25 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JANUARY 2015 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2015: AGW/WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events European Finest at UEG Week Vienna 2014 Joost PH Drenth, MD, PhD UEG Chair National Societies Committee Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Nijmegen, The Netherlands This year Vienna hosted one of the biggest European events in Gastro-enterology, the United European Gastroenterology Week (UEG Week). 13,000 delegates from 118 countries assembled to witness the newest developments in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology. The excitement was palpable and the progress in some therapeutic areas has been breathtaking. The UEG Week was in its 22nd year and held at the Austria Center Vienna, Austria, from October 18-22, 2014. The Opening Plenary Session at UEG Week Vienna 2014 honored those who have contributed most to the advance of gastrointestinal diseases. Rebecca Fitzgerald from the Medical Research Council, Cancer Cell Unit Cambridge (UK) was this year’s recipient of the UEG Research Prize 2014 for her pioneering work in early detection methods for esopha-geal cancer. She devised a particularly ingenious tool that allows non-endo-scopic sampling of esophageal cells and allows for screening of esophageal cancer. She has driven this project from conception and brought it into routine clinical practice. Professor Manns, from Hannover, Germany, highlighted the enormous advances in the field of hepatitis C. Only a few years ago cure from hepatitis C was only possible in a subset of patients against a huge cost in terms of side effects. Manns mentioned a few of the pivotal clinical trials that have been published in the last two years. These trials represent a watershed in the field in that a short course of oral treatment is able to cure almost all patients, a perspective that was unthinkable a few years ago. An interesting development was the entry of the tandem talk that literally bridges clinical and basic research. Silvio Danese, from Italy, and Simon Travis, from the UK, were going from bench to bedside and back in minutes in order to see which new treatment strategies need to be developed to benefit patients with inflammatory bowel disease. One of the highlights at UEG Week 2014 was the publication of a major pan-European survey into the burden of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and the delivery of care. Until recently the changing trends in many important GI and liver diseases and inequalities in the provision of healthcare services in Europe had not been mapped previously. The survey, aptly termed the “White Book,” had been commissioned by UEG, and it highlights major differences between countries in terms of both the risk of developing GI disorders and their long-term health outcomes. This book will serve as an entry point for efforts to minimize differences in healthcare outcomes for patients between East-ern and Western nations. The UEG Week is all about net-working and meet and greet. Young gastroenterologists who have formed a Young GI Network conceived the idea of creating a Young GI Lounge at UEG Week in Vienna. For many participants this was the meeting spot at this year’s congress and a very lively space. Young gastroenterolo-gists could sign up for a tour with a seasoned gastroenterologist. This was a very popular event and helped young participants to discover UEG Week at its fullest while getting acquainted with their peers. This is certainly an innovation that will see further devel-opment in 2015. This year’s congress saw the intro-duction of E-poster terminals and the highly interactive Posters in the Spotlight gallery with poster terminal UEG Research Prize Recipient 2014, Rebecca Fitzgerald. Networking at UEG.
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