Source: The Sixth Affiliated Hospital
Written by: Jian Wenyang, Dai Xian
Translated by: Li Anqi, Lan Nan
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On November 10th, the 2014 Digestive Disease Week of Guangzhou (DDW-GZ) came to an end. Hosted by Guangdong Medical Doctor Association and organized by The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, the conference creatively combined gastrointestinal and colorectal surgery with gastroenterology, oncology, nutrition, physical therapy and stoma care. DDW-GZ has provided a high-level platform for multidisciplinary information exchange to drive the development in treating digestive diseases.

This conference invited Academician Jieshou Li and Academician Daiming Fan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering as well as nearly a hundred experts to be the speakers, hosts and surgery performers. About 1,200 doctors from at home and abroad participated in the main forum and 9 parallel sessions in Guangzhou.

The conference began on November 8th with the opening ceremony hosted by Dr. Ping Lan, President of The Sixth Affiliated Hospital. Prof. Jianping Wang, Chairman of DDW-GZ, pointed out in his address that multidisciplinary treatment had become a global trend, and it would be our objective to make DDW-GZ an academic pageant.

At the digestive disease forum, Academician Jieshou Li shared his deep understanding of bowel dysfunction. Academician Daiming Fan gave a new insight into the nature of cancer with his great sense of humor. Dr. Al B. Benson III, member of the NCCN Guidelines Panels for Colon and Rectal Cancers, introduced the 2015 guideline updates. Meanwhile, Jianping Wang, Jiafu Ji, Ning Li, Pingjin Hu, Steven T. Brower, Luca Stocchi, Thomas W. Bauer, Vitaliy Poylin and Toshiaki Watanabe also gave lectures on diagnostic and treatment insights as well as progress in their fields.

On November 9th, the conference was divided into multiple parallel sessions. With their own uniqueness, each parallel session was crowded with doctors. The sessions included MDT treatment for colorectal cancer, medical and surgical treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, gastric cancer, new progress in endoscopic treatment for bowel obstruction, nutrition management, film reading techniques from radiology, rehabilitation workshop and stoma care.

Another spotlight of this conference was the operation demonstrations on November 10th. Dr. Toshiaki Watanabe gave a wonderful speech regarding the present status of robotic surgery in rectal cancer in Japan. At the following session we have him along with Jianping Wang, Pan Chi, Donglin Ren, Ping Lan, Jiafu Ji, Guoxin Li, Junsheng Peng, Feng Lin and Shuang Chen to demonstrate their remarkable surgical skills through live broadcasting to over 200 surgeons.

Ever since March 2014, all departments of The Sixth Affiliated Hospital have given their full participation in the preparation of this conference. Finally this conference has achieved a great success. The participants said that apart from the valuable experiences shared by the best of the best, it was also a great opportunity to meet fellow workers and enhance cooperation in the future. DDW-GZ also held a dinner for the alumni of The Sixth Affiliated Hospital and a meeting for the stoma patients. We hope to build a prospective and interactive communication platform in the future.