Young endoscopists involvement in national endoscopy societies: the SPEDY example!

It was in June 2018, during the Portuguese Digestive Week, that the Portuguese Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SPED) promoted the kick-off meeting of the Young Endoscopists Committee (SPEDY – SPED Young), a working group formed by 4 trainees and 4 Gastroenterology specialists under 35 years of age. It was during this first intensive brainstorming session that the first initiatives and projects were drafted.

Now, almost a year after its creation, SPEDY continues to develop the projects initially proposed and the first results are beginning to emerge.

One of the goals of the group was the promotion of SPED on social networks, namely the restructuring of the Facebook page. In fact, since these changes were implemented, not only did the variety of posted news related to endoscopy increase but also, and more importantly, the number of SPED page followers more than tripled.

In addition, taking into account the importance that SPED gives to the training of Gastroenterology residents, namely at the level of endoscopic techniques, another project carried out was the creation of a National Platform of Endoscopy Fellowships, available only for members, with the aim of facilitating the interaction and the sharing of experiences between portuguese specialists and residents who have previously completed endoscopy fellowships, either in Portugal or abroad. Regarding this point, the data to be included in the platform is currently being collected and its first version is expected to be publicly presented later this year.

A third aim defined by SPEDY members was the creation of easy-to-consult iconograms of the most commonly used endoscopic classifications, namely those that represent endoscopic quality criteria, such as Los Angeles, Prague, or Paris Classifications. Concerning this project, the collection of representative endoscopic pictures of the different classifications, as well as the selection of the best graphic design are now being finalized.

Finally, in April 2019, during the ESGE Days 2019, SPEDY was represented in a joint meeting with the ESGE Young Endoscopists (EYE) Working Group. Besides Portugal, other European countries, including Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom were also represented in this meeting. The purpose of this first meeting was the creation of a network between young endoscopists groups from all over Europe, in order to facilitate the development of international educational or research projects.

On behalf of the Young Endoscopists Committee of SPED (SPEDY)

Tiago Cúrdia Gonçalves, Filipe Vilas Boas, Catarina Graça-Rodrigues, Cátia Leitão, Inês Cunha, Paulo Massinha, Richard Azevedo, Rita Barosa, Rui Morais, Sofia Mendes