- Email: [email protected]
Farewell from the EASL Secretary General
Editorial
Farewell from the EASL Secretary General Laurent Casteray Department of Hepatology, Hôpital Beaujon, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, INSERM UMR_S 1149, University of Paris-VII, Clicy, France
Dear EASL members, colleagues, friends, It has been a great pleasure and honour to serve EASL over the last 5 years, first as scientific committee member, then as ViceSecretary and finally as Secretary General from 2015 to 2017. More than 50 years after its creation, EASL is a very successful association, at the forefront of international Hepatology with its annual meeting, the International Liver CongressTM (ILCTM), that attracts more than 10,000 delegates each year, and its flagship scientific journal, the Journal of Hepatology, one of the two leading journals in the field of liver diseases with an impact factor above 10. The Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) program is, without a doubt, one of the most important achievements of our association, currently there are 19 CPGs published, seven of which were published in the last two years, with the addition of three updated recommendations on HCV treatment. More CPGs are to be issued this year during the ILCTM (hepatitis B, acute liver failure, and primary biliary cirrhosis) and many are in preparation (hepatocellular carcinoma, decompensated cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis E, drug induced-liver injury and nutrition). I would like to take this opportunity to thank personally all the chairs and panel members involved in the CPGs for their time and dedication to serve the EASL community. Several actions have been taken during my mandate. The reformatting of the EASL educational offer has been one of my key priorities not only to better address the needs and expectations of our members, especially those located in areas outside of Europe, but also to provide more interactions between academia and industry. The first EASL NAFLD Summit entitled ‘Target-Oriented Approach to Diagnosis and Pharmacotherapy of NASH: A dialogue between Academia and Industry’ will be held in Rome next November as well as a Clinical School on controversies in end-stage liver diseases in Madrid. The concept of this innovative school format is to move from the classical teacher-centered and content-oriented format to a learner-centered and problem-oriented approach where students are actively elaborating on a solution to a given problem. I’m very thankful to our two educational councillors, Massimo Pinzani and Francesco Negro, who have been instrumental in the implementation of these new formats. Another educational programme, named the ‘‘Best of EASL” has also been initiated, which aimed at delivering
Received 21 February 2017; accepted 21 February 2017 y The author is Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). E-mail address: [email protected]
the best of EASL science to clinicians and scientists in key strategic locations from around the world, thanks to Frank Tacke, our next Vice-Secretary. Pilots have been successfully conducted over the last two years in Russia, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa and now the mature format will be run under the aegis of the EASL International Liver Foundation. Apart from live educational events, EASL has also been a pioneer in providing a full range of innovative electronic educational tools, such as the ILCTM webcasts, the LiverTreeTM and iLiverTM platforms, which have been since been followed by many other sister societies. The latest additions to our online platform include the Online Grand Rounds, a mix of case-based discussions and presentations by experts from world-famous European centres, which can be accessed for online viewing, download and podcast, as well as the new Debriefs, available online after each event. Although I believe that no ‘‘virtual platform” will ever substitute the need for face-to-face scientific discussions and social interactions, EASL will continue to engage with cutting edge digital technologies to remain at the forefront of modern Hepatology and provide stateof-the art online education to its members. Another important priority during my mandate has been to strengthen EASL partnerships in science and education on a more global scale through enhanced collaboration with sister societies. Last year EASL organised a joint workshop with the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) on HBV treatment endpoints in Washington, which will translate into a joint publication in the Journal of Hepatology and Hepatology. Several other joint EASL-AASLD initiatives are to come, as well as with the Asia Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) and the Asociacion Latinoamericana para el Estudio del Higado (ALEH). Hence, in 2015 a joint EASL-ALEH CPG on non-invasive tests for the evaluation of liver disease severity and prognosis was issued, and a joint EASL-AASLD-APASL-ALEH statement for the elimination of viral hepatitis was signed during the opening ceremony of the last ILCTM and subsequently published in each societies journals. Finally, EASL has decided to join forces with the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) for lobbying for liver diseases at the European level by sharing a common office in Brussels. Despite all these achievements, there are still many challenges that EASL face in the coming years. Among those, is the important changes in the funding landscape and the relationship with Pharma industry related to the cure of hepatitis C and the increasingly stricter compliance regulations. In that respect, the creation in 2016 of the EASL International Liver Foundation, chaired by Professor Massimo Colombo represents an important
