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WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS OCTOBER 2018
Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2018 | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events
Helen Toouli, Wojciech Marlicz, Katarzyna
Marlicz, Govind Makharia, Jim Toouli, Guilherme
Macedo, and Aasma Shaukat.
The other great individual’s experience
we can lean on is Ismar Boas who was
the founder of gastroenterology as the
medical sub-specialty and created the
first, and still active, journal devoted
to this field. Boas, apart from his
research activities and busy medical
practice, managed to provide training
in gastroenterology and attracted
hundreds of physicians to his medical
center. Francis Avery Jones is another
great physician, gastroenterologist and
superb diagnostician who had great
impact on medical practitioners of his
time and on future generations. Sheila
Sherlock, a British physician, great
educator and inventor of the contemporary
field of Hepatology, was a great
leader attracting trainees from all over
the world who followed the path of a
leader in their field.
Nowadays it is perhaps more difficult
to find such a great leader to
follow. Moreover, expanding bureaucracy
and emotional exhaustion
are the main reasons for frequent
burnouts among contemporary medical
practitioners. While learning from
the past and looking into the future
we may ask: “Do we need to become
the leaders? Are we born as leaders or
is this skill acquired and comes to life
with experience and training?”
The answer is not that easy, unless
you had a chance to attend and
experience World Gastroenterology
Organisation (WGO) Train the Trainers
(TTT) courses. These courses have
already attracted more than one thousand
gastroenterologists from around
the world and are really unique in
their structure and character. I already
had a privilege to attend full week,
basic WGO-TTT in Taipei, Taiwan in
2015, as one of three representatives
from the Polish Society of Gastroenterology.
The most recent WGO-TTT
advanced workshop took place in Porto,
Portugal last June, 2018 and was
hosted by the Portuguese Society of
Gastroenterology (PSG). This two-day
advanced course devoted to leadership
and management. I would like to echo
my experience on time spent in Porto
with other participants of this event.
This course was facilitated by great
leaders and experts in their fields. We
were honored to share the experience
with Prof. Guilherme Macedo,
group leader of our Portuguese hosts;
WGO presidents: Professors Cihan
Yurdaydin (Turkey), Naima Amrani
(Morocco), Jim Toouli (Australia) and
other faculty members - Professors
Jack DiPalma (USA), Kelly Burak
(Canada), Susana Lopes (Portugal),
Jean Christophe Saurin (France) and
Pedro Moutinho-Ribeiro (Portugal).
The program was very intense and
covered important aspects on what
leadership is.
Similar to the standard four-day
WGO-TTT course’s educational
program, we were engaged in problem
solving of various issues, such as
dealing with the difficult colleague
and the difficult trainee, managing
conflicts, communicate effectively,
taught to deal with quality assurance,
resource allocation and budgets. All
these topics were intensely worked
out in big group and in smaller teams
through vivid discussions. We were
divided into four groups, named after
UNESCO World Heritage sites in
Portugal: Vale do Côa, Porto, Guimarães
and Alto Douro Vinhateiro.
The teamwork created unique occasions
to master our interpersonal skills
and build long term friendships.
Networking throughout the course
with colleagues, leaders, directors,
great teachers and physicians from
different parts of the world was a
truly inspirational experience. These
two WGO-TTT courses definitely
changed my way of functioning. I
have learned to manage my time more
effectively, listen, and make a crisp,
clear synopsis and present it to the audience.
Moreover giving and receiving
feedback also was viewed as a great
tool in my teaching carrier. Of great
importance one could not feel the
difference between participants and
faculty who facilitated the course in a
perfect and professional manner.
As summarized by Prof. Jim Toouli,
the leadership is about communication
and a good leader is a good story
teller. To be a good leader one must
master the art of communication. This
TTT course was exactly that. Despite
the fact that most of us just met at the
course, we, however, competed and
collaborated as well as an old team.
Most of all I would like to express
my gratitude to TTT Porto staff,
without whom this meeting would
not be possible – Caley Mutrie and
Krystal Antrim-Jones from WGO
(USA) and Andreia Neto and Luis
Maco from PSG (Portugal). This
and other TTT courses are definitely
in line with the old saying: “Don’t
walk behind me; I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me; I may not
follow. Just walk beside me and be
my friend.” I am looking forward to
collaborating further with WGO and
all its members.
View of the River Douro in Porto after TTTWGO,
June 2018 meeting