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ABOUT

BEST-Academia is a webbased training platform to teach endoscopists how and in whom to perform safe and justified endoscopic treatment in patients with Barrett’s esophagus. This website provides information on the endoscopic management of Barrett’s esophagus, including video material and powerpoint presentations to download on imaging, treatment and pathology.
BEST-academia also contains training materials for endoscopists via the BORN module and for pathologists to assist them in improving their histopathological evaluation of biopsies and resection specimens.

The Program Committee, consisting of international experts in this field, is responsible for the contents of BEST Academia. The contents on BEST-Academia are free to use for all health care professionals. We would appreciate it if you acknowledge BEST-academia if you use materials from BEST-Academia in presentations or publications. Permission to use materials is generally be granted by the Program Committee if the source is cited.

If you would like to receive newsletters of BEST-Academia on the latest content on the platform, you can send an email to bestacademia@amsterdamumc.nl.

 

THE TRAINING PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Our European team of experts is responsible for the contents of the BEST Academia.

Jacques Bergman

Amsterdam University Medical Centers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Jacques Bergman is professor of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and director of Endoscopy at the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam. He is leader of the AMC Esophageal Research Team, member of the International Working Group on the Classification of Oesophagitis (IWGCO), chair of the Barrett’s Advisory Committee of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre Amsterdam, and treasurer of the Dutch National Barrett’s Registration Foundation. Jacques Bergman has a special interest in endoscopic detection and treatment of early neoplasia in the upper digestive tract.

Disclosures
Research support in the form of grants and materials for conducting studies for BÂRRX Medical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA; Olympus Endoscopy, Tokyo, Japan; and Wilson-Cook, Limerick, Ireland; AstraZeneca b.v., the Netherlands

Roos Pouw

Amsterdam University Medical Centers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Roos Pouw is a gastroenterologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers (former AMC and VUmc), the Netherlands. In 2011 Roos obtained her PhD-degree Cum Laude with her thesis entitled “Endoscopic eradication of Barrett’s esophagus with early neoplasia.” Next to her clinical work, Roos supervises a number of research lines on endoscopic management of early Barrett’s neoplasia, and for this work she received the UEG Rising Star award 2020. Furthermore, Roos is active as editorial (advisory) board member for the UEG Journal and Best Practice & Research: Clinical Gastroenterology.

Raf Bisschops

University Hospital
Leuven, Belgium

Raf Bisschops is head of the endoscopy unit at the University Hospitals Leuven in Leuven, Belgium and associated professor at the faculty of biomedical sciences of the Catholic University of Leuven. He is a board member of ESGE and secretary general elect, chairman of the ESGE quality improvement committee and chairman of the ESGE working group for curricula for advanced endoscopic procedures. Raf Bisschops has a main interest in research regarding detection and treatment of early neoplasia throughout the gastrointestinal tract, including early Barrett’s neoplasia.

Disclosures
Personal payments/honoraria/fees: Boston Scientific ,GI Solutions Covidien/Medtronic, Fujifilm, Pentax, Olympus, Norgine, CDx Diagnostic, Medivators
Research grants: Cook, Pentax, Fujifilm, Medtronic
Equipment loan for research: Pentax, Fujifilm
Support for teaching event : Erbe, Pentax, Medtronic, Norgine, Olympus, Cook, Boston Scientific, Medicators

Rehan Haidry

University College Hospital, London
London, United Kingdom

Dr. Haidry is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and interventional endoscopist at University College Hospital, London. He trained at St Mary’s Hospital in London and completed his Specialist Gastroenterology training in North East London. He was then appointed to a two-year academic fellowship at UCL where he examined state of the art and innovative diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of early cancers arising in the gastrointestinal tract.

He was appointed as a consultant in 2011. He was until recently the director of endoscopy for the division of gastroenterology at University College Hospital and leads the upper GI interventional endoscopic unit. He is currently the clinical lead for G.I Medicine at his institution. His main interests are therapeutic and innovative endoscopic procedures. In particular he has focused his interest in the diagnosis and endoscopic treatments of pre-malignant and malignant disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract, with a particular interest in Barrett’s neoplasia, Squamous neoplasia and early oesophageal cancer. He has over the last 5 years also developed a clinical research portfolio developing metabolic, bariatric endoscopic and anti-reflux procedures such as Duodenal mucosal resurfacing (DMR), Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty (ESG) and Trans-oral incisionless fundoplication (TIF).

He has an academic position of Associate Professor at UCL where he supervises his team of research fellows and nurse to generate research into the endoscopic techniques and procedures he carries out to improve and streamline the care we give to our patients. His main areas of clinical research focus on novel and innovative endoscopic imaging techniques, artificial intelligence in endoscopy and therapeutic endoscopic approaches such as endoscopic resection, radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, and metabolic/ bariatric endoscopy. He is a member of the BSG endoscopy committee and continues to well published with several original articles and co-authored guidelines.

Marnix Jansen

University College Hospitals London
London, United Kingdom

Marnix Jansen, MD PhD MSc, is a Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Clinician Scientist, Associate Professor and Consultant Histopathologist at University College Hospitals London NHS Trust and UCL Cancer Institute. Dr Jansen trained in the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in the laboratory of Hans Clevers at the Hubrecht Institute for Stem Cell Research. He has also undertaken combined clinical and research training at the pathology departments of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes in Baltimore, USA and the National Cancer Centre Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. The work in his research group focuses on stem cell evolution in Barrett’s dysplasia and the preneoplastic stomach and on machine learning in digital pathology.

