April 28, 2018

The primary goal of ECCO Educational Workshops is to harmonise IBD practices within ECCO Member Countries by presenting the practical use of the ECCO Guidelines on Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Additionally, these workshops provide continuous medical education with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of care for patients with IBD. ECCO Educational Workshops are aimed at individuals who are interested in IBD and provide an ideal opportunity to network whilst receiving an update on the latest ECCO Guidelines from top gastroenterologists in Europe.

Peter Irving © ECCO

Dear ECCO Friends,

The purpose of e-CCO is to improve knowledge, to enhance the educational experience and to equalise access to advanced learning opportunities in IBD for our members and throughout the world. I am pleased to be able to highlight, therefore, how the e-Learning Taskforce continues to work hard to keep the e-CCO Learning site up to date with the aim of achieving these goals.

Naila Arebi © ECCO

Collaborations are the cornerstone of research studies – from inception of the idea to execution of the project, culminating in the final research goal of generating and sharing new knowledge. Information technology has transformed the way we collaborate, opening up new avenues for collaboration through enhanced remote communication between researchers as well as easier collation and sharing of research data across centres.

The PANTS study

Nicholas Kennedy © ECCO

Use of the anti-TNF alpha monoclonal antibodies infliximab and adalimumab has transformed the management of patients with refractory Crohn’s Disease. However, clinicians and patients are all too aware that anti-TNF treatment failure is common: 10%–40% of patients fail to respond to induction therapy (referred to as primary non-response: PNR), up to 40% of patients suffer secondary loss of response in the first year of therapy and approximately 10% suffer an adverse drug reaction that curtails treatment.

In faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for Ulcerative Colitis, Fusobacterium is associated with lack of remission, while metabolic shifts to starch degradation and short chain fatty acid production are associated with remission (FOCUS study)

Sudarshan Paramsothy © ECCO

The randomised controlled FOCUS study [1], along with other trials [2–4], suggests that FMT is effective in the treatment of patients with active Ulcerative Colitis (UC). However, the underlying microbial basis and predictors of therapeutic outcome in UC are largely unknown. We therefore performed in-depth microbial analyses on the samples collected during the FOCUS study to help identify bacterial taxonomic and functional changes associated with FMT in UC, particularly those predictive of therapeutic success or failure.

Janneke van der Woude © ECCO

During the ECCO’18 Vienna Congress the Scientific Committee cordially welcomed Michael Scharl and Sebastian Zeissig as new members.

The educational programme of the 14^th Congress of ECCO starts prior to the official start of the ECCO Congress and courses take place from March 6-8, 2019. These activities are targeted towards ECCO’s different interest groups including young gastroenterologists, surgeons, paediatricians, IBD nurses, dietitians and allied health professionals and scientists.

An overview of these activities can be found below. Please note that some of these courses/workshops run in parallel and that some have a limited capacity – please register at your earliest convenience.

We look forward to seeing you in Copenhagen!

The Scientific Programme of the 14^th Congress of ECCO provides attendees the unique opportunity to learn from the world’s leading specialists in the field of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Held from Thursday to Saturday, March 7-9, 2019, the Scientific Programme is structured around basic science, translational medicine and clinical sessions. Additionally, it includes oral presentations of the 38 best abstracts of the Congress. The focus of all sessions is clinical practice founded on science with practical take home messages and, as every year, the congress registration fee includes access to all scientific sessions.

Register now and seize the opportunity to hear current and relevant studies from international experts in IBD!

Silvio Danese  ©  ECCO

Dear ECCO friends,

Improving the care of IBD patients is one of ECCO’s most valuable purposes. This goal is achieved through enhancement of our knowledge of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Two programmes highlighted in this issue of ECCO News move in this direction: The UR-CARE database, which seeks to achieve this goal through intense collaboration between researchers in Europe via a shared database, and the e-CCO Learning Platform, which many of you had the opportunity to experience during the 13th ECCO Congress in Vienna. This intiative is particularly exciting because it offers physicians a tool to fill in learning gaps using the ECCO IBD Curriculum. Both of these tools will contribute to reinforce the excellence of IBD centres.

Pieter Hindryckx © ECCO

Willem Bemelman

Position: Secretary 2018–2020

Nationality: Dutch

Born: December 17, 1958

Past ECCO Positions: 
     • Co-founder of S-ECCO
     • S-ECCO Chair
     • Chair, Surgical ECCO Guidelines on Crohn’s Disease