Journal of Hepatology 2017 vol. 66 j 873–874
Editorial step. The foundation will help not only to develop alternate sources of income but also to facilitate the global outreach and demarcate it from the traditional EASL activities, which will remain targeted toward the highly specialized and scienceoriented Hepatology community. Last but not least, the successful future of our discipline lies in the hands of the next generation. Within EASL, the young hepatologists are organized as the Young Investigators Concerted Action Group (YI CAG), for which I served as the Governing Board representative when I joined EASL. One of my first actions back in 2013 was to launch a new programme, the Masterclass; an exclusive two-day event combining a mix of high-level scientific sessions alongside specific training sessions, offering YIs a unique opportunity to enhance their personal and professional skills as well as to interact with senior EASL experts and other European YIs. After four successful editions, I’m proud to announce that for the first time this year the Masterclass will be run jointly with AASLD in Paris in December and then in the USA in 2018, providing a unique educational collaboration of clinical scientists from leading academic medical institutions from both sides of the Atlantic. Promoting research excellence has always been a key priority for EASL. This has been achieved by the creation two years ago of EASL YI Awards for scientific excellence and by
874
providing over the past years a number of fellowships to YIs. However, in order to better meet the YI expectations, we have decided to reformat our fellowship programme, including the creation of a new PhD student fellowship named after Juan Rodés, in memory of a great and inspiring leader who passed away early this year. The details of the novel programme will be presented during the ILCTM. Before concluding let me stress that leading an international professional medical organisation like EASL is above all a team work and I would like to particularly thank the Governing Board members with whom it has been a real pleasure to work with; hard work but a lot of fun! Building up together the ILCTM scientific program is one of the most exciting things I have done in my professional career. I would also like to thank the EASL Office, who under the leadership of Gregoire Pavillon, ensures behind the scene that everything is going smoothly and whose role is critical to the success of EASL. Finally, I’m deeply grateful to Tom Karlsen for his constant help and support and without whom I would have never been able to achieve what has been done. I wish him luck in his next stage as Secretary General. I wish you a very successful meeting at the 2017 ILCTM in Amsterdam.
Journal of Hepatology 2017 vol. 66 j 873–874
Farewell from the EASL Secretary General Laurent Casteray Department of Hepatology, Hôpital Beaujon, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, INSERM UMR_S 1149, University of Paris-VII, Clicy, France
Dear EASL members, colleagues, friends, It has been a great pleasure and honour to serve EASL over the last 5 years, first as scientific committee member, then as ViceSecretary and finally as Secretary General from 2015 to 2017. More than 50 years after its creation, EASL is a very successful association, at the forefront of international Hepatology with its annual meeting, the International Liver CongressTM (ILCTM), that attracts more than 10,000 delegates each year, and its flagship scientific journal, the Journal of Hepatology, one of the two leading journals in the field of liver diseases with an impact factor above 10. The Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) program is, without a doubt, one of the most important achievements of our association, currently there are 19 CPGs published, seven of which were published in the last two years, with the addition of three updated recommendations on HCV treatment. More CPGs are to be issued this year during the ILCTM (hepatitis B, acute liver failure, and primary biliary cirrhosis) and many are in preparation (hepatocellular carcinoma, decompensated cirrhosis, alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis E, drug induced-liver injury and nutrition). I would like to take this opportunity to thank personally all the chairs and panel members involved in the CPGs for their time and dedication to serve the EASL community. Several actions have been taken during my mandate. The reformatting of the EASL educational offer has been one of my key priorities not only to better address the needs and expectations of our members, especially those located in areas outside of Europe, but also to provide more interactions between academia and industry. The first EASL NAFLD Summit entitled ‘Target-Oriented Approach to Diagnosis and Pharmacotherapy of NASH: A dialogue between Academia and Industry’ will be held in Rome next November as well as a Clinical School on controversies in end-stage liver diseases in Madrid. The concept of this innovative school format is to move from the classical teacher-centered and content-oriented format to a learner-centered and problem-oriented approach where students are actively elaborating on a solution to a given problem. I’m very thankful to our two educational councillors, Massimo Pinzani and Francesco Negro, who have been instrumental in the implementation of these new formats. Another educational programme, named the ‘‘Best of EASL” has also been initiated, which aimed at delivering
Received 21 February 2017; accepted 21 February 2017 y The author is Secretary General of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). E-mail address: [email protected]
