Report on the 5th Basic ECCO: EduCational COurse for Industry
Krisztina Gecse, ClinCom Chair & Peter Bossuyt, ClinCom Member
 Krisztina Gecse© ECCO |
 Peter Bossuyt© ECCO |
The ECCO Congress offers an ideal opportunity to learn, share and interact. This was also the main purpose of the 5th Basic ECCO: EduCational COurse for Industry, held on Wednesday, February 12, 2020. The course aimed to provide corporate and non-corporate members who have recently entered the field of IBD with an introduction to IBD, focussing on the clinical essentials and ‘need-to-knows’. 104 participants from 23 countries attended the course.
The course opened with a personal introduction on what IBD means for a patient and how it impacts daily life. This introduction reflected on the need for healthcare providers to focus not only on the clinical aspects of the disease but also on what matters to patients. In attempting to provide optimal care for patients with IBD, one should aim for an equal contribution of the patient and the healthcare provider in the decision-making process. During the first session, the pathogenesis and diagnosis of IBD were discussed, emphasising that treatment planning should be based on correct diagnosis taking into account the extraintestinal manifestations and the risk factors for complicated disease. It was pointed out that the cornerstone of optimal care is a multidisciplinary approach whereby gastroenterologists, surgeons, nurse specialists and patients work towards common goals.
In the afternoon the course focussed on the expanding therapeutic armamentarium and how these options can be used in an optimal and safe manner. Over the last decade we have gained greater insight into how to implement treatment strategies with biologicals. However, in the absence of sustained remission in a significant proportion of patients, the talks emphasised that the quest for new drug compounds with different modes of action needs to gather pace. After the coffee break, three challenging clinical scenarios were discussed in a medical–surgical interface session, each case being considered by both a surgeon and a gastroenterologist. In perianal fistulising Crohn’s Disease, ileocecal resection in Crohn’s Disease and pouch surgery in Ulcerative Colitis, correct timing of medical and surgical therapy is essential, which underlines the role of the multidisciplinary team in decision making in IBD.
At the end of the course the spotlight was on the unmet needs of patients with IBD, in the hope that in the future these unmet needs will be further addressed through co-operation between health care professionals and industry in order to optimise patient care. Next year, ClinCom will welcome delegates to the 5th Advanced ECCO: EduCational COurse for Industry on February 21, 2021, in Berlin, where precision medicine and orphan populations will be the focus of interactive discussions.
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