Nuha Yassin © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

We hope you are all well and that you enjoyed the ECCO Congress. We certainly did, and we were very pleased to meet many new members at the Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop as well as to catch up with familiar faces. This year our workshop was over-subscribed, and the room was jam-packed. Our participants consisted of a mixture of basic scientists, clinicians, clinician scientists, nurses, trainees and senior members. We are delighted that our Basic Science Workshop appeals to everyone and caters for many needs. 

Dominik Bettenworth © ECCO

Dear Y-ECCO Friends,

It is a great pleasure for me to write my first Members’ Address. A few weeks ago, the 14^th Congress of ECCO took place and was fully packed with world-class, international presentations on basic science research and clinical studies that had the common goal of improving the care of our IBD patients. My personal highlight of the Congress was, however, to take over as Y-ECCO Chair from Nuha Yassin. Many of you will know Nuha from personal meetings at the Y-ECCO Workshops, Consensus Guidelines meetings or the ECCO Interaction: Hearts and Minds at the Annual Congress of ECCO. Personally, over the past three years I have got to know Nuha as an inspiring person with a very clear vision of the various Y-ECCO projects that she has been able to put into practice as a highly talented networker, while always adding the perspective of an experienced surgeon. 

David Wilson © ECCO

The mission of the Paediatric Committee of ECCO is improving knowledge on paediatric-specific IBD issues as well as supporting and facilitating research into paediatric IBD. During the ECCO Congress in Copenhagen, P-ECCO said goodbye to Patrick van Rheenen and Jaroslaw Kierkus. We greatly thanked them for all their contributions to P-ECCO and welcomed two new members: Johan van Limbergen and Amit Assa. 

Yves Panis © ECCO

The 8^th S-ECCO IBD Masterclass (held in collaboration with the European Association of Coloproctology, ESCP) was organised to take place during the 14^th Congress of ECCO in Copenhagen. As in previous years, it was a full-day masterclass, and this year it attracted 183 participants.

Dearbháile O’Hanlon  © ECCO

As a new member of the D-ECCO Committee it is a pleasure to review the 4th D-ECCO Workshop at the 14th Congress of ECCO. This year we had an excellent attendance of 140 attendees from across the multidisciplinary areas, including dietitians, nurses, physicians and clinical researchers.

The programme was divided into three sessions.

Ana Ibarra © ECCO

On the evening of Thursday, March 7, 19 nurses from 13 countries across Europe participated in our yearly N-ECCO National Representatives Meeting.

As N-ECCO Committee Member responsible for the National Representatives, Kay Greveson welcomed the attendees, and this was followed by a short round of introductions. Four countries were happy to present their new National Representatives. An exchange of nurses every 2–3 years is greatly encouraged by N-ECCO, but many countries nevertheless retain the same National Representatives for more than 3 years. New people tend to mean new ideas, although some countries have different service setups and getting new representatives is sometimes difficult.

Susanna Jäghult  © ECCO

Petra Hartmann  © ECCO

The 10^th N-ECCO School in Copenhagen was attended by 68 participants from 24 countries, including dietitians and IBD nurses. The 10th N-ECCO School covered various IBD topics of interest to both nurses and dietitians who work with IBD patients. The aim was to enhance participants’ basic knowledge in IBD, enabling them to provide better support to IBD patients throughout Europe and beyond. The N-ECCO School has also come to serve as a great networking opportunity, allowing nurses and dietitians to share their experiences.

Joana Torres © ECCO

This year, during the 14^th Congress of ECCO in Copenhagen, the first Guidelines and GRADE Methodology Workshop took place, organised by GuiCom (Guidelines Committee of ECCO). The GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) methodology represents a systematic approach to making judgements about quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. It has been developed by the GRADE Working Group and is now widely seen as the most effective method of linking evidence-quality evaluations to clinical recommendations. For a year now, several ECCO Members have been working using this methodology to develop the new Crohn’s Disease guidelines. 

Report on the 1^st ECCO-ESGAR Basic Imaging Workshop – Endoscopy Portion

Marietta Iacucci  © ECCO

Giovanni Maconi  © ECCO

Participating speakers and chairs: Raf Bisschops (Leuven, Belgium), Paulo Kotze (Curitiba, Brazil), Federica Furfaro (Milan, Italy), James East (Oxford, United Kingdom), Matt Rutter (North Tees, United Kingdom), Marietta Iacucci  (Birmingham, United Kingdom), Taku Kobayashi  (Tokyo, Japan), Filip Baert  (Roselare, Belgium), Krisztina Gecse (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Henit Yanai (Petah Tikva, Israel) and James Lindsay (London, United Kingdom)

Giovanni Maconi  © ECCO

Christian Maaser  © ECCO

Participating speakers and chairs: Antonio López-Sanromán (Madrid, Spain), Giovanni Maconi (Milan, Italy), Jordi Rimola (Barcelona, Spain), Torsten Kucharzik (Lüneburg, Germany), Stephan Vavricka (Zurich, Switzerland), Christian Maaser (Lüneburg, Germany), Rune Wilkens (Copenhagen, Denmark).