A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF APAGE

The current committee (the 8th Committee) of the Chinese Society of Gastroenterology (CSGE) was established at Changchun City, Jilin Province in July 2006. Professor Dai-ming Fan was elected as the President of CSGE. Since the first plenary meeting of the committee, a number of reforms have taken place in the society.

Firstly, a decision was made on holding national conferences that each year only one annual conference should be organized by CSGE through bidding by candidate cities. In 2007, the annual conference of gastroenterology was held in Jinan, Shandong Province with over 2300 participants and the papers/abstracts over 2400. And in 2008, it was in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province with over 2200 delegates. The annual conference of gastroenterology of 2009 will be held in Guangzhou in December with an estimated number of delegates over 3000. These large scale and highly centralized meetings guaranteed efficient academic exchange and knowledge spreading in gastroenterology in China.

Secondly, to improve the quality of clinical research in gastroenterology in China, a Chinese Gastrointestinal Research Fund was established in 2007 by raising certain amount of financial support from the community. Nine submitted proposals were thoroughly reviewed and evaluated by experts, and three of the grants were finally approved by voting among the members of standing committee of the CSGE. These multi-centered clinical studies include 1. Clinical and genetic features of inflammatory bowel disease in China; 2. Diagnosis and treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease in China; 3. New regimens for eradication of H. pylori. These projects are all in good progress.

Thirdly, a nation-wide continued medical education (CME) program in gastroenterology was carried out by setting up Chinese College of Gastroenterology, which is a non-profit organization responsible for planning courses of gastroenterology in each province throughout China. Fifty-two professors from China and abroad have been invited as faculty of the Chinese College of Gastroenterology. Among the 31 provinces or autonomous regions all over China, 28 have experienced CME courses in their capital cities with total number of audience around 100,000. The topics of the CME courses cover all areas of gastroenterology and hepatology. There is a plan of finishing the CME program in the rest of three provinces in China by the end of 2009.

Finally, this Chinese Society of Gastroenterology has successfully organized the bidding for APDW/WCOG 2013 to be held in Shanghai, China.

Prof. Kaichun Wu
Secretary-General, CSGE

The office bearers of APAGE held a business meeting on 7th December 2008 in Xiamen, China.  The aim of this meeting was to draw up a strategic plan for APAGE.

The meeting was attended by:
Professor Shu-Dong Xiao, President
Professor Khean-Lee Goh, Vice President
Professor Shiu-Kum Lam, Past President
Professor Kwong-Ming Fock, Immediate Past President
Professor Kentaro Sugano, Secretary-General
Associate Professor Choon-Jin Ooi, Treasurer
Professor Dai-Ming Fan, Chairman, International Liaison Committee
Professor Kai-Chun Wu, Chairman, Awards  Committee
Professor Peter Gibson, Chairman, Education & Research Committee

The following extended their apologies:
Professor Jae-Bock Chung, Chairman, Programme Advisory Committee
Professor Jin-Ho Kim, Chairman, Ethics Committee
Professor Geoffrey Farrell, Representative JGH Foundation

Background Information
The meeting started with Professor Khean-Lee Goh giving some background information on the formation of APAGE. The formation of an Asian Association of Gastroenterology (AAG) was mooted in Tokyo, Japan in 1961 and conceptualized in 1964.  The first meeting was held in 1972. The name of the AAG was changed and restructured to Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology in 2000 and the APDW was first held in 2001.  With the democratization of the APAGE, the APDW Presidency was delinked from the Congress Presidency.  APAGE was incorporated in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance on 15th June 2001. 

Vision and Mission
Professor Shiu-Kum Lam then addressed the meeting.  He spoke of the vision and mission for gastroenterology in Asia and asked APAGE to plan and carry out its role in terms of education, research and as a leading professional body.

Incorporation of APAGE
Professor Kwong-Ming Fock added that the move to incorporate APAGE was started in 2000 and it was officially registered on 15th June 2001 under the Companies Ordinance.  It is a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital.  The objects of APAGE are laid down in the Memorandum and Articles of the Association.  The mission statement is to make the Asian Pacific region excels in education and research in all aspects of gastroenterology, thereby bringing to the region the highest quality of healthcare in this field of medicine. The stake holders are the member societies, the public as well as the public authorities. The APAGE has developed guidelines which are called Asia Pacific guidelines on Helicobacteri pylori, GERD and Gastric Cancer and he proposed that these be named as APAGE guidelines.

Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
The meeting discussed about the Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and its relation to APAGE, the support from the JGH Trust for activities of the APAGE such as the Young Investigators’ Award, APAGE/JGH Training Fellowship and some Asia Pacific Guidelines. The JGH contributes a sum of USD10,000 (with an equal contribution from APAGE) for the APAGE/JGH Travelling Fellowship.

Representation of National Societies
Professor Kentaro Sugano highlighted that the APAGE could learn from the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology which is well organized and run in terms of publication, supporting research and fellowship programme, etc.  APAGE has 19 national societies and only 15 of these are fairly active. It was suggested that informal discussions could be held with  gastroenterologists in the countries which have yet to join  APAGE to find out their views and whether they would be interested in joining APAGE.

Role of APAGE in APDW
The meeting noted that the APAGE used to be the principal organizer of the APDW but its role has been diminished with the setting up of the APDW Steering Committee. The Committee now plays a major role in advising the organization and the running of the APDWs. Each of the four component societies nominates three representatives to the Committee. 

Organisation of Monothematic Meetings
Council discussed at length the possibility of the APAGE organizing monothematic meetings possibly with the national societies apart from the holding of the APDW.  Some office bearers felt that it might be difficult to organise if there are too many meetings.  The meeting noted that some of the meetings held in the Asia Pacific region are not and do not necessarily come under the auspices of APAGE. Also APAGE might have to provide financial assistance.  It was suggested that a business model be developed whereby if the APAGE were to provide the seed money for the meeting, then the APAGE should have a share in the event of a surplus.  If the APAGE is just involved in the organization of the meeting, then the APAGE does not want to take a share of the profit. Another suggestion was to split these meetings into focus meetings. The important aim would be how to make the APAGE relevant and how to engage the stake holders in holding these meetings.

APAGE Website
The meeting decided to revamp and rebrand the website to make it more interactive and the APAGE more relevant to the national societies.  If the website is popular, it could generate revenue from advertisers.

(Postscript: A new website master has been commissioned and the website has been revamped.  Members are requested to visit the website (www.apage.org) to give their feedback and comments).

Consensus Groups and Consensus Development
A suggestion was made that some of the Asia Pacific Consensus could come under the auspices of the APAGE and be rebranded as APAGE Consensus.  This could be done by notifying and obtaining the agreement of the expert group who were involved in developing the consensus. The meeting discussed the incentives which the APAGE could provide to the convenors which could be as follows:

1. APAGE would provide a forum for the development of the consensus and to provide the expert group with the platform to publish in the JGH
2. financial support – it was suggested that APAGE could provide an amount of  up to USD15,000 per consensus with an equal amount from the JGH Trust.

The meeting also discussed the financial possibilities of how the consensus development could be funded. One possibility is to ask the biomedical industry to provide unconditional grants to APAGE and APAGE would undertake to finance the development of the consensus. 

Conclusion
This strategic planning business meeting was held over one whole day.  It was a beneficial and useful meeting with many issues discussed and debated on.  The Councillors would have to act and carry out the plans and courses of action which were proposed.