Disclosures
Research funding from Cancer Research UK, MRC, EPSRC, The Pathological Society, Bowel and Cancer Research, and Rosetrees Trust.

Sybren Meijer

Amsterdam University Medical Centers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sybren Meijer is a consultant histopathologist at the department of pathology at the Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands. He coordinates the Dutch national web-based digital histology revision platform for dysplastic Barrett’s esophagus, and is keen to integrate Arteficial Intelligence with digital pathology for objective and reproducible diagnosis at expert level. His special histopathological and scientific interests further include diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of early neoplasms of the upper gastrointestinal tract and he is active in the AMC Esophageal Research Team.

Horst Neuhaus

Evangelisches  Krankenhaus
Düsseldorf, Germany

Horst Neuhaus is head of the Dept. of Internal Medicine, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Düsseldorf. The tertiary referral center of endoscopy has been recognized as Center of Excellence (WEO) and training center of the ESGE. He is associate Professor of Medicine of the Technical University Munich. He has served as councillor of the Governing Board and the Scientific Committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG), councillor of the German Society of Gastroenterology (DGVS) and the German Society of Endoscopy and Imaging Procedures (DGE-BV). He was previously President of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE). He has been director of the annual Düsseldorf International Endoscopy Symposium which was established by his group in 1999. His clinical and scientific interests include diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of early gastrointestinal neoplasms.

Disclosures
Research support in the form of grants and materials for conducting studies for Boston Scientific Endoscopy, Olympus, Pentax, Erbe, Medtronic.

Oliver Pech

St. John of God Hospital
Regensburg, Germany

Oliver Pech is head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy at the Hospital Barmherzige Brüder (St. John of God Hospital) in Regensburg, Germany. He is in the Editorial Board of several scientific journals. Oliver Pech has a special interest for the detection and treatment of early Barrett’s neoplasia.

Disclosures
Speaker honorarium form Medtronic, Fuijfilm, Boston Scientific and Cook.

Krish Ragunath

Royal Perth Hospital
Perth, Western Australia

MBBS, MD, DNB, MPhil, FRCP Edin, FRCP Lond, FRACP, FASGE, FJGES
Professor of Medicine & Director of Research, Curtin University Medical School
Consultant Gastroenterologist Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia
Honorary Professor, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, UK

Krish Ragunath moved from Nottingham University, UK to Australia in May 2019 after being appointed as Professor of Medicine at Curtin University Medical School, and Consultant Gastroenterologist at Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. Currently chairs the World Endoscopy Organisation Research committee. He is member of the British, European and American Society of GI Endoscopy. He has served as the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) International Secretary 2014-18, Treasurer BSG Endoscopy committee 2016-19, advisor for National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) interventional procedures subgroup and independent external advisor for the Welsh National Bowel Cancer screening programme complex polyp MDT. Professor Ragunath served as a core member and co-director of the International Working Group on Classification of Oesophagitis (IWGCO) Board 2014-18. His clinical and research interests include advanced endoscopic imaging of the GI Tract, Endoscopic Ultrasound, Barrett’s oesophagus and minimally invasive endoscopic therapy of early GI neoplasia. He has co-edited the BSG Barrett’s oesophagus guidelines, quality standards in upper GI endoscopy guidelines for the management of gastric premalignant conditions and UK oesophageal dilatation guidelines. Has authored / co-authored 150 peer reviewed publications and text book chapters. He is Associate Editor of “Digestive Endoscopy” journal, member of the Editorial Board for ‘Endoscopy’, ‘Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’, Translational Gastroenterology & Hepatology journals. He was the recipient of the BSG Hopkins Endoscopy Prize 2010. He has performed several live endoscopy demonstrations, endoscopy training in animal models and has lectured in national and international meetings. He delivered the RCP Edinburgh, Professor Anne Ferguson lecture and recipient of the medal, 2017. Has authored / co-authored over 150 peer reviewed publications and written 4 text book chapters with 11690 citations, and H index 56.

Stefan Seewald

Hirschlanden Hospital
Zurich, Switzerland

Biography/short CV will follow.

Michael Vieth

Klinikum Bayreuth
Bayreuth, Germany

Michael Vieth is director of the Institute of Pathology at the Klinikum Bayreuth. He is member of the International Working group on the classification of Oesophagitis (IWGCO). He is an associate professor of the medical faculty at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen and holds further lectureships at the University of Bayreuth, Department of Biopolymers and University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute of Pathology. His field of clinical, histopathological and scientific interests include
diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of early gastrointestinal neoplasms and inflammatory disorders of the GI-tract.

Disclosures
Fees from speakers bureau of BARRX, Covidien, Shire, AstraZeneca, Olympus Endoscopy, FALK, Malesci, Pentax, MaunaKea, Amgen.

Bas Weusten

St. Antonius Hospital
Nieuwegein, The Netherlands

Bas Weusten is gastroenterologist at the St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, and at the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he is appointed as professor in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He is the past president of the Dutch society of digestive endoscopy. He has been involved as chair in several European (ESGE) guidelines, under which the ESGE position statement on endoscopic management of Barrett’s Esophagus. Bas Weusten enjoys combining clinical work with research, both of which are mainly focused on detection and endoscopic treatment of early neoplasia of the (upper) digestive tract.

Disclosures
Bas Weusten has received financial support for IRB approved from Pentax Medical Inc. and from Aqua Medical.

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