July 2007





CONTENTS



President’s Message



Scientific Program Committee 2007



Australian Liver Association

New Zealand Ballot

GESA Subscription Online

National Bowel Cancer Screening Program

Gastroenterology Training In Fiji

Conjoint Committee for Recognition of Training in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (CCRTGE) – Moving to Online Log Books.

Infliximab

Elections 2007

AGW 2007 – Call for Video Clips

APAGE Clinician-Scientist Training Fellowship

Pancreas in Paradise




Editor: Katie Ellard

Gastroenterological
Society of Australia
145 Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
Ph 61 2 9256 5454
Fax 61 2 9241 4586
Email gesa @ gesa.org.au































Peter Katelaris


Welcome to the Sixth edition of the
E-Newsletter. We intend keeping members abreast of current happenings within the Society by circulating regular electronic communication broadcasts.

President’s Message

The Society continues to be very active in a number of areas. In the first weekend of June a very successful research workshop, coordinated by the ALA, was held in the Hunter Valley. There were over a hundred registrants and the presentations demonstrated a very healthy spectrum of both liver and luminal research currently being carried out in Australia. Council has stressed the importance of growing these research funds. The research committee is currently in a position to offer increased support and a broader range of support opportunities to GE researchers in Australia. as a result of a continuing satisfactory return on the Society’s investments which has helped boost our research funds.

The program for AGW2007 in Perth is almost complete and it is expected to be an extremely exciting meeting. It will be held in the new Perth convention centre 24 to 27 October. AGW2008 will be held in Brisbane and the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Society will be held in Sydney in 2009. We expect the Anniversary meeting to be an outstanding meeting allowing us to showcase Australian gastroenterologists who have had a significant international impact.

The Society is also considering the possibility of hosting Asian Pacific Digestive Week in Melbourne in 2010 or 2011.

Work on writing the history of the Society is progressing well, under a committee chaired by Dr Graham Schmidt. Professional writers have been engaged and all Society members will be surveyed with regard to what should be included in the history. I would encourage people with photographs or other information concerning the Society to contact Graham through the Society’s administrative office.

Council conducted a half day strategic planning session just prior to the research workshop and resolved that the major focuses over the next two years should be improved interactions with government; an increased emphasis on GE education of the general public and health care professionals; and an increased effort to influence public health policies in relation to gastrointestinal diseases. The Council approved spending funds to achieve these goals.

Members are reminded that the elections for Council and associations will be held this year and I again encourage you to nominate for either Council or the associations, as the future of the Society continues to be largely dependent upon enthusiastic involvement of its membership on Council and committees of the associations.


Paul Desmond





Scientific Program Committee 2007

Australian Gastroenterology Week for 2007 will be in Perth between October 24 and 27. The meeting is the highlight of the scientific and collegiate activity of the Society, and all members are encouraged to attend. The program is full and varied and caters for the broad interests of members, with multiple concurrent sessions so that everyone attending should find that there are sessions of interest available to them throughout the meeting.

The overseas faculty is strong and diverse. Michael Kamm from St Mark’s, London, is the Bushell lecturer. His contribution to the luminal program will enhance a strong faculty of international and national speakers from many disciplines. Other international speakers will cover therapeutic endoscopy, viral hepatitis, pancreatic disease, iron metabolism, nutrition and much more.

The popular Endoscopy Workshop will be on Wednesday, October 24, and will be themed around emergencies in endoscopy. The concurrent Clinical Hepatology Update day will focus on viral hepatitis. The core meeting begins on Thursday, October 25 with a presidential plenary session featuring the keynote address by the Bushell lecturer; an address by the Society’s only Nobel Laureate; and lectures by the Distinguished Research and Outstanding Clinician Award recipients.

