IBUS Board Members Meeting Summary Report

On the morning of Friday, 2nd of July 2021, more than 400 members from 52 countries across the world were
invited to virtually join our annual IBUS group members’ meeting.

 

As the IBUS group chair, Prof. Christian Maaser welcomed the attendees and gave a short introduction
about the positive statistical growth of the organization members and challenges the IBUS group faced during the pandemic.
Prof. Maaser stressed on the fundamental support of the sponsors and educational collaboration with other international organizations.

 

The IBUS secretary, Dr. Krisztina Gecse, moderated the meeting and presented a proposal to change
the statutes of board members’ nomination and election. Then Dr. Dan Carter, the chair of EduCom,
spoke about year 2020 achievements, especially the challenge of transforming Module 1 & 3 to virtual
instead of hands-on workshops. Dr. Carter disclosed some of the IBUS future plans: to open more educational centers for
module 2, move back to Face-to-Face meetings and workshops, and establish an e-learning platform.

 

The chair of the SciCom, Prof. Kerry Novak, reported the two-parts research grant of 3.5 M USD
that was received from the Helmsley foundation in New York to develop a validated Crohn's disease
intestinal ultrasound activity score. After that, she happily announced the top 3 ECCO-IBUS research grant winners.
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Dr. Carolina Palmela, the chair of the ComCom, shared with the attendees the IBUS
communication and social media activities. She encouraged the attendees to follow IBUS
updates and news on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Exclusive IBUS members
will receive 3 newsletters per year and will have access to our webinar’s library at the IBUS
webpage.

After that, the current IBUS treasurer, Dr. Rune Wilkens, summarized the deliberation of the
IBUS group financial activities during 2020 in detail. The chair of Funding/collaboration, Prof. Torsten Kucharzik,
reported the IBUS network extension and collaboration in research and education with many international organizations.

  • ECCO: European crohns colitis organization
  • ESGAR: European society gastrointestinal and abdominal radiology
  • EFSUMB: European federation of societies for ultrasound in medicine and biology.
  • DSGH: Dansk Selskab for gastroenterology of Hepatologi.
  • CAN-IUS: Canadian intestinal Ultrasound.
  • GENIUS: Gastroenterology Network of Intestinal Ultrasound
  • Alimetiv discovery accelerated.
  • Competence Network for intestinal diseases.
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Prof. Torsten Kucharzik showed the attendees the increase in our corporate members to support IBUS activities.
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At the end our platinum corporate members Abbvie and Janssen immunology representatives presented in brief some of their IBD- IUS trials. The moderator concluded the meeting with few announcements: the Extraordinary IBUS members’ meeting (to take place on October 14th, 2021 at 9:30 pm CET) and the Regular IBUS members’ meeting (to take place on February 16th, 2022 during the ECCO congress in Vienna, Austria).