Abstract
UEG Week is the largest and most prestigious meeting of its kind in Europe, and many consider it to be the best digestive diseases meeting in the World. It features the latest advances in clinical management and the best research in GI and liver disease, and includes several different kinds of symposia and fora, where cutting edge gastroenterology and hepatology is being discussed. The UEG Week is the place to be for clinicians as well as for researchers, as the programme includes all aspects of our specialty, ranging from basic science to clinical practice guidelines. Next year the meeting will be held in the Austria Center Vienna (ACV) October 18--22, and we plan to expand our focus on delegate interaction, as UEG recognises that audience interaction is key to taking valuable knowledge back to the hospital and putting it to use.
In 2014, there are several highlights in the programme, as well as some new features, and I would like to draw your attention to some of these:
We will launch a clinically oriented one-day symposium within the meeting, entitled “Advances in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology”, focusing on an area where substantial progress has been made during recent years, which has changed the clinical practice. In Vienna, this symposium will deal with digestive oncology, a very active area, where we now have substantially more to offer our patients in terms of diagnostics and therapeutics, compared to five years ago. “Therapy updates”, where the current state-of-the-art treatment options in some of the major GI and liver diseases are presented, is another new feature in 2014. In Vienna, “Therapy Updates” on irritable bowel syndrome, biologics in inflammatory bowel disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, oesophageal cancer, therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound, and viral hepatitis will be included in the programme. I am confident that these updates given by experts in the respective fields will be highly valuable to practicing clinicians. As previous year we will offer live endoscopy sessions, one of the most popular features of UEG Week, which is reflected by the impressive number of attendees during these sessions. We are lucky to have the world leading experts in endoscopy running these sessions also during the 2014 meeting, which guarantees their high quality. In Vienna, the number of National Societies symposia will be expanded, where differences and similarities in clinical practice, epidemiology, guidelines etc. in different parts of Europe will be presented and discussed. In 2014, these symposia will focus on helicobacter pylori, clostridium difficile, and liver transplantation – all important topics in our everyday work. For the 5th year we will have our two day “Today’s science; tomorrow’s medicine” initiative in the programme of UEG Week, and in 2014 the theme will be “The Immune system – a driving force in digestive health and disease”. I can assure you that the preliminary programme really looks stunning! Immunology is certainly a field of research where basic and translational science findings have found their way into clinical practice, and this will likely be even more true during the coming years. Top class scientists have been invited to give you the evidence that immunology is an important area for all of us working in GI. In order to attract a larger group of basic and translational scientists to our meeting, an increasing number of basic/translational science sessions have be included in the programme in Vienna compared to previous years. This has been done without affecting the clinical programme negatively regarding number of sessions or quality. The idea with these sessions is to include topics that potentially will affect clinical practice within the foreseeable future, thereby being attractive for both basic/translational scientists and for clinicians. The two-day postgraduate course will have an improved format with more interactivity, introducing new formats, including for instance smaller break-out sessions based on case discussions. Furthermore, for the postgraduate course, a curriculum is currently under development in order to ensure that all clinically important topics within GI, liver and pancreas are covered within a three- to five-years period. This will make the postgraduate teaching programme even more attractive to visit on a yearly basis for experienced clinicians as well as for trainees. The future of the meeting is the young attendees! My goal is to make the meeting an even more attractive meeting place for young gastroenterologists and scientists. In Vienna, there will be a “Young GI track”, where sessions of special interest for fellows will be highlighted in the programme, and a mentoring programme for young gastroenterologists and scientists will be launched in 2014. Last, but not least, the most important feature of our meeting is the science and we continue to try to attract the best science to our meeting, and we think that we have been very successful in achieving this. This is recognized in our programme with a large number of sessions devoted to original research, and an impressive abstract area, where researchers and clinicians meet and discuss science. We will continue with our generous awards and prize scheme in order to attract the best researchers to our meeting, with a special focus on the young scientists.
As you can easily understand from this, UEG Week is the place to be for you! See you in Vienna 2014!
Highlight these dates for UEG Week Vienna 2014 in your calendar
• 9 December 2013: Opening of abstract submission
• 22 April 2014: Deadline for abstract submission
• 15 May 2014: Deadline for early bird registration fee
• 11 July 2014: Deadline for late breaking abstract submission
• 10 September 2014: Deadline for late registration fee