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WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS APRIL 2018
Editorial | Expert Point of View | WCOG at ACG 2017 | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events
jectives of WGO. Meetings of WGO
represent just a complementary or a
secondary objective.
Main objective of WGO:
We all know that the world is not
a perfect place. Not all countries
and their inhabitants share the same
wealth, and they do not have the same
health infrastructure and educational
possibilities and equalities. WGO tries
to influence here and aims to provide
training and education in gastroenterology
to those in need. For this WGO
uses unique instruments such as the
Training Centers (TCs) and the Train
the Trainers (TTT) initiatives. TCs
and TTT are educational tools.
WGO’s educational activities totally
differ from the educational activities
of national and regional gastroenterology
organizations. WGO TCs offer
gastroenterology and hepatology
training of various durations from
weeks to up to 2 years in places with
reasonable health and medical infrastructure
to physicians in close vicinity
and where sometimes formal gastroenterology
and hepatology training
does not exist. TTTs are designed to
disseminate teaching skills to those
gastroenterologists and hepatologists
who hold training positions in their
own countries. TTT participants are
equipped with both skills and tools
which they can then implement on
their home ground. Our world congresses
and regional meetings are only
a part of these educational efforts.
Further, WGO prepares its own
guidelines on various topics in
gastroenterology, which differ from
the ‘state of the art’ guidelines of
the American, European and Asian
Pacific Guidelines. In variance with
the latter guidelines, WGO guidelines
use a cascade approach, which takes
into account the health and medical
infrastructure of various regions and
thus provide unique insight especially
in those countries where ‘state of the
art’ recommendations are not easily
applicable. With a truly international
and very well selected faculty from
top leaders in the field to top experts
of various countries and regions, our
cascade approach is a blend of real
life experience and expert wisdom.
Another unique aspect of the WGO
guidelines and cascades is that they
have been translated into six languages,
free to all via the WGO
website. Currently, the full library is
available in English, French, Mandarin
Chinese, Portuguese, Russian
and Spanish. It is also important to
mention within the Guidelines group
the “Ask a Librarian” Service which
provides free of charge literature
searches requested by gastroenterologists
worldwide and made available
to those countries with poor access as
defined by HINARI criteria.
WGO’s imperative for education
is built upon the engagement of all
represented in the organization. We
extend an invitation to our colleagues
around the world to share with us, either
directly or through your national
society, your thoughts and comments
about your particular area of interest
within training and education.
And to those of you who may wish
to join a committee of the WGO to
further your interest in promotion
of gastroenterology and hepatology
education through TTTs, TCs or
guideline development, or to join any
of the WGO committees and interest
groups, we would like to hear from
you. All inquiries may be directed to
the WGO Secretariat in care of our
executive director at cmutrie@worldgastroenterology.
org.
WGO needs to be strong
WGO is a world organization comprising
globally more than 100 member
societies and more than 50,000
gastroenterologists and hepatologists.
While a world organization, there is
a special interest based on its mission
towards those in need for gastroenterology
and hepatology training and
education, and with it to the “third
world” as these countries are most in
need of education of our discipline.
The training centers (TCs) are a
perfect tool for training as the way they
function and their logistics embody
a natural barrier against brain drain
towards industrialized countries. TCs
need, therefore, to be supported and
nurtured with special attention. This
goes along with support for trainees
and the WGO leadership has achieved
a great deal in this regard in recent
years. It is imperative to mention here
the contribution of the WGO Foundation,
which needs to go through a difficult
and bumpy path in explaining the
mission and functions of WGO and
finding funding for these very good
intentions. It goes without saying that
WGO needs to continue and further
extend its firm financial standing to
achieve these goals.
WGO needs to be interactive:
WGO functions through the WGO
Executive Committee (EC) and
the Governing Council (GC). The
EC meets through monthly teleconferences
comprising of the pastpresident,
the secretary general, the
treasurer, the president-elect and the
president; every second month the
Council of Chairs (CoC) and every
third month the members of the GC
are joined in these tele-conferences.
The GC brings together the chairs
of various committees and interest
groups of WGO. These are the Clinical
Research, Guidelines, Publications,
Scientific Programs, Training Centers
and Train the Trainers Committees,
and the Endoscopy, Other Procedures
and Outreach and Hepatology Interest
Groups, in addition to representatives
of regional organizations (AMAGE,
APAGE, OPGE and UEG) and
the Representative for the Promotion
of Education and Training in the Asia-
Pacific Region.
While these tele-conferences are
important and helpful in running the
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