The core aims of the ESCP Research Committee are:
- To deliver better care for patients through the promotion and support of clinical and translational research in all areas of coloproctology
- To broaden engagement of ESCP members across all countries in clinical and translational research
- To develop platforms and infrastructure support for international studies
- To make the ESCP the leading global organisation for multinational colorectal surgical research
To deliver these core objectives, the committee will:
- Provide an annual symposium to promote new European trials
- Provide resources and support for core training in basic trial design and methodology for its members
- Develop a network of trained clinicians to facilitate multi-national randomised trials and cohort studies
- Support language translation of trial protocols and submission, through ‘ethics committees’, of multinational trials between our European partners
Research Committee Update, September 2024
Thomas Pinkney, Chair of Research reports
The Research Committee and Cohort Studies & Audits Committee have had a good year, with both ongoing audit and cohort studies, as well as further outputs coming to fruition and analysis. Research continues to form a key component of ESCP activities on the international stage.
The EAGLE trial was published and was very well received this past year - the Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Surgery described it publicly as “one of the most important papers he had handled in the past 20 years”. Both the findings of the trial, as well as the methodology utilised therein, will impact upon surgical research for many years to come.
We have successfully completed the first phase of our major new project into surgical site infection and abdominal wall closure - a project called WOLVERINE. The audit results are currently under analysis; the full prospective cohort phase will go live in the coming months. This will benefit from our five-year journey in the development and delivery of studies with direct patient-level consent and prospective and contemporaneous patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). We now have a robust and secure system for international data collation and transfer, with outcomes questionnaires delivered to patients in their native language. This was created for the original PROPHER (parastomal hernia treatment) study, which has now completed its pilot phase and we are now rolling out into the full international study. The methodology will be utilised in the upcoming CRAFT study (fistula-in-ano) which is currently in the late design phases.
We continue to work with several industry partners in a mutually beneficial manner, exploring anonymised patient level data on treatment and outcomes, aligned with our ongoing or mutual research activities, across a variety of colorectal specialty areas.
Last year saw the highest ever number of submissions for our International Trials Results sessions at the conference in Vilnius. This year in Thessaloniki we are pleased to be presenting five major RCTs in our plenary forum on Wednesday 25th September. We have also seen a year-on-year improvement in the quality and quantity of projects submitted by our members for presentation at the ‘New Trials Symposium’. This year is no different and the committee struggled to narrow down submissions to the six we will discuss during this session on the Thursday morning. The Cohort Studies session (Wednesday pm) promises to be interesting, with the presentation of three new areas for possible upcoming ESCP research activities. Finally, we will offer a ‘Research Ideas Workshop’ drop-in session in Thessaloniki where members can informally discuss their fledgling research proposals and obtain advice on how to convert them into a successful study or trial. This may include guidance and input into research design, methodology, outcome measures, deliverability or routes to multicentre engagement. Our team of experienced surgical trialists, methodologists and patient representatives will aim to provide friendly input and counsel during this relaxed session.
I believe that we are further delivering on our ambition to involve the whole membership in research activities, and the selection, delivery and promulgation thereof. I again actively welcome any society member to contact myself, James Keatley as ESCP research manager, or any other member of the research or audit committees if you have ideas on how we can better serve this aim and the wider ESCP community.