Evolving the agenda at the ISG

Irish Society of Gastroenterology, Summer Meeting, Hotel Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny, 22-23 May 2025

Prof Orla Crosbie, President of the Irish Society of Gastroenterology, speaks to Catherine Reilly about the Society’s imminent Summer Meeting

Palliative care, quality improvement in hepatology, and medico-legal matters, are among the more novel topics on the agenda at the Irish Society of Gastroenterology (ISG) Summer Meeting. The eagerly anticipated meeting takes place in Kilkenny on 22-23 May.

As well as commenting on the diverse and topical agenda, ISG President Prof Orla Crosbie remarked upon the “high standard” of conference abstracts that were received from around the country.

According to Prof Crosbie, it was “a difficult job” to choose the top seven abstracts which will be presented on Thursday morning (22 May). The meeting will also host two further oral presentation sessions under the themes of endoscopy/other gastrointestinal, and hepatology/inflammatory bowel disease, while five clinical cases will be presented on Friday morning (23 May).

A special highlight of the ISG meeting will be the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Prof Paud O’Regan. “Paud has worked tirelessly down in [Tipperary University Hospital] Clonmel and brought it up to the standard that it is,” said Prof Crosbie, Consultant Hepatologist at Cork University Hospital. “Paud is a previous President of the ISG. I haven’t been at an ISG meeting where he hasn’t been there,and he always asks very salient questions and there is always a good sense of humour. That will be a great evening. Paud certainly deserves that recognition.”

Palliative care

Dr Mary Miller, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, will deliver the opening presentation at the ISG meeting. Dr Miller, who trained in Ireland, will present on ‘Symptom management for patients dying with hepatic failure’.

Prof Crosbie noted the importance of Dr Miller’s presentation. She said specialists in liver services need to know when to liaise with colleagues in palliative care and understand patients’ needs in this area.

Dr Miller will be followed by Dr Andrew Yeoman, Consultant Hepatologist, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, Wales, UK. He will speak on ‘Quality improvement in hepatology: Insights from Improving Quality in Liver Services (IQILS)’. The IQILS programme, which was launched in July 2017, aims to improve the quality of medical liver services throughout the UK.

Prof Crosbie said with the recent growth in hepatology staffing in Ireland, and new pathways of care being developed by the national clinical programme, it is a good time to place an increased focus on quality improvement.

Innovative

‘Medico-legal hot topics’ will be covered in the following presentation. The presenter is Dr Ellen Walshe, Medico-legal Consultant, Medical Protection Society, Leeds, UK.

Another innovative session will focus on further training opportunities in Ireland and abroad. Speakers are Dr Mary Miller, Dr Andrew Yeoman, and Prof Michael Byrne, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Vancouver General Hospital, Canada.

Prof Crosbie said this session will be a great opportunity to tap into the knowledge and experiences of the expert speakers who have travelled from abroad to the meeting.

“That should be a good forum for the trainees to ask advice. We can have an informative session, where people aren’t afraid to ask questions, and while it is focused on the trainees everyone is welcome to come along. It is something a little different.”

A satellite symposium, sponsored by Gilead, will examine progress in the understanding and management of hepatitis delta virus. The presenter is Prof Geoffrey Dusheiko, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Royal Free Hospital and University College London School of Medicine, UK. Prof Dusheiko is an eminent hepatologist who is “always a fantastic speaker”, according to Prof Crosbie.

She added that the presentation will be “very interesting” given some new therapies have recently been made available for delta virus.

The final day of the conference (23 May) will open with a satellite symposium, sponsored by Pfizer, on ‘Sequencing of treatments for ulcerative colitis’. The presenter is Dr Alissa Walsh, Consultant Gastroenterologist, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.

I have been honoured to be President and I really enjoyed it

Endoscopy symposium

The closing segment of the ISG meeting will include a wide-ranging endoscopy symposium and panel discussion. Prof Crosbie said she was conscious that recent meetings had not included a huge amount of endoscopy sessions, therefore it was decided to focus on latest advances in the area. 

Dr Fergal Donnellan, Consultant Gastroenterologist, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, will speak on ‘Hepatobiliary: Acute pancreatitis and walled off necrosis’; while Dr Barry Hall, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Connolly Hospital, Dublin, will provide an update on device assisted enteroscopy in Ireland. The final talk, by Prof Michael Byrne, has the intriguing and topical title of ‘Carpe Algorismum – Practical implementation of AI into clinical practice and clinical trials in gastroenterology’.

Prof Byrne, an Irish clinician, will be travelling from Vancouver to attend the ISG meeting. “He originally trained in Ireland and is delighted to travel over and be involved in the meeting. That will be an excellent session,” said Prof Crosbie.

Closing thoughts

The Summer Meeting will be the last of Prof Crosbie’s two-year term as President. She will be succeeded by Dr Manus Moloney, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Nenagh Hospital/University Hospital Limerick.

“This is my last meeting as President and I am very sad,” she said. “I have been honoured to be President and I really enjoyed it.” As well as the education and training facilitated at the meetings, Prof Crosbie said the value of networking with colleagues is immense. “The ISG is great for that – it is great to meet your colleagues from across the country that you don’t necessarily always get a chance to meet.”

Prof Crosbie expressed her gratitude to all those who have come to speak at ISG meetings over her term. Despite everyone’s busy lives, there has been a genuine enthusiasm to become involved.

“Any of the people I invited to speak at the ISG there was an overwhelming ‘yes’, and everyone was really enthusiastic…. It has been an eye-opener about how important it is to people – they were all overwhelmingly helpful and delighted to be involved, which was a great thing to see. To me that is encouraging for our future.”