European Society for Coloproctology had a highly successful year in 2017, reaching its highest ever number of members and hosting its largest yet Annual Meeting in Berlin.
In 2018 we will build on these successes and hope to make this September's Meeting in Nice even better by bringing together more surgeons from across Europe to share best practice and make new connections. The call for abstract submissions will open on 1 March and this year we expect to receive over 1,000 submissions. Registration for Nice opens in April but you can view more details of the programme here.
We’ll also continue our educational programme with Regional Masterclasses see European experts share their knowledge and skills with surgeons across the continent. Firstly there is the Management of Colon Cancer Masterclass in Stockholm on 12th April and on 15th November a Masterclass will take place in Rome (topic TBC).
The other strand of our education offer to members is our ESCP Fellowship Programme. Every year we arrange Fellowships across Europe, as well as to Japan and Korea. In 2017 we added a new Robotics Fellowship for the first time, and hope to repeat the process again later this year. Find out about applying and read about our 2017 Fellows’ experiences in Japan and Korea.
Last year some of our highlights were launching our newest digital innovations, the International Trials Map and the ESCP App, as well as ramping up the society’s online presence on social media. Our online monthly topic initiative has been a key part of delivering more to our members on a year round basis, as we put a focus on sharing resources relating to a different condition or procedure each month. Complementing this project, our Research Committee also selects one recent significant colorectal paper per month to help members keep up to date with the latest scientific developments.
The International Trials Map is an interactive map and highlights research trials at the cutting edge of coloproctology research. It is aimed at encouraging participation in research and to inspire best practice through collaborative working around the world. If you’re working on multi-centre international trial, we would welcome your input through our submissions form.
The ESCP App was created to improve our members’ experience of being part of the society. Through the App our members can receive updates direct to their phones year round with the latest developments from the society, as well as access to our expansive resource library on the go.
2018 will also bring new research opportunities for members to get involved in. Building on the success of our previous three international snap-shot cohort studies, which captured data from over 11,000 cases in 2015-2017, ESCP plans to start three new cohorts this year. The first of these will be the International Audit of the Management of Acute Colitis. For this study we hope to actively engage with gastroenterology colleagues, to try and capture patient-level data on the inpatient management of patients with colitis across the world. More details will be coming soon.
With so many exciting projects going on and our membership growing, now is the time to join our European community. We look forward to meeting you in 2018!