Volume 19, Issue 3

The course is designed to bridge the gaps often found in IBD education during gastroenterology fellowships. It offers advanced fellows a thorough and multidisciplinary exploration of IBD, helping them to deepen their expertise. Additionally, it serves as a vital platform for young clinicians from around the world to exchange knowledge, compare medical practices and build professional networks that can lead to future collaborations. Participation is by invitation, with nominations made by ECCO National Representatives.

At the 2025 ECCO Congress, the educational programme will again include two workshops dedicated to the imaging of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). These workshops, organised in collaboration with the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) and the International Bowel Ultrasound (IBUS) group, aim to educate medical professionals in imaging techniques and their use in the accurate diagnosis and treatment monitoring of IBD patients.

We are pleased to invite you to ECCO 2025, the 20th Congress of ECCO, which will be held in Berlin. As you know, in 2024 the REACH strategy was successfully introduced with the objective of focusing on a single letter each year. In 2025, the focus will be on the letter ‘A’, which corresponds to the objective of Attaining Sustainable IBD Care.

Recent interest has focused on the role of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in IBD. UPFs are foods whose constituent ingredients are of exclusive industrial availability. Across Europe, 30%–60% of energy intake in the diet is from UPFs. Higher intakes of UPFs (especially through consumption of soft drinks, processed meat, salty snacks and refined sweetened foods) are associated with a greater risk of developing IBD, although a meta-analysis demonstrated an increased risk for Crohn’s Disease but not Ulcerative Colitis.

Are we measuring postoperative outcomes that reflect the success of surgical intervention? Are those outcomes sufficiently sensitive to measure the success of surgical intervention? Complication rate, quality of life and disease relapse are frequently used outcome measures but they have drawbacks that must be taken into consideration. Combining these outcomes with objective measurements will provide the best account of the success of a surgical intervention. Why is this important?

The treatment of children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) presents unique challenges, largely due to the complex nature of the disease, the limitations of existing therapies in children and the common off-label use of "newer" agents. Paediatric IBD requires careful management to control inflammation, promote growth and maintain a good quality of life. The treatment armamentarium for IBD in adults has expanded rapidly in the past several years, with the approval of new biologic and small-molecule agents for moderate-to-severe Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD) [1–3].