ESGE Newsletter

Abstract

At GASTRO 2009 ESGE and OMED were jointly responsible for the endoscopic content of the London congress. Together, the two societies organized the numerous events at the Learning Area that began on Saturday noon with the Hands-on-Training on Biologic Models. In cooperation with ESGENA and with the support of corporate sponsors this operating theatre offers delegates the opportunity to perform various endoscopic techniques with personal doctor and nurse tutoring. The techniques included basic ERCP, EMR, upper and lower GI endoscopy, polypectomy, hemostasis, and use of short wire systems. In previous years the hands-on-training has been a main attraction in the Learning Area, and this year again all six 90-minute sessions were fully booked. A total number of 360 delegates were able to benefit from the volunteer expertise of the tutors and the generous support of the ESGE and OMED corporate partners on the weekend. Because the interest in hands-on-offerings was so strong, the ESGE and OMED wanted to extend practical educational training, and were happy to be able to involve additional industry partners in hands-on-presentations from Monday to Wednesday. The focus of these work-stations was on clip treatment, advanced GI endoscopy, ablation techniques on Barrett's esophagus and laparscopic and endoscopic simulator training. These sessions were open to all delegates on a walk-in basis. The seats were filled in the Lecture Theatre for all 15 talks given from Sunday to Wednesday. The objective of the small-forum speeches is to create a classroom scenario in which top experts in their fields present a topic before a small audience and encourage immediate discussion.