Igor Khalif

Dear Friends and Colleagues!

February 18, 2019, Russian IBD Study society and the entire medical community of Russia suffered an irreparable loss. Professor Igor Khalif, Head of the Department of inflammatory and functional bowel diseases of Russian State Center of Coloproctology died after a serious illness. It is a great grief and a huge pain not only for his family and friends, but for all his colleagues and like-minded people, not only in Russia, but abroad. 

Satish Keshav

It is with overwhelming sadness that the death of Satish Keshav, Oxford IBD specialist, scientist, teacher, mentor to many, friend and colleague, is reported. 

Edouard Louis © ECCO

BIOCYCLE includes a randomised three-arm, controlled clinical trial on 300 patients in five European countries, several patient and health care provider surveys in Europe and the United States, a biomarker research programme and pharmaco-economic analysis. ECCO is mainly involved in the monitoring of the project (through SciCom and ClinCom) and is the work package leader for dissemination of the results. BIOCYCLE is a 6-year-long project and was launched in April 2015.  

Slovenia

Name of group: There is no separate group for IBD. The disease is covered under the national organisation named the Slovenian Association for Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Number of active members: 75
Number of meetings per year: 2 
President: Stojan Potrč
National Representatives: David Drobne and Gregor Novak
Joined ECCO in: 2008
Incidence of IBD in the country (if available): UC 6.8/100,000, CD 5.7/100,000, total incidence including UBDU 13.7/100,000 

Malta

Name of group: GI group within the Medical Association of Malta
Number of active members: 15
Number of meetings per year: Not applicable 
President: Stephen Fava 
National Representative: Pierre Ellul
Joined ECCO in:  2016

CALM Trial

Sasha Fehily  © ECCO

Introduction

There has been a recent shift in Crohn’s Disease (CD) management away from the conventional focus on short-term clinical outcomes and towards the maintenance of long-term remission.  In 2015 the International Organisation for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases released a consensus statement recommending a treat-to-target approach [1]. The STRIDE initiative recommended pursuing treatment escalation in order to achieve the treatment targets of clinical remission and mucosal healing, with adjunctive use of normal C-reactive protein (CRP) and faecal calprotectin (FC) levels. However, the authors noted that prospective studies would be needed to confirm that achievement of these targets would alter the natural history of disease and improve patients’ quality of life.

Dominik Bettenworth  © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

A warm welcome to the Y-ECCO Literature Review section, where you will find a summary and discussion of cutting-edge clinical trials as well as basic science studies in the field of IBD. 

If you are a Y-ECCO Member and you are looking for an opportunity to get actively involved in ECCO and gain some visibility, contribute your article to the Y-ECCO Literature Review corner, together with a short self-description and your picture.

Charlotte Hedin © ECCO

Florian Rieder is currently an Associate Staff physician in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition as well as an Investigator in the Department of Inflammation and Immunity at the Cleveland Clinic in the USA. His area of interest is pathogenesis of intestinal fibrosis and trial endpoint development for testing anti-fibrotics in stricturing IBD patients. He received his medical degree from the LMU Munich and has worked in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa as well as the USA. 

Nuha Yassin © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

I hope that this Members’ Address finds you all well and that you’re enjoying the beautiful autumn colours. Alas, this will be the last time that I address you as Y-ECCO Chair, as I will be stepping down from this position at the next ECCO Congress (2019, Copenhagen). It is with the greatest pleasure that I will then hand over the position of Chair to my colleague, Dominik Bettenworth (Münster, Germany), who has been an executive Y-ECCO Committee Member for the last 3 years. My colleague John Nik Ding will also be completing his 3-year Committee Membership and accompanying me down the path of the autumn leaves to regular ECCO Membership, thus making way for two new Y-ECCO Committee Members.

Antonino Spinelli © ECCO

Paulo Kotze © ECCO

Rochester, USA, September 18, 2018

On September 18, 2018, a very interesting multidisciplinary IBD meeting was held at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, with ECCO endorsement and involvement of several ECCO and S-ECCO Members. The meeting was organised by Amy Lightner and John Pemberton, and the focus was on the interaction between medical, endoscopic and surgical therapy of IBD. ECCO EduCom was represented by Peter Irving (UK) and Paulo Kotze (BRA), while several S-ECCO representatives also made significant contributions to the scientific programme, including Antonino Spinelli (ITA), Willem Bemelman (HOL), Andre D’Hoore (BEL) and Janindra Warusavitarne (UK). In addition, a number of experienced North American gastroenterologists and surgeons, such as Remo Panaccione (CAN), Sunanda Kane (USA), Miguel Regueiro (USA), Bo Shen (USA) and Phil Fleshner (USA), were involved in the programme.