Maria de Jong © ECCO

The 16^th edition of the N-ECCO School and the 19th edition of the N-ECCO Network Meeting took place during the 20^th Congress of ECCO, held from February 19 to 22 in a cold but sunny Berlin. The N-ECCO School gives nurses and dietitians the opportunity to increase their basic knowledge in IBD, while the N-ECCO Network Meeting provides an overview of new insights in IBD care, presented by a mix of excellent speakers. By networking, nurses at different levels are able to exchange knowledge on how to manage IBD care, and this knowledge can be transferred to their own IBD clinics.

Johan Burisch © ECCO

The European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), in collaboration with the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR), the European Society of Pathology (ESP) and the International Bowel Ultrasonography Group (IBUS), has released an updated version of its multi-society guidelines on the diagnostics and monitoring of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Torsten Kucharzik, Henit Yanai, Roger Feakins and Stuart Taylor coordinated these guidelines with the help of professional methodologists, librarians and the ECCO Office, as well as 40 ECCO, ESGAR, ESP and IBUS members from several countries. These new recommendations mark an important shift toward non-invasive disease assessment and personalised monitoring strategies, reflecting the recent entry of intestinal ultrasound (IUS) as an important monitoring tool for IBD, biomarker-based surveillance and histological remission (HR) as a treatment target.

Mariangela Allocca  © ECCO

The 12^th ECCO Ultrasound Workshop – Advanced, organised in collaboration with ESGAR and IBUS, took place during the 20^th Congress of ECCO in Berlin in February 2025 as part of ECCO's Educational Programme. The workshop was attended by 166 participants and brought together experts from various countries, facilitating valuable discussions on the latest advancements in intestinal ultrasound (IUS) for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Ultrasound and MRI Focus

Mariangela Allocca © ECCO

Uri Kopylov © ECCO

The 6^th ECCO Workshop on Imaging, a key part of ECCO's Educational Programme, took place during the 20^th Congress of ECCO in Berlin in February 2025. Due to high interest, two identical sessions were held on the same day, allowing more participants to take part in this hands-on learning course. We thank all the speakers and tutors, whose expertise and dedication contributed to the success of the event. This collaborative effort brought together leading gastroenterologists from ECCO and IBUS, along with radiologists from the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR), providing a comprehensive overview of imaging modalities in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Glen Doherty © ECCO

The 23^rd ECCO IBD Intensive Course for Trainees took place on February 19, 2025, setting the scene for the 20^th ECCO Congress in Berlin. It may have been cold outside, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants or the engagement of the expert ECCO Faculty. A total of 100 participants from 36 countries were in attendance and this year we again welcomed participants not only from European ECCO Country Members but also from Latin America, Asia and Australia. As always, the programme was intensive, allowing participants to immerse themselves in a comprehensive update on IBD management.

Manuel Barreiro-de Acosta © ECCO

The 4^th ECCO Postgraduate Course in IBD was successfully held on-site during the 20^th ECCO Congress in Berlin in February 2025. The course was split into two sessions, with the first session, entitled “Prepare yourself with the experts”, focusing on common complications in IBD practice, which were presented by renowned speakers who are key opinion leaders in the field. The second session, entitled “Case-based discussion with IBD Experts”, was an interactive session with expert panelists, who discussed two vignettes that looked at practical assessment and decision making in the context of complicated Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.

A total of 130 abstracts focused on epidemiology were selected for presentation at the 2025 ECCO Congress, the highest number submitted in this category in recent years.

This growth underscores the importance that ECCO Members and IBD researchers place on epidemiology in deepening our understanding of IBD aetiology, management and outcomes. In this article, we spotlight some of the most noteworthy abstracts that stood out to us during the recent ECCO Congress in Berlin (see graph). 

Murat Toruner © ECCO

Two studies received Best Investigator-Initiated Study Awards at ECCO’25. 

The first study, entitled “Low remission recapture after ustekinumab dose optimization in Crohn’s disease: results of the randomized placebo-controlled double-blind REScUE study”, was led by Peter Bossuyt and colleagues from Belgium.

Congratulations to the winners of the ECCO Fellowships and Grants awarded at ECCO’25 in snowy Berlin this year.  ECCO is investing up to EUR 1.8 million in scientific research. Learn more here about the new projects that will be supported by ECCO in 2025.  At ECCO’25, Berlin, the winners of the ECCO Fellowships and Grants programme received their certificates, presented by Fernando Magro together with Britta Siegmund.

Bram Verstockt is well known to many in ECCO and the wider IBD Community. He is a gastroenterologist at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, Assistant Professor at KU Leuven and outgoing chair of Y-ECCO and he isn’t yet 40! A proponent of precision medicine and intestinal ultrasound, and a great collaborator and friend, we discuss his life and career in this month’s Y-ECCO Interview Corner.