ECCO News

ECCO News keeps ECCO Members up-to-date on what is going on within the organisation and reports on IBD activities taking place within Europe. Since Spring 2006, ECCO News has maintained the flow of information between Members of the organisation. 

ECCO News is an important part of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation’s ambition to create a European standard of IBD care and to promote knowledge and research in the field of IBD. 

Editor & Associate Editors

Edouard Louis
© ECCO

Nuha Yassin
© ECCO

Ignacio Catalán-Serra
© ECCO

Brigida Barberio
© ECCO

Spyros Siakavellas
© ECCO

Latest ECCO News Content


18December2023

Defining the role of the IBD Dietitian

Julie Vanderstappen, D-ECCO Member

Julie Vanderstappen
© ECCO 

As a D-ECCO Committee Member, it is my mission, along with my fellow D-ECCO’ers, to educate and train other dietitians and healthcare professionals in the field of IBD. Also, with dietary therapies and beliefs still growing and consolidating their place in the prevention and treatment of IBD, there is an emerging need for skilled dietitians to guide our patients in the different nutritional pathways throughout their disease. But what makes a dietitian skilled in the field of IBD?

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, D-ECCO

18December2023

N-ECCO Travel Award Report - Goedele Dewitte

Goedele Dewitte, ECCO Member

General information

Name: Goedele Dewitte

Occupation: Nurse Consultant IBD

Observation period: 24–28 October, 2022

IBD location: St. Mark’s Hospital, Central Middlesex, London

Local Supervisor at St. Mark’s: Prof. Hart and ANP-IBD Nurse Madhoor Ramdeem

Supervisor at current IBD unit, Ghent University Hospital: Prof. Lobaton and Dr. Geldof


Goedele Dewitte
© Goedele Dewitte

Background

St Mark's Hospital in London is the only hospital dedicated solely to gastrointestinal pathology. It includes a reference IBD unit, a world centre of excellence for endoscopy (Wolfson unit) and an intestinal failure/rehabilitation unit. Both the endoscopy and the intestinal rehabilitation unit work in harmony with the IBD unit to optimise the care for tertiary and complex IBD pathology.

This observational internship was intended to increase insight into the organisation of a tertiary, high-volume IBD reference centre from the nursing point of view.  

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, N-ECCO

18December2023

Introducing Johan Burisch as a new GuiCom Member

Torsten Kucharzik, GuiCom Chair

Torsten Kucharzik
© ECCO

GuiCom has developed important and world-wide recognised guidelines on the Diagnosis and Management of IBD. In order to create standardised guidelines of the highest quality, regular rotation and recruitment of highly experienced candidates is crucial. It is my great pleasure to introduce Johan Burisch, who will become a new GuiCom Member at the beginning of 2024. Johan was selected from a large group of excellent applicants for this position.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, GuiCom

18December2023

Report on the 73nd ECCO Educational Workshop, Bucharest, Romania

Mariangela Allocca, EduCom Member


Mariangela Allocca
© ECCO

The 73rd ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Bucharest, Romania, on September 23, 2023. The workshop focused in the first session on specific clinical scenarios, including the management of acute severe ulcerative colitis, complicated Crohn's disease, and postoperative monitoring, and then addressed challenging and hot topics in the second session, such as treatment escalation and de-escalation and drug-associated side effects.  The interest of the topics covered stimulated several interactive discussions, providing a platform for networking and exchange of innovative ideas.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, EduCom

18December2023

Report on the 72nd ECCO Educational Workshop, Cartagena, Colombia

Natália Queiroz, EduCom Member


Natália Queiroz
© ECCO

The 72nd ECCO Educational Workshop occurred in Cartagena, Colombia, on September 14th, 2023, uniting participants from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The workshop featured interactive discussions on different clinical scenarios emphasizing the multidisciplinary approach and state-of-the-art lectures on hot topics in IBD.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, EduCom

18December2023

Letter from the e-Learning Ambassador

Pascal Juillerat, e-Learning Ambassador

Pascal Juillerat 
© ECCO

Dear ECCO Members,

Greetings to you and your families! I am sure you are all looking forward to the holidays and spending some quality time with all your loved ones.

Here is a recap to the changes made to the e-Learning platform this year: we have added new and exciting content for you to browse through, including the updated the e-Library with all the latest Abstracts and Presentations from the ECCO’23 Congress, and to check out a list of specially curated list recorded Educational Courses.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, EduCom

18December2023

Empowering Patients: Insights from the 7th EpiCom Workshop

Sophie Restellini, EpiCom Member

Sophie Restellini
© ECCO

At the upcoming ECCO’24 Congress in Stockholm, the Epidemiological Committee (EpiCom) will hold its 7th Workshop on Wednesday, February 21.

In the dynamic landscape of healthcare, patients are now assuming a pivotal role beyond their traditional status as care recipients. They are emerging as active partners, capable of contributing invaluable insights to medical research. The theme of the 7th EpiCom Workshop will be "The patient as an Epidemiologist", and the workshop will aim to shed light on the empowering potential of patient involvement, underscoring the significance of utilising appropriate tools to assess clinically relevant outcomes. Moreover, it will emphasise the pivotal role of digital tools in enabling patients to directly contribute to the research process.

Posted in ECCO News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, EpiCom

18December2023

Global IBD Collaborative Research

Shaji Sebastian, ClinCom Chair and Murat Toruner, ClinCom Member


Shaji Sebastian 
© ECCO

Murat Toruner
© ECCO

In the past, IBD was believed to be predominantly a disease of the Western world. However, recent studies have shown a rapidly increasing incidence of IBD in newly developing areas such as the Middle East, South America and Asia. By the middle of this century, the prevalence of IBD in low and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs) and newly industrialised nations may surpass that in the West. At the same time, the compound prevalence in the Western world and increasing health care costs will add to the challenges in IBD care. As a result of these epidemiological trends, IBD is projected to be an increasing global health burden.

Posted in ECCO News, ECCO'23, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, ClinCom

18December2023

Report on the D-ECCO Travel Award 2023

Alicja Ewa Ratajczak-Pawłowska, D-ECCO Travel Award Awardee

Alicja Ewa Ratajczak-Pawłowska
© Alicja Ewa Ratajczak-Pawłowska

As a result of my D-ECCO Travel Award, I was able to spend time at the San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome during January 2023. There I collaborated with a team at the IBD Unit, UOC Gastroenterology. During my stay, I summarised the studies on nutritional determinants of bone mineral density among patients with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis which my colleagues and I had conducted in the previous year. I collected data from food frequency questionnaires and laboratory tests, including with respect to calcium, vitamin D, folic acid and homocysteine levels. Additionally, I started planning future research on the impact of MTHFR gene polymorphism on folic acid and homocysteine status and on bone mineral density in patients suffering from IBD. I also had the opportunity to learn about the standard of care for IBD patients in Italy.

Posted in ECCO News, SciCom, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News

18December2023

Final Report, ECCO Grant for Margarita Papatheodoridi

Margarita Papatheodoridi, ECCO Grant Awardee

Deciphering the bioactive role of extracellular matrix fragments (matrikines) in Crohn's Disease (CD) fibrostenosis as potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers


Margarita Papatheodoridi  
© Margarita Papatheodoridi

Background & aim of research

To evaluate the in vitro effect of selected novel matrix-derived peptides (matrikines) that specifically appear in the intestinal tissue of patients with Crohn’s Disease (CD) fibrostenosis on primary human intestinal myofibroblasts (iMFBs).

Posted in ECCO News, SciCom, Volume 18, Issue 4, Committee News, Fellowships & Grants Synopsis Reports