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Gastroenterologie
a hepatologie

Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Gastroent Hepatol 2019; 73(1): 82–83. doi:10.14735/amgh201982.

First European Conference of Young Gastroenterologists – ECYG

Ivana Mikolašević1

+ Affiliation

From 6th to 9th December 2018, Zagreb hosted the First European Conference of Young Gastroenterologists (ECYG). It was organised by the Croatian Society of Gastroenterology and its Youth Section and was endorsed by the European Association for Gastroenterology, Endoscopy and Nutrition (EAGEN), European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESMN), European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN), European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB), University of Zagreb and University of Rijeka, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University of Rijeka School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences of University of Rijeka, Croatian Medical Association, as well as by Croatian Ministry of Health, Croatian Parliament and the President of the Republic of Croatia.
The conference assembled gastroenterologists in training and young specialists of up to 40 years of age from across Europe and beyond, in total more than 600 participants from 39 countries.
With the moto: LEARN, CONNECT, GROW, the aims of the conference were to improve the knowledge and training of young professionals in the GI (gastrointestinal) community and to stimulate and strengthen the international cooperation through great networking opportunities during the  event.
The scientific part of the conference was tailored to the needs and preferences of the young generation in gastroenterology: case-based learning with evidence-based data for the management of GI diseases. The core programme was delievered in pair-talks: a young GI fellow presenting a challenging clinical case followed by up-to-date evidence-based knowledge presented by a senior expert in the subject field (Fig. 1). The evaluation from the ECYG smartphone application indicated that attendees as well as faculty members ranked this concept highly showing it to be of great value to the conference.
The scientific quality is also reflected through 260 accepted conference abstracts, and the presentations and discussions during two poster sessions revealed high quality research and case reports from young GIs across Europe, with some securing their first opportunity to present their work.
The main topics of the conference were – update in hepatology and liver transplantation, microbiota, functional GI disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, clinical nutrition, GI oncology and education of young gastroenterologists.
Alongside the theoretical part, ultrasound and hands-on endoscopy was organised. Ultrasound training covered basic and advanced abdominal ultrasound, Doppler, elastography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound for liver diseases. Five stations of hands-on endoscopy covered GI bleeding, polypectomy and EMR (endoscopic mucosal resection), ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography), EUS-FNA (endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy) and ESD (endoscopic submucosal dissection). During the conference, the ESPEN Life Long Learning Programme (LLL) ‘Nutritional support in GI disorders’ was organised where delegates were able to acquire knowledge about clinical nutrition in the context of gastroenterology and  hepatology.
Czech Republic and Slovakia were representend by the eminent professors Ľubomir Skladany, Milan Lukas and Pavel Trunecka, who served as faculty members by delivering distinctive lectures and boosting discussions in sessions they chaired (Fig. 2–4). Apart from faculty members there were young colleagues from Czech Republic and Slovakia who attended the ECYG conference.
In addition to the scientific part in the evenings there was a social programme for all the participants. On the first night there was a ‚Croatian dinner‘, a buffet with traditional Croatian food which was served on a large Croatia-shaped table. Each part of the table with its dish represented one of the Croatian regions (Fig. 5). On the second night our guests had an opportunity to visit a world famous Zagreb Christmas market, considered to be the best in Europe for the last three years. To bring the conference to a close, there was a gala dinner on the last evening at the Sheraton hotel.
We hope that the ECYG project will continue with its successful lectures, workshops and scientific section and that even more young gastroenterologists will have the opportunity to attend the conference (Fig. 6).

Asst. prof. Ivana Mikolašević, MD, PhD
Department of Gastroenterology
UHC Rijeka, School of Medicine
Rijeka, Croatia
ivana.mikolasevic@gmail.com


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