NEWS

Season's greetings from ESGE President
Profesor Ian M Gralnek

Happy New Year! ​

Dear ESGE Family,

As we close out 2023 and ring in 2024, I wish to take this opportunity to wish all of you and your families a very happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

ESGE Days, today without a doubt the premier European endoscopy congress, was a huge success. Taking place in April in Dublin, Ireland, we welcomed more than 3200 onsite attendees and another 700+ online. We are all looking forward to an even bigger and better ESGE Days 2024, which will take place April 25–27 in the vibrant and exciting capital city of Germany, Berlin (www.esgedays.org). ESGE Days is a 3-day congress that is “everything endoscopy” and will once again be offered as a hybrid event. From basic to advanced endoscopy, ESGE Days offers something for everyone involved in GI endoscopy. In addition to the core scientific programme, there will be a postgraduate course, hands-on endoscopy training (both basic and “cutting edge” offerings), an academic skills course, the Research Champions’ Den, the Endoscopy Teachers Toolkit sessions, original research presentations (both oral and poster formats), and of course the not to be missed six hours of LIVE endoscopy from the Sana Klinikum Lichtenberg in Berlin. I am also happy to announce that ESGE will join forces with the German Society for Gastroenterology (DGVS) and their young talent group (JUGA) for several combined sessions. We will also once again be partnering with our 41 member societies, our international partners ASGE, JGES, SOBED, WEO, WIE and our European partners EASL, ECCO, EGEUS and ESGENA for a variety of interactive academic sessions. ESGENA’s hugely successful endoscopy nurse training program “Spring School” will once again be at ESGE Days 2024 as well as other nurse-dedicated didactic sessions in collaboration with the German endoscopy nursing society DEGEA.

I am very happy to report that ESGE’s membership continues to steadily grow, including our trainee members who are the future of European endoscopy. ESGE now has more than 4,300 individual members, with many joining by way of our highly successful Dual Membership programme. In addition, we have just launched a new and updated ESGE Membership platform that we believe will be more user-friendly and will better assist our members.

Also, please let me remind you of our very successful “Fellow” of ESGE (FESGE) designation. Fellowship in the ESGE is an honorary title bestowed upon an individual by the ESGE in recognition of significant professional achievement and superior competence within the field of GI endoscopy through research, professional service, education, and/or clinical care. I invite you to visit www.esge.com/membership/fellow-of-esge/ for more information on this prestigious honorary designation.

ESGE continues to have a very successful “Wednesday Webinar” series. We have added even more endoscopy focused webinars including “Paper of the Month” and “Video and LIVE” endoscopy highlights. Both webinars are highly valued by our members. If you have never attended one of our webinars, you really should. I invite you to check out the ESGE website www.esge.com/elearning/webinars/ for more information and join us online in 2024! Best of all, all ESGE webinars are FREE!

The ESGE Travelling Endoscopy Programme (ESGE-TEP) continues to be very popular with our member societies. The ESGE-TEP… “bringing ESGE to you” aims to strengthen ESGE’s relationship with its 41 member societies and our international partnering endoscopy societies. This educational programme delivers and disseminates ESGE’s guidelines and quality improvement measures, promotes quality and education in endoscopy, and delivers high-level, evidence-based didactic lectures from internationally recognized experts. The ESGE-TEP is not a stand-alone event; it is adjoined to an existing congress/national meeting. In 2023, the ESGE-TEP visited national society conferences in the following locations: Tel Aviv, Israel; Coimbra, Portugal; Liverpool, UK; Paris, France and Thessaloniki, Greece. For more information on ESGE-TEP and how your gastroenterology/endoscopy society can apply for an ESGE-TEP at your national congress, please go to www.esge.com/events/esge-travelling-endoscopy-programme .

Recently, ESGE was invited to participate in a summit on health diplomacy, “Breaking Boundaries: Navigating Health Policy and Diplomacy in Clinical Trials and Bioethics” at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium www.esge.com/post-esge-presents-at-the-european-parliament. We were very honoured to be invited to discuss important issues related to GI endoscopy and how these issues impact patient care in Europe. We discussed topics such as quality in endoscopy, the pending European medical device regulations, “green” endoscopy and sustainability, and diversity and equity!

Last, but not least, kudos to the ESGE Office. We have finally completed the ESGE domicile relocation to Munich, Germany. We have also welcomed Ms. Jennifer Haas, ESGE’s new Executive Director. Jennifer and her team at the ESGE Office are doing an outstanding job! I want to thank every one of them for all their hard work, enthusiasm, and efforts on behalf of the society. Without them, ESGE could not achieve what it is achieving.

Now a few words about some of the exciting things ESGE has planned in 2024. Believe it or not, ESGE will be celebrating its 60th birthday in 2024! In celebration of ESGE’s diamond jubilee year, we will be launching several special programs and events. Starting in January 2024, each month in the journal Endoscopy, the ESGE’s official publication organ with the highest impact factor in the field of GI endoscopy, we will feature a special article as part of a series titled “ESGE – Celebrating 60 Years of Advancing Quality in GI Endoscopy!”

We will also be launching an entirely new and wide-ranging online e-learning platform called the ESGE Academy. The ESGE Academy will provide our members with a structured, searchable, and user-friendly online platform that provides access to all ESGE’s electronic educational content. This will include ESGE Days lectures, live endoscopy demonstrations, all past ESGE webinars, ESGE Days congress abstracts, ESGE publications including guidelines, position statements, curricula, technical reviews and quality improvement documents. We believe the ESGE Academy will be an extremely valuable tool, especially for our younger colleagues.

ESGE will also be introducing the Next Generation Award. This award, to be given for the first time at ESGE Days 2024, shines a light on the most promising and emerging young investigators in endoscopic research. I invite anyone interested to apply. Information on the Next Generation Award can be found at www.esge.com/esge-grants-and-awards/esge-next-generation-award .

And now for a teaser… ESGE will launch a very special in-person educational program in 2024 called the “ESGE Endoscopy Camp”. However, the details of this new program are still under wraps, so you will just have to wait until ESGE Days 2024 to find out more! We hope you will want to be a part of all these exciting ESGE events in 2024!

On perhaps a less exciting, but equally as important note, in 2024, ESGE will revisit and update its strategic plan that was initially developed and launched in 2019. The strategic plan is vital to the society and allows ESGE to better serve our member societies and our individual members. ESGE’s strategic plan is available for ESGE members on the society’s website (www.esge.com/about-us). ESGE’s vision as a society is to work together to provide to our community the professional tools to provide optimal patient care through high quality GI endoscopy. Our mission is to continuously support education, training, and innovation towards that vision. ESGE’s strategic plan provides a 5-year roadmap that will better guide ESGE in promoting and improving quality in endoscopy, further improving our highly cited society publications (e.g., guidelines and curricula), and providing new and cutting-edge educational programs, both online and face to face. These activities are only possible due to our very active and dedicated Governing Board and ESGE committees and working groups.

In closing, I am truly honoured and humbled to be the President of ESGE and once again, on behalf of the ESGE Governing Board and the ESGE Office, I wish you and your families a happy and healthy New Year!

Ian M. Gralnek
ESGE President