses can be watched on-demand until end of October 2021. It is foreseen, that delegates who registered for educational courses and/or the scientific programme can claim their CME credits also for on-demand content. We encourage you to register at your earliest convenience.

We look forward to welcoming you at the 16^th Congress of ECCO Virtual!

Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet © ECCO

Dear Friends,

I hope that all ECCO Members will be vaccinated when reading this article except maybe a few Y-ECCO Members!

This is the second issue of ECCO News this year and the 16^th Congress of ECCO is fastly approaching.

The Netherlands

Name of group: The Dutch Society of Gastroenterology (NVGE) is responsible for basic and clinical research in gastroenterology. Members include not only Dutch gastroenterologists, but also surgeons, paediatricians, fellows in gastroenterology, PhD students, scientists and nurses. Persons with a specific interest in IBD are members of the IBD Section.

The Initiative on Crohn and Colitis (ICC) is our Dutch IBD research organisation, which facilitates, coordinates and conducts collaborative collection of data and biomaterials as well as IBD studies in The Netherlands.

Number of active members: The NVGE has approximately 1830 members. The IBD Section has 300 members.

The ICC has 38 active members spread across the seven academic medical centres as well as the peripheral hospitals.  

Number of meetings per year: The NVGE has two scientific meetings each year (Digestive Disease Days), with presentations of original work and several state-of-the-art lectures.

The ICC has one IBD meeting each year with both presentations of scientific output and lectures on clinical IBD-related topics.

In addition to these meetings, there are several general meetings during the year to discuss ongoing and future research projects.

Name of president and secretary: 

Dutch Society of Gastroenterology (NVGE): Janneke van der Woude and Andrea van der Meulen

Initiative on Crohn and Colitis (ICC): Frank Hoentjen and Nanne de Boer

National Representatives: Fiona van Schaik and Willemijn van Dop

Joined ECCO in: 2003

Incidence of IBD in the country:

Incidence:           Approximately 29 per 100,000 per year

Prevalence:         Approximately 1:200; 90,000 patients in The Netherlands

Russian Federation

Name of group: Russian Gastroenterological Association

Number of active members:  120-150

Number of meetings per year: 10-12

Name of president and secretary: Vladimir Ivashkin and Alexander Trukhmanov

National Representatives: Yury Uspensky and Pavel Makarchuk

Joined ECCO in: 2007

Incidence of IBD in the country: 6.6 per 100,000

Nuha Yassin © Nuha Yassin

It’s a great honour to introduce you to ECCO’s Scientific Officer, Professor Ailsa Hart. Ailsa is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and the IBD lead at St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow, London. Ailsa has been an active member at ECCO for many years and has been a great supporter of several initiatives. She has won the hearts and minds of many within and outside ECCO with her calm demeanour, hard work and bright outlook.

We hope you enjoy listening to this uplifting interview with Ailsa who gives us a sunny forecast during these challenging times. Please click on the audio link below:

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Charlotte Hedin © ECCO

Marc Ferrante was appointed assistant professor at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) in 2013, and later became associate professor. He is also a staff member in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospitals Leuven. He is a lecturer for students of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine and a coach for clinical fellows in training. He has previously been chair of both Y-ECCO and ClinCom and was appointed as a SciCom Member in 2019.

AN ANTI-MIGRATION SELF-EXPANDABLE AND REMOVABLE METAL STENT FOR CROHN’S DISEASE STRICTURES: A NATIONWIDE STUDY FROM GETAID AND SFED

Attar A, Branche J, Coron E et al.

J Crohns Colitis 2020 Oct 27. doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaa208. Online ahead of print.

Rajan N Patel © Rajan N Patel

Introduction

Crohn’s Disease is complicated by strictures in up to 30% of cases. Medical management with biologics is often suboptimal and surgical treatment is associated with postoperative complications and disease recurrence. Targeted therapy with endoscopic balloon dilatation (EBD) of strictures less than 5 cm has high rates of technical success (passage of endoscope through the stricture) but variable clinical success (relief of obstructive symptoms), with up to 25% of patients requiring surgery at one-year follow-up [1]. Removable fully covered metal stents are safe for the treatment of refractory strictures but the risk of stent migration is high [2].

Randomised clinical trial: high‐dose oral thiamine versus placebo for chronic fatigue in patients with quiescent inflammatory bowel disease (TARIF study)

Bager P, Hvas CL, Rud CL1, Dahlerup JF

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2021;53(1):79–86.

Eathar Shakweh © Eathar Shakweh

Introduction

Fatigue is a common yet poorly understood manifestation of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and can occur independently of disease activity. A prospective cohort study of 326 IBD patients initiating biologic therapy (with infliximab, vedolizumab or ustekinumab) demonstrated fatigue was prevalent at baseline (63%)¹. Whilst fewer patients reported fatigue with treatment (70% at week 14, 61% at week 30 and 61% at week 54), a third continued to experience fatigue despite achieving clinical remission. This is supported by other studies, where fatigue prevalence in quiescent disease was as high as 36% in Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and 41% in Crohn’s disease (CD)².

A phase 1b safety study of SER-287, a spore-based microbiome therapeutic, for active mild to moderate ulcerative colitis

Henn M, O’Brien E, Diao L, et al.

Gastroenterology 2021;160(1):115–27.

Djuna de Jong © Djuna de Jong

Introduction

In the last decade, research on the human gut microbiome and its influence on health and disease has taken flight. This has strengthened the belief that the underlying pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) involves an altered immune response to characteristic shifts in the composition of the gut microbiome.

Johan Burisch © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

After a 2020 that ended up being all about COVID-19, let’s hope that 2021 will be a normal year where we can meet and network again and put COVID behind us. I recently got my first shot of the vaccination, which was a wonderful experience of what science is capable of in times of need. In Denmark we’ve started vaccinating our IBD patients but vaccine scepticism and uncertainties about the evidence is everywhere and we as physicians are needed more than ever to inform our patients.