Committee News

The 75th ECCO Educational Workshop took place in central Tallinn, Estonia on June 6, 2025. The event was organised by the ECCO Office and National Representatives Hendrik Laja and Vadim Brjalin with support from the president of the Estonian Society of Gastroenterology, Karin Kull.

The 76th ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Hungary on June 12, 2025, as part of the Annual Meeting of the Hungarian Society of Gastroenterology. The workshop provided a unique opportunity to discuss questions arising throughout the care of IBD patients, with the participation of renowned IBD experts such as Gionata Fiorino from Italy and Glen Doherty from Ireland. The workshop was co-organised and co-chaired by Tamás Molnár, head of the Gastroenterology Centre in Szeged, and Pál Miheller, head of the Department of Surgery, Transplantation and Gastroenterology in Budapest.

The 77th ECCO Educational Workshop took place at the Lima Convention Center, Peru, on August 29, 2025. This event, the first ECCO Workshop of the year to be held outside Europe, brought together more than 130 participants from different countries of South America and was celebrated during SPED 2025 (Gastroenterology Panamerican Week), which had started on the previous day. The workshop featured interactive discussion on various clinical scenarios and hot topics in IBD.

The 24th IBD Intensive Course for Trainees will be held on February 18, 2026, in Stockholm, just ahead of the ECCO Congress. Since its launch in 2003, this course has become a key part of ECCO’s educational offerings, providing advanced trainees with a focused and high-quality learning experience in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). It continues to serve as a vital stepping stone for young clinicians seeking to deepen their expertise and connect with peers and mentors from across Europe and beyond.

Continuing a well-established tradition, the ECCO 2026 Congress Educational Programme will once again offer two highly sought-after workshops focusing on imaging for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). These workshops, developed in collaboration with the European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) and the International Bowel Ultrasound (IBUS) group, aim to educate healthcare professionals on imaging methods and their application in the accurate diagnosis and monitoring of disease in patients with IBD, in both adult and paediatric settings.

A new ECCO Consensus led by Alaa El-Hussuna highlights challenges and opportunities for improving Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): Journal of Crohn's and Colitis, jjaf125, https://doi.org/10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjaf125. With diverse international authorship and ECCO’s support, the project lays the foundation for reducing global inequities in patient care.

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to invite you to ECCO 2026, the 21st Congress of ECCO, which will be held in Stockholm Messe, Sweden on February 18–21. The ECCO REACH strategy, introduced in 2024, is a five-year plan designed to improve IBD care, with ‘REACH’ being the acronym for five key goals: Rapid diagnosis and treatment, Equitable access to care, Attainment of sustainable IBD care, discovery of Causes of IBD and Holistic IBD care.

Sarcopenia is a complex, multifactorial condition characterised by the progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, independent of body mass index (BMI) [1]. Unlike protein–energy malnutrition (PEM), sarcopenia encompasses a broader pathophysiological process affected not only by inadequate nutrition but also by chronic inflammation, disease-related metabolic alterations, ageing and physical inactivity [2, 3]. The recognition and management of sarcopenia are gaining importance in the field of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) due to its considerable impact on clinical outcomes.

The D-ECCO Travel Award offers IBD Dietitians an opportunity to visit other IBD Centres, to learn about diet and nutrition in IBD. Verena Mëllo was awarded at ECCO’25 and travelled to the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch–anal anastomosis (IPAA) remains the operation that most clearly embodies the surgical promise offered to people with Ulcerative Colitis (UC): remove the diseased colon and rectum, preserve continence and avoid a permanent stoma. The article that we produced as the S-ECCO Board and that will be published in JCC Plus is a narrative review that steps back from technique-by-technique debates and asks a broader question:

Drug-induced mucosal injury (DIMI) of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract can be a major clinical challenge because most agents can cause a variety of clinical, endoscopic and histological patterns of damage while a recognisable pattern of GI injury is rarely specific for a particular drug.

Dear Y-ECCO Friends, Now that the sun is setting on the summer, I hope that everyone has enjoyed a break with friends and family. The Y-ECCO Committee was delighted to host the 3rd Y-ECCO Mentorship Forum in Vienna in June. While we retain the same format each year, rotation of the faculty and delegates means that the forum is always different. We were again supported by many senior members of the ECCO Family, who kindly gave up their time, and the meeting was once more a great occasion and a fine opportunity to come together outside of the congress.

Global evolution of inflammatory bowel disease across epidemiologic stages Hracs L, Windsor JW, Gorospe J, et al. Nature 2025;642:458-66. doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-08940-0

Noninvasive, microbiome-based diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease Zheng J, Sun Q, Zhang M, et al. Nature Medicine 2024;30:3555–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03280-4

Preclinical protein signatures of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis: A nested case-control study within large population-based cohorts Grännö O, Bergemalm D, Salomon B, et al. Gastroenterology 2025;168:741–53. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2024.11.006

Luisa Avedano is widely recognised within the IBD Community as a leading voice for patient representation. She currently serves as CEO of the International European Federation of Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Associations (IFCCA), formerly known as EFCCA, based in Brussels. In this edition of the Y-ECCO Interview Corner, we are honoured to speak with Luisa and gain insights from her inspiring work, her perspectives on IBD research and her knowledge of the vital role that patients play as active contributors to science.

This year, FUNDECCU Argentina celebrates 25 years of commitment to people living with IBD throughout Argentina, supporting care, education, rights and the connection between people with IBD and their families. What began as the dream of a dedicated gastroenterologist has become an organisation with a sustained impact not only in Argentina but throughout Latin America.

The Educational Programme of the 21st Congress of ECCO will commence prior to the official start of the ECCO Congress, and courses will take place from February 18 to 20, 2026.

In June 2023, SciCom selected a joint proposal from Shaji Sebastian (then a ClinCom Member, now a Governing Board Member) and the H-ECCO Chair, Aart Mookhoek, addressing the present and future directions of artificial intelligence (AI) in IBD at the frontiers of imaging (endoscopy, radiology, histology), big data, predictive models, drug discovery and both ethical and regulatory considerations.

During ECCO’25, the ECCO Clinical Research Committee (ClinCom) took the lead in organising two highly engaging and insightful educational sessions: the 6th School for Clinical Trialists and the 1st Educational Course for Industry Partners.