St Mark’s IBD Team and the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation

Many members of St Mark’s IBD Team contribued to the 10th Congress of ECCO; which took place from 18-21 February 2015.

Dr Ailsa Hart (Director of the IBD Unit) presented in the plenary session on “the microbiome in the pathogenesis and therapy of IBD”.

Mr Omar Faiz (Colorectal Surgeon) presented  in the plenary session on “surgical alternatives to biological therapy”.

Ms Marian O’Connor (Consultant Nurse – Inflammatory Bowel Disease) presented  in the plenary session on “the role of the IBD nurse in multi-disciplinary management”.

Many members of the team are also involved in the committees which plan activities: Mr Janindra Warusavitarne (Consultant Surgeon) is a member of Surgical-ECCO; Dr Ailsa Hart is a member of the Clinical Committee of ECCO; Marian O’Connor was previous chair of Nursing-ECCO. Dr Naila Arebi (Consultant Gastroenterologist) continues to contribute to the Epidemiology committee of ECCO.

Many of the research fellows attended and presented their work, and particular congratulations to Dr Ryan Choi who presented his original research and was awarded a “best abstract award” for his work “Forty year analysis of colonoscopic surveillance for UC reveals decreasing risk for interval and advanced cancer and a reduced colectomy rate for dysplasia”. Dr Mayur Garg, having been awarded an ECCO Fellowship between Melbourne and St Mark’s (supervised by Dr Hart), presented his data on the effect of vitamin D on the intestinal microbiome in patients with UC. Ms Nuha Yassin presented her data in the Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop “Gut microbiome immune system interactions as an aetiological factor in fistulising perianal Crohn’s disease”. Dr John Nik Ding was awarded an ECCO grant for his work on metabonomics in IBD, supervised by Dr Hart.

In addition many members of the team were involved in the education programme at the meeting. Dr Hart taught at the “Advanced course on “The microbiome in IBD”. She also taught at the N-ECCO school on “Medical management of IBD” and “nutritional therapies for IBD”. She taught in the S-ECCO masterclass on the “transition of young people with IBD” and in the “Educating Industry” session on “How is care organised?”. Dr Arun Gupta taught on the use of MRI in IBD. Dr Mayur Garg taught in the N-ECCO school.

Over 20 posters were presented by the team. Mr Alan Askari (supervised by Mr Faiz) presented his work on survival in IBD related colorectal cancer in an oral presentation, Dr Rakesh Vora (supervised by Dr Hart) presented in an oral presentation his data on effects of enteral nutrition on immune cell function in children with IBD, Mr Pritesh Morar (supervised by Mr Warusavitarne and Faiz) presented his work on multi-disciplinary teams in IBD and surgical data in Crohn’s disease in poster presentations, Ms Nuha Yassin (supervised by professor Phillips and Dr Hart) presented some of her work on perianal Crohn’s fistulas in poster presentations, Dr Ravi Misra (supervised by Dr Arebi) presented his work on IBD in migrant Asians, Dr Ryan Choi (supervised by Dr Hart) presented more of his data on progression of dysplasia in IBD, Dr Phil Hendy and Dr John Nik Ding (supervised by Dr Hart) presented their data on outcomes of dilatation for Crohn’s strictures, Dr Akbar contributed to the data on adacolumn for UC in a poster presentation  and Ms Marian O’Connor presented her data on her audit of the IBD nurse help-line.