It is with great pleasure to share our first newsletter with you. We are hugely grateful for all the hard work by Christian Selinger and Chris Lamb who led the committee and hope to continue their legacy.

At the IBD Investigator’s Day in January 2025, we were able to share our vision of leading the IBD community with our motto “making it easy to do the right thing”, complementing the newly released IBD guidelines and leveraging the data from the IBD UK benchmarking report and patient survey to improve the standard of care of IBD in the UK.

We are looking forward to working closely with the IBD clinical research group and we are very excited to announce we will host a joint 2-day clinical and CRG investigators meeting next year. It will be an opportunity to maximise the expertise within the UK, providing a rich platform for networking with industry, patient charities, academics, clinicians and the wider healthcare professionals who constitute the MDT workforce.

Collaboration is key to success, and we wanted to thank you all for actively participating at BSG LIVE'24, BSG Campus 2024, and CRG Investigators meetings. From an IBD perspective, the sessions were hugely popular with standing space only and we are indebted to all our colleagues and patients who take the time to present during these meetings. A new feature this year was the BSG webinar updates from BSG LIVE which was delivered in October 2024, and we will continue this for the forthcoming years.

IBD Guidelines 2025

It is with great pleasure that we are able to share the news that the main IBD guidelines have been completed and are under revision with Gut for publication. Professors Gordon Moran and Morris Gordon have led us through a strict GRADE process, thank you to everyone who participated.

IBD Colorectal Cancer Surveillance Guidelines 2025

Equally, the IBD CRC surveillance guidelines have been accepted as a publication to Gut and are now live! Professors James East and Morris Gordon have led a robust process assessing the data and we are hugely grateful to the guideline development group for their time and expertise in producing our very first standalone CRC surveillance guideline.

We envision both guidelines providing the foundation for good quality IBD care and will be contextualised by the forthcoming IBD standards from IBD UK (expected late 2025). Over the next year, we will have several events to share and support implementation of the guidelines.

Intestinal ultrasound (IUS) provides a non-invasive patient friendly way to examine for active IBD. It avoids bowel preparation, sedation, and discomfort as well as being cheaper than endoscopy or MRI and having a more favourable carbon footprint. The BSG is working with the British Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (BSGAR) and the International Bowel Ultrasound group (IBUS) to help roll out IUS widely in the UK. We have identified all currently available trainers in the UK, have held a first training the trainers day, and are currently working on adapting IBUS training to UK circumstances. Nigel Grunshaw will showcase IUS at BSG LIVE'25 in the EndoVillage for all interested to have a peek. We will keep you posted on training opportunities and the roll out plan in the next few months.

In the meantime, IBUS delivered the first UK-based module one training over 2 days in July 2024 in London.

A UK and international faculty including Gastroenterologists and Radiologists delivered a comprehensive training course for delegates Including gastroenterologists and for the first time radiologists.

Topics included how to set up an US machine, and the technique of scanning with hands-on practice on normal volunteers. Lectures included inflammatory bowel disease, complications, and mimics together with hands-on scanning in patients with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. The course was very well received with excellent feedback.

The JCVI has recently updated its guidance on eligibility for recombinant zoster vaccination (Shingrix). The key message is that the JCVI now advises that all severely immunosuppressed adults aged 18 years and older should be eligible for Shingrix because of increased risk of zoster (shingles) and its complications, including post-herpetic neuralgia and hospitalisation. Included in the severely immunosuppressed category are all patients with IBD, and other immune mediated inflammatory disorders, who are receiving advanced therapies or high dose corticosteroids (for a full list, please consult the Green Book link). Previously severely immunosuppressed adults who were aged 50 years and over were eligible for Shingrix. The BSG welcomes this change in advice from the JCVI and we are now lobbying the Department of Health and Social Care to incorporate the updated guidance into vaccination policy as soon as possible. Clinicians managing severely immunosuppressed adult patients are encouraged to continue advocating strongly for Shingrix vaccination with patients and primary care teams.

Congratulations to all 3 winners of the 2025 ECCO Intensive Course for Trainees!

• Shiva Radhakrishnan
• Iona Campbell
• Luke Hanna

The next round of applications will open soon for ECCO 2026; please consider applying especially if you are a senior trainee.