Throughout Thursday, Friday and Saturday, sessions are scheduled so that at any one time there will usually be a choice of a luminal, liver, endoscopy or basic science subject. Throughout the program there will be sessions for the interest groups including IBD, GI Cancer and endoscopy. An Endoscopy Learning Centre will operate throughout the core meeting. AusPen are meeting with us this year and will co-host several symposia in areas of mutual interest and the GENCA nurses will have a full program overlapping and interacting with the core program.

The Friday night AGW dinner will be preceded by a wine tasting hosted by Digby Cullen. There will be a partners program and the chance to stay over for the weekend and enjoy the offerings of Perth and its environs.

The Scientific Program Committee welcomes members who wish to participate in the planning of future meetings. Work for Brisbane 2008 has already begun, so those members wishing to contribute to the content and organisation of that meeting are welcome to contact me by email.


Peter Katelaris
Chair



pkatelar@mail.usyd.edu.au


















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Australian Liver Association

The ALA recently hosted their sixth Liver Research Workshop at the Sebel Kirkton Park, Hunter Valley. This meeting is a very important event in the calendar of Australian Hepatology. It is designed to be interactive and foster the scientific development of our specialty. More than 100 scientists and clinicians attended the meeting and there is no doubt that this event will improve the quality of our research programs. The number of young clinicians and scientists who attended the meeting was particularly pleasing. The quality of the research that was presented was of the highest order and this reflects very well on the status of Australian Hepatology.

The ALA Symposium at AGW will be the next major event on our educational and academic program. The theme of the symposium is “Difficult and Emerging Issues in Viral Hepatitis.” Dr Hugo Rosen is the Society’s international guest for this meeting. Dr Rosen is a leading authority on hepatitis C – particularly in relationship to liver transplantation and he will be giving a series of lectures centred around this theme. We look forward to your participation in this important event.

One of the great success stories in Australian Hepatology has occurred over the past three years. The CHARIOT study is an Australian-designed study to evaluate the effect of induction dosing with pegylated interferon on the sustained virological response rates in patients with chronic HCV. Enrolment for the study has been completed (845 patients) and data analysis has begun in earnest. This is a remarkable achievement, and shows the world that the liver community in Australia is capable of designing and enrolling large numbers of patients in studies that answer important clinical questions. Hopefully, this will translate into further clinical studies centred on Australia.

In contrast, it is disappointing to report that the application for reimbursement for HBVDNA testing has not yet been completed by MSAC. All of the members of the ALA are fully aware of the importance of this test in providing proper clinical care to patients with HBV. The ALA will, of course, undertake a strong campaign to achieve reimbursement, should the current application fail. Members of the ALA met recently with PBAC to discuss the current status of anti-viral therapy for HBV. It was a very productive meeting and it is clear that PBAC is intent on gaining a good understanding of issues around HBV to help it through its decision making process.

Finally, this is an election year for executive positions for the ALA. Please consider standing for this committee – it is immensely important for the future of Australian Hepatology that we have a vibrant and enthusiastic leadership team.


Darrell crawford
chair





New Zealand Ballot

The ballot concerning the merger of the Australian and New Zealand Gastroenterological Associations was held earlier this year. The ballot had two questions, firstly concerning necessary changes to the constitution in order to facilitate the amalgamation, and secondly, changing our name to the Gastroenterological Society of Australia and New Zealand. Each vote required 75% of the people voting to approve it.

The results of the ballot were:
(a) Changes to the constitution 98% in favour.
(b) Changes to the name 74.5% in favour.

The vote was therefore not successful.

The results of the ballot were discussed at a recent council meeting. The ballot’s results indicated that the general consensus was that the vast majority of the membership who voted was in favour of changes to the constitution, parts of which related to the amalgamation, as indicated by the results with question (a). There is still a significant minority of members however who had problems with the changing of the GESA name.

After lengthy discussion it was resolved that, at the next annual general meeting, the question of the merger with New Zealand would be discussed in order to advise this next Council as to the best way forward.


Paul Desmond









Michael Grimm