23 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JULY 2014 Editorial | Expert Point of View | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events Canadian Digestive Diseases Week 2014: A Resounding Success! Derek M. McKay, PhD Professor of Physiology & Biophysics University of Calgary President, Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Calgary, AB, Canada Canadian Digestive Diseases Week (CDDW) is the premier activity of the Canadian Association of Gastro-enterology (CAG), and in combina-tion with the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL), caters to the education and research needs of the approximate 1,200 CAG members, CASL membership, and the Canadian “gastroenterologist” in general. This year, the 19th CDDW was held in Toronto (February 8-11, 2014) with a record number of 1,236 delegates in attendance. Recogniz-ing the critical role that trainees play in keeping an organization vibrant, and the need to mentor and educate young clinicians and researchers, the main CDDW program is preceded by the Gastroenterology Residents in Training (GRIT) Program (66 residents), the Scholars Program (33 medical students) and the Research Topics in GI Disease Program (35 ba-sic scientist clinician trainees). These programs are always fully subscribed and the investment in them by the volunteer efforts of CAG members and invited speakers to the core CDDW program pays dividends: we consistently track the movement of many of these trainees into full time clinical practice or careers as clini-cian and basic scientists in Canada, advancing knowledge in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology that will eventually improve peoples lives. The CAG takes great pride in its pro-grams to nurture the next generation of leaders in Canadian gastroenterol-ogy and to provide opportunities for them to become involved with CAG in leadership positions. The quality of CDDW 2014 was simply superb, as gauged by any yardstick: clinical content (e.g. Qual-ity IBD care, GI bleeding) and ‘hot off the press’ critique of new data/ published articles; leading edge basic research as it relates to (i) the microbi-ome, and (ii) aging in GI disease, (iii) long term consequence of inflamma-tion, and (iv) innovative methods to study GI disease; faculty and trainees alike delivered quality presentations. Over a three-and-a-half day period, CDDW delivered 10 key sympo-sia, eight short paper sessions, five breakfast sessions and 25 small group sessions; in all 150 faculty members presented in 70 sessions to clinical gastroenterologists (university- and community-based), clinician scientists and basic scientists. Competing ses-sions were minimal and the program flowed seamlessly, and most notably the one-day post-graduate course blended beautifully gastroenterology and hepatology into three sessions on “gastroenterology emergencies”, “ward rounds: management of common in-patient problems” and “the returned traveler: GI and liver consequences of escaping the Canadian winter”. In all, CDDW provided 85 hours of accredited educational content for the physician. In addition to these activities, there were 300 posters in two poster sessions, addresses from CAG award winners for excellence in education (Dr. Nicola Jones for Education Excellence Award, Dr. Maitreyi Ra-man for Young Educator Award, and Dr. Christopher Andrews for Visiting Clinical Professorship Award) and re-search (Dr. Wallace MacNaughton for Research Excellence Award, Dr. Aleixo Muise for Young Investigator Award, and Dr. Paul Moayyedi for Visiting Research Professorship Award) along with excellent attendance at the re-cently introduced Learning Center. Daniel C. Sadowski, MD, FRCPC, ABIM Assistant Professor of Medicine University of Alberta Past President, Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Edmonton, AB, Canada Dr. Stephen Hanauer delivers the 49th annual McKenna Memorial Lecture.
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