In the first of a series of interviews with key speakers from this year’s ESCP annual meeting in Nice, we spoke with ESCP President Ethem Geçim, about the highlights of this year’s programme and what attendees can expect.
Prof. Geçim is looking forward to the conference:
“The ESCP Annual Meeting is a highlight in the colorectal surgery calendar as we unite experts in coloproctology from around the globe. It’s a wonderful opportunity to strengthen collaboration and hear about the latest research and advances within the field.”
This year’s conference will be held at the Acropolis Convention Centre, located in the bustling city centre of Nice. The programme is filled with high-profile coloproctology speakers discussing the latest research and techniques in the field over the course of three days.
Keynote lecture topics include ‘Strategies to Reduce Surgical Site Infection’ with Marja Boermeester (Netherlands), ‘Management of Para-Aortic and Lateral Pelvic Lymph Nodes in Colorectal Cancer’ with Petr Tsarkov (Russia) and ‘Microbiomic and Metagenomic Influences on Colorectal Patients’ with John Alverdy (USA).
Other well-known speakers featuring in the programme are renowned geneticist, Prof Sir John Burn, Michael Seres, a key patient advocate and Johan Askling, a prominent voice on data in surgical research.
As Prof. Geçim says:
“This year’s programme will be very varied and I’m very happy that there will be a wide spread of speakers from across Europe and beyond. I am sure the comprehensive content of the meeting will mean we’ll see an even higher attendance in Nice than we had in Berlin last year.”
Prof Geçim is particularly keen to see more Eastern European surgeons becoming ESCP members and attending conference this year: “Eastern European countries have been under-represented in ESCP in the past. In the last year, we have put a real focus on encouraging maximum involvement from Eastern Europe across all ESCP activities.
“Economic times have been tough in Eastern European countries. That’s why I really encourage those surgeons to think about becoming ESCP members, firstly to take advantage of the better rate for conference registration, but also to gain free access to online resources including the Coloproctology Manual and Colorectal Disease Journal.”
As well as his President’s Address to conference, Prof Geçim will also chair the ‘Best Publications of the Year’ session, which will highlight the most significant research papers of the last 12 months before deciding on the best.
“Almost every academic surgical department around the world will submit abstracts to ESCP so the standard for this award will be very high. I am sure there will be several excellent papers to be discussed but we can pick only one of them as the best. It will be a hard decision - that’s why this is the session I am most looking forward to in Nice.”
Joint Symposiums
Other key attractions this year will be the joint symposia sessions held in conjunction with other leading European societies. These will be delivered in partnership with the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery (EAES) and the European Hereditary Tumour Group (EHTG) bringing together the very best experts in these interconnecting specialties. Prof. Geçim says: “The combination of veteran speakers will provide delegates with an extremely high quality of discussion and I suspect these assemblies in particular will be very popular.”
More hands-on educational courses
Prof. Geçim highlighted this year’s expanded schedule of pre- and post- congress hands-on educational courses as a key development in the 2018 programme.
The courses in Advances in Treatment of Cryptoglandular Fistulas and Operative Techniques for the Prevention and Repair of Parastomal Hernia are particularly aimed at younger surgeons and offer a brilliant training opportunity to learn from leading European experts in these areas including David Zimmerman and Dieter Hahnloser. For more experienced surgeons, post-congress there will be a TAMIS course for delegates looking to develop their skills with the latest technology.
Keeping connected
The conference will be paperless. The official ESCP app will therefore again be invaluable. It provides users with instant access to the latest on the programme as well as key resources such as news, monthly topics, Fellowship information, Cohort Study updates and much more.
“The app is an essential tool to keep all delegates up to date with a wealth of information over the course of the paperless conference. The app was launched ahead of the conference last year and it is the first global coloproctology society app which is easily downloadable from the app stores,” explains Prof. Geçim.
Find out more and register for the ESCP 13th Annual Meeting in Nice 26-28 September 2018
