Spyros Siakavellas © Spyros Siakavellas

Dear ECCO friends and family,

It is my pleasure to introduce the ECCO National Representatives of Portugal Helena Tavares de Sousa and Samuel Fernandes. We had an intriguing discussion on a wide range of topics such as the challenges of treating IBD in Portugal, how GEDII their national IBD group helps with clinical management but also research projects, what Portugal is doing right in producing a lot of inspiring figures in Gastroenterology that lead the European Gastroenterology Organisations like ECCO president-elect Fernando Magro, but also for their respective areas of research interest namely intestinal fibrosis for Helena and transmural inflammation for Samuel and much more!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spyros Siakavellas
ECCO News Associate Editor

Dear colleagues,

Welcome again to a new episode of the JCC Podcast in ECCO News!

We know that there is a "window of opportunity", where starting an effective therapy can improve outcomes in Crohn´s disease. This is also the case for early introduction of anti-TNFs but, how early should we start it to change the natural history of the disease?

To answer that question, we are featuring a brief conversation about the article Early intervention with biologic therapy in Crohn´s disease: how early is early? recently published in JCC, with first author Joana Reves from Portugal.

We hope you find it interesting and useful for your clinical practice!

Thanks for joining us.

Best regards,

Ignacio Catalan-Serra

Dear ECCO Friends,

Welcome to this new episode of the Meet the JCC Authors Podcast!

Here, we interview the rising star of intestinal ultrasound (IUS), Michael Dolinger from Mount Sinai Hospital (NY, US), about his recent article in JCC entitled: “Early intestinal ultrasound response to biologic therapy predicts endoscopic remission in children with ileal Crohn's Disease: Results from the Prospective Super Sonic Study”.

We discuss the increasing use of IUS as a tool to predict response to therapies in treat-to-target strategies in both children and adults and how it can identify those patients who will achieve endoscopic remission. In addition, we talk about Michael’s journey and the introduction of IUS in the United States, the learning curves, the future of IUS in IBD, new technologies and much more.

We hope you enjoy it!

Ignacio Catalan-Serra
ECCO News Associate Editor

Spyros Siakavellas © ECCO

Dear ECCO friends and family,

It is my pleasure to introduce the ECCO National Representatives of Malta Martina Sciberras and Pierre Ellul. We had a great discussion on a variety of topics such as the challenges of treating IBD in Malta, how working with a small but excellently followed cohort of patients can be a strength, how the Maltese Group of IBD is not only importing all newest developments such as intestinal ultrasound but also paving the way for younger colleagues to train and hone their skills abroad and much more!

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spyros Siakavellas
ECCO News Associate Editor

Spyros Siakavellas © ECCO

Dear ECCO friends and family,

It is with great pleasure that I am sharing with you our discussion with the ECCO National Representatives of Latvia Jelena Derova (former National Representative) and Aleksejs Derovs. During our stimulating talk we touched upon the challenges regarding the diagnosis and access to advanced treatment of IBD in Latvia and the efforts of the small but tightly knit gastroenterological community there to promote knowledge about IBD in primary care and society in general. Furthermore, we conversed about the differences in training and managing complex cases between countries in Eastern and Western Europe and how ECCO could help countries such as Latvia in that aspect!

Enjoy!

Spyros Siakavellas
ECCO News Associate Editor

Dear ECCO colleagues

We are delighted to bring a different colour to our Autumn edition of ECCO News interview corner as we meet and get to know another talented JCC author.

Nora Vladimirova is a Rheumatologist working in Copenhagen who has worked collaboratively within her unit and including the Gastroenterology one to answer important research questions regarding peripheral joint and enthesis involvement in newly diagnosed IBD patients. We hope you enjoy the discussions in both visual and podcast formats and we hope you read the full paper for more details. 

Nuha Yassin

ECCO News Associate Editor

Dear ECCO friends and family,

Welcome to this interesting discussion with Dr. Tian Hong Wu first author of the exciting paper “Natural History of Crohn’s Disease Leading to Intestinal Failure: A Longitudinal Cohort Study from 1973 to 2018”. We had a great talk highlighting the most important aspects of her seminal work but also about the relevance of intestinal failure as a serious complication of Crohn’s disease, the opportunity to prevent it and how the latest developments in treatment and follow up in IBD might help this.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Spyros Siakavellas

ECCO News Associate Editor

Ignacio Catalán-Serra © ECCO

Dear ECCO Friends,

Welcome to a new interview with the National Representatives!

This time, Germany´s turn, one of the leaders in IBD in Europe. We had the pleasure to talk with Raja Atreya and Dominik Bettenworth in a wide-rage conversations covering aspects on the current status of IBD care in Germany, current Research Projects of the German IBD Society, collaboration with ECCO and potential areas of improvement.

Lastly, we exchanged impressions on the advancements in the pathophysiology of IBD, a look into the future of IBD and to the ECCO 2025 Congress in Berlin.

We hope you enjoy it!

Ignacio Catalán-Serra
ECCO News Associate Editor