27 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JULY 2016 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2016: EGHS-WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events UEG Policy discussion on PIBD in the European Parliament with MEP Rivasi and various stakeholders.” cancer in 2017 should be followed-up. The European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) confirmed it will publish a report concerning quality assurance around the colorectal cancer screen-ing guidelines by the end of 2016. The European Digestive Cancer Days 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic will serve as an important platform to con-tinue discussions. The second event was a two-day UEG Digestive Health and Children exhibition in the European Parliament held on May 31 and June 1. It was launched with a policy debate hosted by MEP Michèle Rivasi. More than 30 stakeholders, including representa-tives from the European Parliament, the European Commission, and leading European health organizations and health professionals, took part in a discussion about challenges related to pediatric inflammatory bowel dis-ease (PIBD) treatment and care, and associated gaps in European research and legislation. There was consensus that the third EU Health Programme makes an im- portant contribution to facing these challenges. However, participants also agreed that there were oppor-tunities for improvement. Diet and nutrition were identified as crucial to preventing and treating PIBD. The importance of harmonized training of healthcare professionals in the EU Member States and the important role of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurses in patient treatment and care were also acknowledged. Following a policy discussion, the UEG Digestive Health and Children exhibition opened in the European Parliament. The two day exhibition focused on raising awareness amongst policymakers and the public, attract-ing visitors with engaging presenta-tion of facts and information on pediatric digestive health. Pediatric digestive health is a very important issue and a more recent priority is also related to obesity and poor nutrition during the infancy and during pregnancy. With UEG, we have recently raised awareness about this in the framework of the World Digestive Health Day. We need better nutrition for children and more sup-port on research concerning diseases in infancy, and we also need to have some support in place for the patients who unfortunately suffer from digestive diseases. At the level of the European Parliament and the Euro-pean institutions, we need to be able to receive extensive support for each particular disease at every stage of life. Working together, we will be more successful than working separately. Throughout May, UEG Digestive Health Month raised awareness about digestive health conditions in Europe online with the campaign hashtag #DigestiveHealthMonth. Over 100 dedicated tweets were posted by @ my_ueg. These included content such as infographics, videos and engaging facts about digestive health. UEG Digestive Health Month gained more than 400 retweets and almost 200 likes on Twitter, attracting over 200 new followers. The campaign reached as far as Yakutsk, Russia, with support for #DigestiveHealthMonth from North-Eastern Federal University. In May, UEG also supported initia-tives connected with digestive health. These included: World IBD Day on May 19; European Obesity Day 2016 on May 21; the European Week against Cancer May 25-31; and World Digestive Health Day on May 29. Detailed reports from both events are available from the UEG website: www.ueg.eu.
ewgn-vol21-issue2-v12_final
To see the actual publication please follow the link above