The Society hosted several Educational Sessions for trainees in colorectal surgery at this year’s meeting in Milan. We talked to Professor Dieter Hahnloser (University Hospital Lausanne, Switzerland) about the aims and highlights of some of the sessions…
“Education has three crucial elements: technical skills, knowledge and judgement. The first formal Educational Sessions began two years ago at the ESCP Meeting in Barcelona,” said Hahnloser. “The Education Committee of the ESCP designs these Educational Sessions at the meeting so they incorporate the curriculum of the European Board of Surgical Qualification (EBSQ) in Coloproctology, and it is hoped that the entire curriculum will be covered within four years.”
In Milan, education will again be at the forefront of the meeting. To help teach technical skills the ESCP will host Video Sessions and the popular Ultrasound Course with live demonstrations (supported by BK Medical). To improve judgement and decision-making trainees can attend the Interactive Workshop and Expert Round Table sessions, and to increase knowledge the ESCP have organised the Authors’ Workshop, the Best Publications and the Core Subject Update sessions.
On Wednesday 28th September, the Core Subject Update Session will include presentations on haemorrhoidal disease (Alexander Herold, Germany), guidelines on abdominal Crohn's (Willem Bemelman, The Netherlands), AIN (Daniel Dindo, Switzerland), colorectal neuro endocrine tumours (Steven Wexner and Mariana Berho, USA) and the management of the abdominal wall (Marja A Boermeester, The Netherlands)
In addition, there will also be a session entitled ‘Activities in coloproctology around the globe’ that will examine the management of Lynch syndrome in a resource constrained environment (Paul Goldberg, South Africa) and a fistula clinic in Ethiopia (Fekade Ayenachew Aklilu, Ethiopia).
There will also be a session on ‘How to start to engage online and future developments in surgical social media’ in which several speakers will discuss the perils and pitfalls, as well as the advantages, of social media. In particular, how social media can be used to improve clinical practice (Julio Mayol, Spain) and help connect trainees across the world (Edward Fitzgerald, UK).
On Thursday, the Trainee Video Session will inform trainees on the Essential anatomy in TME (Ahyan Kuzu, Turkey), intra-operative bleeding and management during laparoscopic surgery (Dursun Bugra, Turkey), abdominal wall treatment (Neil Smart, UK), what to do and not what to do with anal sepsis (David Zimmerman, The Netherlands) and stoma (Harald Rosen, Austria).
“At this years’ Expert Round Table Session, Dr Feza Remzi (USA) and Dr Carlo Ratto (Italy) will present a clinical case on fulminant toxic colitis and haemorrhoidal disease, respectively, and instead of asking the whole audience of their opinion, the attendees will sit together with an expert at tables in small groups and discuss the case,” explained Hahnloser. “This allows every attendee to become involved and ask any questions in a closed discussion.”
The Interactive Trainee Workshop, which includes case presentations, interactive voting on questions and review of the literature, will examine this year: internal rectal prolapse (Pierpaolo Sileri, Italy), malignant polyps - colorectal (Mark Potter, UK) and colorectal trauma (Hugh Gallagher, UK).
On Friday, trainees can gather information on the EBSQ Examination and listen to two presentations on mock examinations, as well as witness a debate on one of the current controversies in colorectal surgery – Robotics (Pro - Paolo Pietro Bianchi, Italy and contra - Steven Wexner, USA).
“As well as the Educational Sessions at the annual meeting, the Society also has several additional facilities to aid trainees, such as funding different types of Fellowships – one month, three months and six months. I would like to encourage all members who are interested in offering a fellowship to contact the Education Committee of the ESCP for more information,” he added. “As a Society, we are also aware of the need to share and disseminate knowledge, so we are continually uploading educational materials to our website (www.escp.eu.com). Also on the website, there is a comprehensive contacts database, so if a trainee wishes to specialise in faecal incontinence they can contact the key centres in Europe who specialise in this subject and ask advice or enquire about fellowships etc.”
“The ESCP Meeting is the largest colorectal meeting in Europe that offers trainees the chance to listen to, and interact with, colorectal experts, as well as network with their peers in a relaxed and enjoyable environment,” he concluded. “I look forward to seeing you all in Milan.”
