International attendees account for about 40% of the total attendance at DDW^®, and AGA has taken note. The AGA International Committee, which has long sponsored such popular programs as Best of UEG Week at DDW, is completing its first year as a subcommittee of the AGA Institute Education and Training Committee. The new structure has allowed the subcommittee to expand its global educational efforts.

“The most exciting new international program for this year is the AGA/Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE) Joint Symposium on Saturday,” said incoming international subcommittee chair Gilaad Kaplan, MD, MPH, AGAF, associate professor of medicine at the University of Calgary, Alberta, and the Embedded Clinician Research Chair at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. “We collaborated with APAGE at their annual meeting, Asia Pacific Digestive Week, last November in Korea, but this is the first time they have come to DDW. It won’t be the last time we work together.”

AGA and DDW have a long history of working with gastroenterological societies around the world, said outgoing subcommittee chair Linda Rabeneck, MD, MPH, professor in the department of medicine at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Ontario, and vice president of prevention and cancer control at Cancer Care Ontario.

On the journal side, the subcommittee translates English GI journals and videos into Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Italian to facilitate the flow of research-based and clinical information to gastroenterologists around the world.

Subcommittee members recognized that while international attendees at DDW might be conversant in written English, they may be less fluent in spoken English. The result was an effort to translate the best AGA presentations at DDW into Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. Best of AGA at DDW in Chinese will be presented in Mandarin Monday morning. AGA’s Lo Mejor de DDW will be presented in Spanish Monday afternoon, and AGA’s O Melhor do DDW will be presented in Portuguese Tuesday afternoon.

AGA’s longest and perhaps best known collaboration is with United European Gastroenterology (UEG), the largest GI society in Europe. DDW and UEG routinely present at each other’s annual gatherings. In October, AGA presented a Best of AGA at DDW session at UEG Week in Vienna, Austria. UEG President Paul Fockens, MD, PhD, professor and chair of gastroenterology, hepatology and gastrointestinal endoscopy at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, will co-moderate Best of UEG Week at DDW Saturday afternoon.

AGA also participates in educational symposia with GI societies in Argentina, Mexico, China, Korea and Japan among other countries and regions.

“We’ve got a tremendous depth of talent from many different backgrounds and countries on our international subcommittee,” Dr. Rabeneck said. “Not only do they give us a terrific, broad perspective, they help us build bridges and partnerships with colleagues around the world.”

Please refer to the DDW Mobile App or the Program & Exhibits sections in the Saturday, Monday and Tuesday issues for the times and locations of these and other DDW events.