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).

Pascal Juillerat  © ECCO

Henit Yanai  © ECCO

The 17th Intensive Advanced IBD Course took place before the ECCO Congress as the highlight of the educational programme, which runs in conjunction with the Congress.

This well-known course, which has been held regularly almost since the inception of ECCO, took place once again at the 14th Congress of ECCO, attracting a full attendance from Europe and beyond. Overall, 87 doctors from 41 countries participated and were treated to a comprehensive update on IBD. 

Marieke Pierik © ECCO

The mission of the Epidemiological Committee of ECCO is optimisation of epidemiological research methods in Europe. During the ECCO Congress in Copenhagen, EpiCom said goodbye to Laurent Beaugerie and Nynne Nyboe-Andersen. We greatly thanked them for all their contributions to EpiCom and welcomed two new members from two different countries: the Netherlands and France.  

John Mansfield © ECCO

The ECCO Clinical Research Committee (ClinCom) organises The School for Clinical Trialists as a half-day workshop at the ECCO Congress. This year the topics covered were: The Evolution of Trial Design and How to Optimise Recruitment to Clinical Trials. 

Krisztina Gecse © ECCO

It was our pleasure to welcome three new members, Laurent Beaugerie, Peter Bossuyt and Shaji Sebastian, onto the Clinical Research Committee of ECCO at the ECCO’19 Copenhagen Congress.

Sebastian Zeissig © ECCO

Mechanisms and therapeutic modulation of mucosal healing in IBD 

We saw one of the best-ever attended SciCom Workshops this year, with exciting talks and highly interactive discussions around the topic of mucosal healing in IBD. In two sessions, the mechanisms of intestinal regeneration and its disruption in IBD and novel approaches to the clinical assessment and therapeutic modulation of mucosal healing were discussed.