Association Spotlight World Gastroenterology Organisation—A Vision for the Future Bernard Levin, MD Professor Emeritus, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston


Abstract


The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) is a federation of more than 100 national societies and approximately 50,000 practitioners worldwide. It is the mission of the WGO to promote an awareness of the worldwide prevalence and optimal care of digestive and liver disorders through the provision of high-quality, accessible and independent education and training. The principal thrust of this effort is towards low-resource countries and regions. The WGO has a portfolio of training and education programs designed to fulfill its mission including training centers, Train The Trainer programs, Global Cascade-based Guidelines, cancer education, outreach programs that provide much-needed equipment and public awareness efforts. These diverse yet coordinated efforts are made possible by substantial collaboration between the WGO, its member societies, industrial partners and local governments. In 2007, the WGO Foundation was created to serve as the primary means of securing philanthropic support to achieve the goals of the WGO.


Keywords Training, education, digestive, liver, philanthropic, worldwide, low-resource


Disclosure: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare. Acknowledgments: For assistance in preparing the article: Todd West, CCS and Dr Eamonn Quigley, Past President, WGO. Received: July 26, 2010 Accepted: September 29, 2010 Citation: US Gastroenterology & Hepatology Review, 2010;6:94–6 Correspondence: Bernard Levin, MD, 555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100, Milwaukee, WI, 53202. E: info@wgofoundation.org


The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) is a federation of more than 100 national societies and represents over 52,000 practitioners worldwide. As the only global society for gastroenterology professionals, the WGO has been bringing together the world’s leading minds in the field for over 50 years.


The WGO works to improve the standards of training, education, and practice of gastroenterology and hepatology worldwide with a focus on low-resource nations.1


It is the WGO’s mission to promote, to the


general public and healthcare professionals alike, an awareness of the worldwide prevalence and optimal care of digestive and liver disorders through the provision of high-quality, accessible, and independent education and training.


What is not as well known is that the WGO Foundation was created in 2007 to serve as the philanthropic arm of the WGO and to act as the primary mechanism to secure philanthropic funds for these goals.


The powerful calling of the WGO—to assist low-resource countries in critical need of training and education to position them to help themselves—has attracted some of the leading minds and voices of the gastroenterology profession from around the world. The Foundation is led by a volunteer Board comprised of both physicians


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and business professionals who are committed to charting an important course of making philanthropy a vitally important part of the culture of change the WGO is striving to create. The Foundation seeks to be the catalytic agent for this change—a change that has and will continue to improve the lives of those confronting digestive and liver disorders every day in every part of the world.


Transformation of Our Mission—Needs of High- Versus Low-resource Nations Over the past 10 years, the WGO has transformed from focusing solely on the developed or ‘high-resource’ world to providing training and educational offerings to developing or ‘low-resource’ nations around the globe.


There are many global healthcare issues that need time, money, and attention, but digestive and liver disorders have not received a proportionate share of funding or garnered the same level of attention as other diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. In addition to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of digestive and liver disorders, there have also been many advances in our understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of these diseases. Unfortunately, these breakthroughs and the related benefits from their discovery have not been felt equally in every part of the world, especially in regions facing the greatest need.


© TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2010


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