The European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal Radiology (ESGAR) is a not-for-profit, educational and scientific organisation founded by radiologists working in close association with gastroenterologists, hepatologists, abdominal surgeons, pathologists, and other allied specialists. Its members have a special interest in the imaging and treatment of patients with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and associated abdominal organs.
The aims of the Society are:
ESGAR is registered as a not-for-profit organisation in Vienna, Austria. The Executive Committee of the Society is structured to consist of members from countries throughout Europe.
The Annual Meeting, the most important event of the Society's calendar, is held in a different European country each year. The Postgraduate Course covers a specific topic each year but all annual meetings are devoted to the main theme of "Abdominal Imaging and Intervention".
The meetings consist of invited educational lectures, workshops, scientific presentations and satellite symposia structured in conjunction with our industrial partners. They are organised by the Central ESGAR Office together with a local committee chaired by the meeting president. The scientific programme of the meetings is developed by the Programme Committee, a sub-committee of the Executive Committee.
In realising the objective of creating links between continents and other Societies the 1st Joint Meeting with the Society of Abdominal Radiologists (SAR) took place to general acclaim in Orlando in 2002 and was followed by the 2nd Joint Meeting in Greece in 2006. After the political changes in Eastern Europe, the Society has been actively promoting exchanges across the old divide since its foundation. The first meeting in Eastern Europe took place in Budapest/HU in 2003.
Since its foundation the Society has been closely associated with the European Association of Radiology (EAR) and the European Congress of Radiology (ECR). The members of the Society have played a central role in the evolution of European radiology, the establishment of their sub-speciality and the development of a specific educational curriculum. In March 2007 both EAR and ECR agreed to integrate all their functions into the newly founded European Society of Radiology (ESR). The President of ESGAR is a member of the Subspecialties Committee of the ESR.
The Society has developed a strategy to promote teaching across Europe in specific aspects of its discipline by means of peripatetic hands-on workshops with a high teacher to student ratio. The first series of workshops commenced in September 2003 in Amsterdam/NL, where an expert ESGAR faculty taught two groups of 40 students the technique and interpretation of CT Colonography (CTC).
Since 2007, additional series of workshops have been developed:
* An interactive, hands-on workshop for small groups on the evolving "image-guided ablation" (IGA) took place in Pisa/IT for the first time and was repeated in 2008 in Geneva/CH and in 2009 in London/UK.
* A workshop series on "liver imaging" focused on clinical application and complemented with interactive case discussions was organised in Amsterdam/NL in October 2007 for the first time and is held twice a year ever since.
* An increasing number of multidisciplinary workshops is held with various clinical societies such as the ESGAR/ESCP (European Society of Coloproctology) "bowel imaging workshop", the ESGAR/ESDO (European Society of Digestive Oncology) "workshop on hepatobiliary, pancreatic and gastrointestinal tract neoplasms" and the ESGAR/EPC (European Pancreatic Club) Pancreatic workshop".
*ESGAR workshops on "acute abdomen" and on "liver oncology" were launched 2016 and 2017 and are repeated annually since then.
Another important and very successful initiative of the Society to promote GI imaging among new generations of radiologists and senior residents is the Junior ESGAR Summer School. The structure consists of a five-day programme, based on topics from GI sub-specialty European curriculum. The first Summer School took place in Rome/IT in 2015. The Summer School is repeated annually in July.
The officers of the Society believe that the founders' aims and ambitions have been fulfilled. Today, the Society represents a major forum for all European radiologists interested in this subspecialty. It has succeeded in transferring knowledge and information across Europe, has generated integration and friendship amongst radiologists in this particular field and encouraged close multidisciplinary co-operation with gastroenterologists, surgeons and pathologists. Regarding its future, the Society is committed to creating closer links with other groups involved in gastroenterology.