The Scientific Programme of the 15^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 Wednesday to Saturday, February 12-15, 2020, the Scientific Programme is structured around basic science, translational medicine and clinical sessions. Additionally, it includes oral presentations of the 40 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!

Nuha Yassin  © ECCO

Ignacio Catalán-Serra © Ignacio Catalán-Serra

For this second issue of ECCO News in 2019, we would like to continue to review the excellent scientific content presented at the recent annual ECCO´19 annual meeting held in Copenhagen.

We would like to focus our attention this time on the contribution of the Y-ECCO Members, summarizing the five Y-ECCO Abstract Awards for this year, as well as to provide a comprehensive review of the ten awarded digital oral presentations (DOP).

We hope that this representation of high-quality research combining epidemiological, basic and clinical aspects of inflammatory bowel disease is of interest for a wide range of ECCO Members and helps encourage and inspire future innovative work.

Report on the main feedback and questions from the delegates

At the 14^th Congress of ECCO, the UR-CARE Team received positive feedback from delegates who tried UR-CARE at the UR-CARE Training Centre. Most delegates were very satisfied with the ease of use of the platform and pleasantly surprised that it was free for physicians. Having a standardised platform among the different centres was also very welcomed. People were impressed by the possibility of creating personalised reports of their patients and of having access to a statistical module with the use of desired filters (a timesaving and major asset compared to Access or Excel databases).

Johan Burisch © ECCO

Every two years, Y-ECCO arranges a workshop addressing topics about career and skill development for young researchers and physicians. We thereby aim to address important topics that are not fully covered during the rest of the ECCO Congress. This year the workshop took place for the 11^th time, with the overall topic being modern career-enhancing skills. 

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. 

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.

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.