Abstract
The UEG was formed with the idea to advance standards of gastroenterological care and knowledge across Europe and the world. The organization has successfully mobilized a large team of highly motivated European gastroenterologists that contribute to this ambitious goal with the critical support of the UEG secretariat in Vienna. They organize the ever more popular UEG Week, the new UEG Journal, the UEG e-learning program and a range of highly interactive courses that target different aspects of preparing the next generation of gastroenterologists to improve health care and lead the field into unchartered territory.
Four courses currently target young and aspiring clinicians and scientists with an interest in gastroenterology from across continental Europe and the North African Mediterranean countries. The basic science course is an annual course that brings together basic and translational scientists to exchange ideas and get practical training in laboratory techniques. A successful new practice course was started in 2011 by an enthusiastic faculty led by Pascal Berberat. The course focuses on understanding Evidence Based Medicine and how it can be applied in daily practice. Here I want to highlight the Summer School and Young Investigators Meeting.
The Summer School, a European curriculum for gastroenterology trainees
The UEG Summer School was started in 2004 and organized by ASNEMGE until it was adopted in the UEG portfolio in 2012. The Summer School traditionally takes place in Prague and has the ambition to provide a four year curriculum in which major topics in gastroenterology and hepatology will rotate. It is possible for a trainee to attend multiple courses. In 2013, we had 161 participants from 32 different countries. The Summer School is an intense three day clinically-oriented course that combines plenary interactive case-based learning sessions in the morning with hands-on workshops in small groups in the afternoon. The plenary sessions start with a case presented by one of the trainees, is laced with key pad questions to the audience and facilitated by a moderator that goes around with a microphone to ask for the opinion of the participants. Interspersed in the case discussions are two expert lectures on the topic by leaders in the field. Thanks to our sponsors that have supported the course over many years, in the afternoon you can learn how to perform a state-of-the-art colonoscopy using a simulator, perform real polypectomies and deal with a very convincing upper GI bleeding using real tissue models. There are courses in abdominal and endoscopic ultrasound and Ph-metry and motility studies. This year Joost Drenth successfully developed a novel model to learn how to perform lege-artis ultrasound guided punction of a liver mass (olives and liver compliments of the kitchen staff). Importantly, the Summer School is more than a place to learn, it is also a place to interact with the staff and make friends with your future colleagues from all over Europe and its neighboring countries. It is a place to relax after a hard day of work at a joint dinner, including the now traditional song festival, and meet in the famous Bombay Bar in the heart of the exciting Prague city center. Not surprisingly, many of the participants stay in contact with each other long after the course via the Summer School Facebook page or at the annual UEG Week.
The Young Investigators Meeting, preparing the next generation of UEG rising stars
The Young Investigators Meeting (YIM) is another former ASNEMGE course now enveloped in the UEG mother organization. This course is given by former UEG ‘Rising Star’ awardees and targets young clinicians and basic scientists that are in the beginning stages of their research career. The course typically hosts around 30 young researchers from around 15–20 different countries. Traditional lectures are kept to a minimum during this course. Instead, the participants work on practical assignments in small groups to enhance their skills in designing and presenting research projects. Kate Fleming, faculty member from Nottingham, introduces the basics of statistical analysis. She has the unique capacity to make statistics fun and easy to understand and consistently gets some of the highest scores for her lectures and exercises from the students. The students will construct their own research plans and critically appraise research articles. In another exercise, they will be given the figures from a paper published in a major journal and have to write and present the abstract together under some time pressure. It is amazing to see how well many of the groups perform at this exercise with abstracts that sometimes rival the original. As with the Summer School it is great to see how many of the students enter the course somewhat shy and often insecure about their English language skills. Most exit with increased confidence about their skills and possibilities and the start of their own European network of friendships. We've witnessed again and again that these friendships are lasting and the participants meet with faculty and each other throughout the years.
Gijs R van den Brink
Course Manager:
UEG Trainee Course – Summer School and
UEG Research Course – Young Investigators Meeting
Gastroenterologist and Professor of Experimental Gastroenterology
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Important dates and deadlines
Research Course - Young Investigators Meeting
28–30 March 2014 House of European Gastroenterology, Vienna, Austria
Apply online until 6 January 2014
Trainee Course - Summer School
5–8 June 2014 Hotel Crowne Plaza, Prague, Czech Republic
Apply online until 7 February 2014
Basic Science Course - Hot topics in experimental GI cancer
17–19 July 2014 Munich, Germany
Application will open soon.
For more information on UEG courses visit: http://www.ueg.eu/education.