Letter from the Executive

Dr Jerome Waye, OMED President-Elect

Welcome to the OMED newsletter which will be published once monthly and sent via email. The newsletter is intended to be both informative and educational. In addition, we will have a link to videos from live endoscopy courses presented by one of the OMED Centers of Excellence. The videos will be available on a cumulative basis for everyone to access without charge for educational purposes. You will find them on the OMED website in the new Video Library feature under the Resources page. OMED is eager to share news and information about endoscopy and keep you up to date on related events and programs. I look forward to seeing you all in visits throughout the world. and receiving further information that we can publish.

 OMED Endoscopy Directors’ Workshops and ADEC

OMED Endoscopy Directors‘ Workshop, Santiago November 2008

OMED has had a very productive year in 2008 with several successful programs that were conducted throughout the year in partnership with several national societies. The OMED Endoscopy Directors' Workshops took place in four different locations around the world including Dubai, UAE; New Delhi, India; Brasilia, Brasil and Santiago, Chile. They provide participants with the knowledge required to organise their endoscopy service, to develop their own protocols, quality assurance and training. In 2009 OMED has three workshops planned in Marrakesh, Morroco; Damascus, Syria and Taipei, Taiwan.

OMED Endoscopy Directors‘ Workshop Faculty, New Delhi September 2008

Along with the educational initiatives of the Endoscopy Directors' Workshops OMED has introduced another workshop called Advanced Diagnosis in Endoscopy Course (ADEC). With the support of Olympus these courses have taken place in Dubai, UAE; New Delhi, India; Sydney, Australia and Perth Australia. This course focuses on endoscopic technology and practices for diagnosis in the upper and lower GI tract as well as small bowel. Participants are also able to review recorded cases illustrating advanced upper and lower GI endoscopy. In 2009 ADEC courses are planned in Cairo, Egypt and Taipei, Taiwan.

 ECCO/OMED Small Bowel Endoscopy Consensus Report

ECCO/OMED SB Endoscopy Faculty, Brussels, December 2008

OMED had the opportunity to partner with the European Chrons and Colitis Organization (ECCO) on a consensus project on the management of IBD in the small bowel. Experts from around the world served on a faculty who met in Brussels in December 2008 to form an international position paper which was presented at the ECCO Congress, Februray 5-7, 2009 and the final draft to be presented at Gastro 2009 in London, November 21-25, 2009.

» View Topics and Faculty here

OMED will collaborate on another consensus project in 2009 with ESGE and the Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology concerning sedation in endoscopy. For more information on either of these projects, please contact the OMED Secretariat at
secretariat@omed.org.

 OMED Showcase: Centers of Excellence

Professor Sung and his staff receiving the Centers of Excellence Plaque from Professor Anthony Axon, OMED President. Pictured from the left are Dr. Philip Chiu, Expert in Endoscopic Submucoal Dissection, Dr. Simon, Chief of Colorectal Surgery, Prof. Tony Axon, President OMED, Prof. Joseph Sung, Director, Institute of Digestive Disease, Dr. Enders, Chief of Upper GI Surgergy and Dr. James Lau, Director of Endoscopy.

The OMED Centers of Excellence is an elite group of endoscopic centers that have established an outstanding reputation for delivering International education in the field of digestive endoscopy.

Two additional endoscopy units were named OMED Centers of Excellence in 2008: Professor K.L. Goh's Endoscopy Unit at the University of Malay, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Professor Friedrich Hagenmüller's endoscopy unit at the Asklepios Klinik Altona in Hamburg, Germany.

This month OMED highlights Professor Joseph Sung's unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong, China. Each year the Endoscopy Unit helps organize an international workshop on therapeutic endoscopy as well as several research projects under the auspices of OMED. A couple of research projects include a pilot study on in the Asia Pacific Region to study the prevalence of intestinal metaplasia and atrophy among Asian populations, as well as a group led by the NCI that includes Joseph Sung among the members of the Steering Committee, is calling a consortium on Asian Barrett's Consortium (ABC) in which Inter-observer variability in diagnosis of BE and the prevalence of BE in Asia will be studied.

Professor Sung and some of the staff at the Prince of Wales Hospital Unit are pictured above receiving the Centers of Excellence Plaque from Professor Anthony Axon, OMED President. Pictured from the left are Dr. Philip Chiu, Expert in Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection, Dr. Simon, Chief of Colorectal Surgery, Prof. Tony Axon, President OMED, Prof. Joseph Sung, Director, Institute of Digestive Disease, Dr. Enders, Chief of Upper GI Suergy and Dr. James Lau, Director of Endoscopy.

Please follow the Video Library link below to view a live demonstration from the Prince of Wales Hospital which was performed during their annual therapeutic endoscopy course held in December. Dr. Yahagi from Toramon Hospital in Tokyo demonstrates the technique of endoscopic submucosal dissection for a gastric neoplasm. A special scope has been made for ESD which Dr. Yahagi demonstrates. The area is difficult to localize, but dye spray reveals the tumor. The area is marked with small coagulation points which act as limits of the tumor after submucosal injection has been accomplished.

» Read More

» Visit the OMED Video Library

» Learn more about OMED Centers of Excellence

 Brainteaser/image of the month

This is the stomach (left) and second part of duodenum (right) in a 55 year old man undergoing gastroscopy to investigate iron deficiency anaemia.

What would you organise next?

a) gastric biopsies with immunohistochemistry     staining for e-cadherin

b) serum gastrin levels

c) a colonoscopy

d) a capsule endoscopy

e) a duodenal EMR

» Click Here for the Answer and Explanation

 Additional Links

» OMED Events Calendar

» Resources