Ignacio Catalán-Serra © ECCO

Britta Siegmund is Medical Director of the Medical Department, Division of Gastroenterology, Infectiology and Rheumatology at the Charité - University Hospital Campus Benjamin Franklin Berlin, Germany. She has recently been accredited with the position of the new President-Elect of ECCO and we were happy to conduct an exclusive interview with her.

For the convenience of our ECCO News readers we recorded the interview and put it in an audio file. We hope you will enjoy listening to interesting facts about our President-Elect.

Ignacio Catalán-Serra, ECCO News Associate Editor

Tuire Ilus © Tuire Ilus

Clas-Göran af Björkesten © Clas-Göran af Björkesten

Finland

Name of group: IBD section of the Finnish Society of Gastroenterology

Number of active members: The Finnish Society of Gastroenterology has 540 members. The IBD section has 30 registered active members.

Number of meetings per year: 2–3

President and Secretary: The Finnish Society of Gastroenterology: Johanna Louhimo (president). The IBD section: Pauliina Molander (president) and Clas-Göran af Björkesten (secretary)

National Representatives: Tuire Ilus and Clas-Göran af Björkesten

Joined ECCO in: 2004

Incidence of IBD in the country: The incidence of IBD in Finland is one of the highest in the world and there has been a significant increase in this incidence during the past 20 years. UC is more common than CD. IBD incidence is 42/100,000 persons per year (UC 31/100,000 and CD 11/100,000).

Romania

Name of group: Romanian Crohn’s and Colitis Club (RCCC)

Number of active members: 147

Number of meetings per year: 2: one at the National Congress of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and one at the National Symposium of IBD

President and Secretary: Daniela Dobru (President), Maria Ciocirlan (Secretary)

National Representatives:  Mircea Diculescu, Adrian Goldis

Joined ECCO in: 2007

Incidence of IBD in the country: approx. 100/100,000 inhabitants (UC:CD approx. 60:40)