the best of EASL science to clinicians and scientists in key strategic locations from around the world, thanks to Frank Tacke, our next Vice-Secretary. Pilots have been successfully conducted over the last two years in Russia, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa and now the mature format will be run under the aegis of the EASL International Liver Foundation. Apart from live educational events, EASL has also been a pioneer in providing a full range of innovative electronic educational tools, such as the ILCTM webcasts, the LiverTreeTM and iLiverTM platforms, which have been since been followed by many other sister societies. The latest additions to our online platform include the Online Grand Rounds, a mix of case-based discussions and presentations by experts from world-famous European centres, which can be accessed for online viewing, download and podcast, as well as the new Debriefs, available online after each event. Although I believe that no ‘‘virtual platform” will ever substitute the need for face-to-face scientific discussions and social interactions, EASL will continue to engage with cutting edge digital technologies to remain at the forefront of modern Hepatology and provide stateof-the art online education to its members. Another important priority during my mandate has been to strengthen EASL partnerships in science and education on a more global scale through enhanced collaboration with sister societies. Last year EASL organised a joint workshop with the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) on HBV treatment endpoints in Washington, which will translate into a joint publication in the Journal of Hepatology and Hepatology. Several other joint EASL-AASLD initiatives are to come, as well as with the Asia Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) and the Asociacion Latinoamericana para el Estudio del Higado (ALEH). Hence, in 2015 a joint EASL-ALEH CPG on non-invasive tests for the evaluation of liver disease severity and prognosis was issued, and a joint EASL-AASLD-APASL-ALEH statement for the elimination of viral hepatitis was signed during the opening ceremony of the last ILCTM and subsequently published in each societies journals. Finally, EASL has decided to join forces with the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) for lobbying for liver diseases at the European level by sharing a common office in Brussels. Despite all these achievements, there are still many challenges that EASL face in the coming years. Among those, is the important changes in the funding landscape and the relationship with Pharma industry related to the cure of hepatitis C and the increasingly stricter compliance regulations. In that respect, the creation in 2016 of the EASL International Liver Foundation, chaired by Professor Massimo Colombo represents an important
Journal of Hepatology 2017 vol. 66 j 873–874
Editorial step. The foundation will help not only to develop alternate sources of income but also to facilitate the global outreach and demarcate it from the traditional EASL activities, which will remain targeted toward the highly specialized and scienceoriented Hepatology community. Last but not least, the successful future of our discipline lies in the hands of the next generation. Within EASL, the young hepatologists are organized as the Young Investigators Concerted Action Group (YI CAG), for which I served as the Governing Board representative when I joined EASL. One of my first actions back in 2013 was to launch a new programme, the Masterclass; an exclusive two-day event combining a mix of high-level scientific sessions alongside specific training sessions, offering YIs a unique opportunity to enhance their personal and professional skills as well as to interact with senior EASL experts and other European YIs. After four successful editions, I’m proud to announce that for the first time this year the Masterclass will be run jointly with AASLD in Paris in December and then in the USA in 2018, providing a unique educational collaboration of clinical scientists from leading academic medical institutions from both sides of the Atlantic. Promoting research excellence has always been a key priority for EASL. This has been achieved by the creation two years ago of EASL YI Awards for scientific excellence and by
874
providing over the past years a number of fellowships to YIs. However, in order to better meet the YI expectations, we have decided to reformat our fellowship programme, including the creation of a new PhD student fellowship named after Juan Rodés, in memory of a great and inspiring leader who passed away early this year. The details of the novel programme will be presented during the ILCTM. Before concluding let me stress that leading an international professional medical organisation like EASL is above all a team work and I would like to particularly thank the Governing Board members with whom it has been a real pleasure to work with; hard work but a lot of fun! Building up together the ILCTM scientific program is one of the most exciting things I have done in my professional career. I would also like to thank the EASL Office, who under the leadership of Gregoire Pavillon, ensures behind the scene that everything is going smoothly and whose role is critical to the success of EASL. Finally, I’m deeply grateful to Tom Karlsen for his constant help and support and without whom I would have never been able to achieve what has been done. I wish him luck in his next stage as Secretary General. I wish you a very successful meeting at the 2017 ILCTM in Amsterdam.
Journal of Hepatology 2017 vol. 66 j 873–874