Abstract
Where do you go when you need to find something out? Before the Internet, the natural answer would be a library. And now? Although the Internet has undoubtedly changed our perception and use of traditional libraries, digital libraries have come to the fore, and no longer is our learning limited simply to written information.
UEG’s Education Library plays to the strengths of the digital era, providing a resource of more than 20,000 items, including abstracts, posters, recordings and guidelines. Whether you need to prepare a presentation or simply want to brush up your knowledge of a specific topic, you need look no further than this ‘one-stop shop’ of high-quality specialised educational material. With the ‘Bookmark’ tool that’s available, library items can also be bookmarked and viewed via the ‘My learning’ page in the myUEG section of the website (to use this feature you need to sign in to myUEG).
Most recently the UEG Education Library has become home to the pdfs of the new “Mistakes in …” educational series, which was developed by the UEG E-learning team in conjunction with the UEG Education Committee. The “Mistakes in …” series was the brainchild of Web Editor Tomer Adar, whose vision it was to provide professionals with specialist tips and knowhow that go beyond textbook knowledge. These articles focus on mistakes that are frequently made, but also on infrequent mistakes that have a high clinical impact. At the time of writing, two “Mistakes in …” articles have been published – one on coeliac disease diagnosis by Umberto Volta, Giacomo Caio and Roberto De Giorgio, and the other on dyspepsia by Mark Fox. There are many more of these articles scheduled for the coming months, so do keep a lookout for them.
And your education doesn’t have to stop at the UEG Education Library! Indeed, digital versions of the ‘Mistakes in …’ articles are available via the ‘Latest News’ section of the UEG Education website. Here you can also find timely and topical blogs in addition to ‘Journal Watch’ and ‘Decide on the Spot’ articles.
‘Decide on the Spot’ articles first present a scenario and then pose a question designed to test the reader’s knowledge, with the answer and discussion posted online the following week. We’ve been publishing clinical cases for quite some time now, but new for 2016 are basic science ‘Decide on the Spot’ articles, the first of which was published in February and generously contributed by Jakub Fichna.
For 2016, the ‘Journal Watch’ section is undergoing a redesign, so watch out for the new format appearing soon! In general, these articles are short summaries highlighting recently published important and interesting papers and explaining what makes them noteworthy. The papers are put into context, with discussion of the main findings, the positives and/or negatives and the required next steps.
As always, the main focus for the UEG E-learning team during 2016 remains the UEG online courses, which can also be found via the UEG Education website. Once signed in to myUEG the courses can be freely accessed. The first of our new courses – “Benign focal liver lesions” and “A primer in capsule endoscopy” – went online ahead of UEG Week 2015, and in January this year they were awarded 1 ECMEC each by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) European Accreditation Council for CME (EACCME). We have more courses planned throughout the year, on a variety of topics, and I would encourage you to try them out to see what they have to offer you. Just as expert authors and in-depth editorial input are essential for producing a quality journal such as the United European Gastroenterology Journal, they are also vital for the production of quality courses, which is what we strive to deliver!
The high standards we aspire to for our online courses extend to all of the content we make available via the UEG Education website, so I hope this will persuade you to explore the educational material available at your fingertips the next time you visit www.ueg.eu/education.