Progress and innovation in gastroenterology care

The Irish Society of Gastroenterology Winter Meeting, taking place later this month, will bring together leading national and international experts to discuss the latest advances in the specialty

The Irish Society of Gastroenterology (ISG) will host its Winter Meeting at the Killashee Hotel, Naas, Co Kildare, on 20–21 November 2025. The two-day event will bring together leading experts from Ireland and abroad to share the latest research and clinical developments in gastroenterology.

Opening sessions

The meeting opens on Thursday morning with themed oral presentations focused on hepatology and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Following this, Prof Marietta Iacucci,  Professor in Gastroenterology, University College Cork, will discuss ‘Artificial intelligence in IBD: Predicting, personalising, and transforming care’.

Prof Iacucci qualified in medicine from the University of Rome and obtained her PhD in 2009. She trained and did research in Germany, the UK, and Japan and previously held permanent faculty positions at the Universities of Calgary, Canada, and Birmingham, UK. She was a key investigator at the National Institute of Health Research in Birmingham. She led transdisciplinary work that predicted disease courses and outcomes in colonic neoplasia and IBD, bridging engineering, bioinformatics, and imaging/omics. 

She has delivered key plenary talks at prestigious conferences such as those organised by the American Gastroenterology Association/American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the International Organisation for the Study of IBD, the European Crohn’s, and the Colitis Organisation, and the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. She has been nominated for leadership positions in multiple international organisations.

Mid-morning, delegates will hear from Prof Zeljko Krznaric, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Clinical Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia, on ‘The global burden of IBD: Trends and future therapeutic projections’. This will be followed by Dr Jane McCarthy, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Mercy University Hospital, Cork, who will speak on ‘Optimising IBD care in an Irish setting in 2025’.

The late-morning session will feature presentations on endoscopy and other gastrointestinal topics, before lunch and poster viewing.

In the afternoon, attention turns to pancreaticobiliary diseases. Prof Steve Pereira, Consultant Gastroenterologist, University College London (UCL) Hospitals will present on ‘Early detection of pancreaticobiliary malignancy’. The research interests of his liver and pancreatic cancer research group at UCL centre on the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of liver cancer, biliary tract and pancreatic cancer. The group also examines a number of benign conditions including primary sclerosing cholangitis, sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, pancreatic cysts, and acute and chronic pancreatitis.

Prof Pereira’s talk will be followed by Dr Manu Nayar, Consultant Pancreaticobiliary Physician, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, who will discuss ‘Recent advances in the treatment of IgG4-related disease’.

Dr Nayar specialises in hepatobiliary and pancreatic medicine, with expertise in advanced endoscopic management – including therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound – as well as the management of benign and malignant pancreaticobiliary diseases.

He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals in this clinical field and has served as Director of Endoscopy and Training Centre Lead at Newcastle Hospitals.

Later, Ms Claire Donohoe, Consultant Gastrointestinal Surgeon, St James’s Hospital, Dublin, will cover ‘Management of dysplastic Barrett’s oesophagus – When is enough enough?’.

Ms Donohoe is a Fellow of the RCSI, who specialises in minimally invasive surgery and works with the broader multidisciplinary team delivering care to patients with Barrett’s oesophagus, and oesophageal and gastric cancer. She also treats benign conditions of the foregut including paraesophageal and hiatal hernias, oesophageal motility disorders, and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

Another speaker, Prof Jacintha O’Sullivan, Professor of Translational Cancer Biology, and Education Director, Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute, Dublin, will explore ‘Barrett’s oesophagus – Recent insights into aggressive phenotypes and novel methods to target inflammation in the tissue microenvironment’.

Prof O’Sullivan is internationally recognised in the area of translational gastrointestinal work with many publications in high impact journals and her work has attracted funding from Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Irish Cancer Society, and the Irish Research Council, among others.

The day will close with an awards ceremony and a satellite meeting sponsored by Alfasigma, where Prof Glen Doherty, Consultant Gastroenterologist, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, will present ‘JAK inhibitors in UC [ulcerative colitis] – Evidence and real-world practice’. The evening concludes with the conference dinner.

Friday programme

Friday begins with a satellite meeting sponsored by AbbVie, titled ‘Real perspectives in IBD’. Speakers include: Dr Karen Boland, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin; Dr Mary Hussey, Consultant Gastroenterologist, University Hospital Galway; and Prof Murat Kirca, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar.

The morning continues with the President’s choice top oral presentations, followed by updates from bursary award winners 2024 and announcements for 2025 awardees and the ISG Fellowship nominee.

The final session of the Winter Meeting will begin with a talk from Prof William Bernal, Consultant and Professor of Liver Critical Care Medicine, Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College Hospital, London. He will speak on ‘Improving outcomes in acute-or-chronic liver failure [ACLF]’.

Prof Bernal is an internationally recognised expert in hepatology and critical care medicine. His research focuses on prognostic modelling in intensive care and the role of liver transplantation in ACLF. He has made major contributions to understanding the pathogenesis and management of multiple organ failure, hepatic encephalopathy, and coagulopathy in patients with chronic liver disease.

Prof Bernal leads national and international collaborative research initiatives aimed at characterising and improving outcomes in critical illness associated with liver disease. His work combines advanced data-driven methodologies with ethnographic approaches to address inequalities in patient outcomes and to explore the impact of stigma on the care of hospitalised individuals with chronic liver disease.

Among his key innovations, Prof Bernal pioneered the use of high-volume haemofiltration to control hyperammonaemia in critically ill patients and was instrumental in developing the UK’s national criteria for emergency liver transplantation in acute liver failure. He also initiated and led the UK’s prioritised liver transplantation programme for ACLF, shaping clinical practice and policy in this challenging area of hepatology.

Dr Johnny Cash, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, will present the last talk of the day titled ‘From paper to pixels: The impact of technology and electronic health records on gastroenterology practice’.

He graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1998 and, following a period at St Vincent’s University Hospital, completed higher specialist training in gastroenterology and hepatology within the Northern Ireland Deanery. He was awarded a postgraduate MD in 2009 for his research on haemochromatosis and primary biliary cholangitis.

Alongside his clinical practice, Dr Cash has a longstanding commitment to improving healthcare delivery. He is Assistant Medical Director for Continuous Improvement at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, leading initiatives to enhance the quality, safety, and efficiency of patient care. He is also Clinical Lead of both the ambulatory care centre and the Northern Ireland regional liver unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

Dr Cash’s leadership and contributions to service development have been widely recognised. He was named Medical Leader of the Year (NI) by the Institute of Healthcare Management in 2013 and served on the board of the ISG from 2011 to 2017.

The meeting will close at lunchtime, marking the end of another engaging ISG gathering that promises to advance collaboration and innovation in gastroenterology across the island of Ireland.