ESCP President’s Greeting
It is my great pleasure and honor to serve as your president of ESCP 2019-2020. It is a great privilege to be able to jump on this locomotive of a train riding uphill at downhill speed. Over the previous years ESCP has been carved into one of the most important colorectal societies of the world delivering a menu of top-class annual meetings, lots of educational activities during and apart from the annual conference, high end collaborative research, colorectal guidelines developed using the most thorough methodology and fruitful partnership with brother and sister societies and industrial partners.
If national surgical societies do not provide a colorectal qualification, the European certificate can be obtained by taking the EBSQ colorectal exam. With the EBSQ colorectal diploma in the pocket one can discriminate oneself from all other self-proclaimed colorectal and general surgeons. All these fantastic achievements are the work of the various ESCP committees led by colorectal heroes and manned by gut driven crews. And the future is bright. Young members organised in the Young ESCP are infiltrating all committees by supporting, learning and getting ready to follow in the footsteps of their mentors.
But there is always a bucket list. Although the ESCP might seem a European organisation, one of the targets is to create a global impact by exploring collaboration with old and new colorectal societies. Bonds with ASCRS are strengthened, and Per Nilsson kicked off trying to get the Latin American societies involved. During his presidency several colorectal societies in the far east such as China, Korea and Japan have committed to formally associating and joining the forces and the global vision.
Collaboration in research, educational activities and the creation of joint guidelines can benefit all of our colorectal societies. Reaching out beyond Europe will remain an important goal in 2020.
A new focus for 2020 will be to enhance a more balanced representation and participation of men and women in all facets of our organisation, with a true engagement to recognise and promote the high number of bright and dedicated women and to support making more of them into leaders in our society. This will start with a campaign specifically motivating women to step forward and making the society more inviting and attractive for women to join, by providing space for them to become more responsible and involved.
An additional topic, that I am proud to make you aware of and is along these lines, is the revision of our constitution and rules, that are somewhat outdated. In this process we will ensure constitutional improvement of the geographical imbalance and open our doors to global partners.
Fueled, energised and satisfied by another fantastic colorectal meeting in Vienna we already look forward to the next 15th ESCP meeting held in the beautiful 12th century city Vilnius in Lithuania. The program is already being discussed by our excellent educational, research, guidelines and programme committees. Last but not least, you should already mark a 'save the date' for the Tripartite meeting the 9-12 November 2020 in Auckland, New Zealand, when six colorectal societies meet. An excellent occasion to broaden your and our colorectal vision, enjoy a holiday and above all be proud of ESCP!
Willem Bemelman, ESCP President
ESCP Secretary’s Message
The programme for Vienna 2019 is fantastic and covers the cutting-edge of education and research in colorectal surgery! The meeting has exceeded expectations regarding registrations and new membership, this is now the 'must attend' event for colorectal surgeons from all over the world! ESCP is becoming more and more global and this has been the special focus of our current president Per Nilsson. We have active representation from 38 European countries and a further 35 from around the world!
Our education committee has revolutionised the existing templates and offers hands-on training and proctoring (also remote) for evolving procedures such as CME, taTME and continent ileostomies. Robotics is exponentially gaining importance and ESCP with the newly established ESC (European School of Coloproctology) in partnership with industry is striving to overcome learning curves by leaping to immediately deliver high-quality procedures after qualified, intense training courses – for the benefit and safety of our patients. A new educational tool launched in July, we have partnered with ASCRS and can now offer the very didactic platform of CREST to our members, a platform that is continuously being updated and developed.
Improving quality of care on a global level has always been the aim of ESCP and has triggered educational and research activities. The research committee has launched impressive studies – the cohort studies are recruiting at a breath-taking speed and delivering evidence to direct clinical care. The Y-ESCP has played a pivotal role in making this happen and we are delighted to see a fantastic group of “young and thirsty” colorectal surgeons evolving, that work with the spirit of global collaboration. Social Media, especially SoMe4Surgery with major involvement of ESCP members has contributed to paving the way for global activities. The newly launched EAGLE study on anastomotic leaks, a combined research and educational endeavour will enhance quality of colorectal surgery globally and deliver insight to the most disrupting situations, we all must face at some time or another. As a global study, ESCP hopes to make a difference and reach out to geographically underprivileged regions – watch this space!
The masterclasses in the past year have enjoyed excellent attendance and we encourage you to consider hosting one, especially in countries that have not yet grasped this opportunity. We are looking forward to European and Global masterclasses in 2020 – among others in China! ESCP has an agenda of guidelines and among other ongoing projects is about to release taTME guidance recommendations and gene and gender recommendations for Lynch syndrome. The concept of dynamic guidance is timely in the light of fast-moving targets and will guarantee most up to date guidelines versus outdated ones requiring tremendous formalities to adapt to published evidence that changes the scene.
ESCP has established grants and educational opportunities for its members. The refurbished website and social media have greatly increased our outreach Watch our space on the website, for regular updates on what is going on and which opportunities are available. Find our latest news, education tools, research projects, and social links so that we can all promote and develop communication in the worldwide colorectal community. We wish to extend a warm welcome to all our new members and encourage them to help shape ESCP!
In 2019 the incoming president Willem Bemelman in addition to the ongoing global expansion will focus on improving gender imbalance in our Society and as such in the colorectal surgical arena. The metrics for previous years is on the table and will lead to a campaign directed towards improving gender and geographical imbalance. A thorough revision of our societal constitution is underway and will be finalized with membership input at our next meeting in Vilnius 2020.
Gabriela Möslein, ESCP Secretary
