The Asian Pacific Digestive Week (APDW) was the brainchild of Professor SK Lam from Hong Kong. In 1999, at the Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology Meeting in Bangkok, he mooted the idea of a combined meeting with all “digestive disease” related specialties coming under one roof once a year. This model follows that of the American Digestive Disease Week (DDW). At that time the “United Gastroenterology Week” which also aimed to follow the lead of the DDW, was still a fledgling meeting.
SK Lam together with several key Asian Pacific leaders in gastroenterology, gastrointestinal endoscopy, surgery and hepatology such as Professors YF Liaw, Masao Omata, John Wong and William Chao came together to form a steering committee. Professor KM Fock was a younger member of the committee then but by 2004, he had taken over the chairmanship of the committee. Through his persistent and diligent efforts, the steering committee guided the APDW through the 2000s until he stepped down as president of the formalized APDW Federation (APDWF) in 2014.
The first APDW was held in 2001 under the Presidency of Professor Geoff Farrell as the organizing chairman in Sydney. It was a brilliantly organized meeting and held in a beautiful city. There was a distinct sense of euphoria of better things yet to come. Since its inauguration, the APDW has been rotated across a total of 14 cities, with Kobe, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore having organized the meeting twice each. In 2002 and 2013, the APDW was organized in Bangkok and Shanghai in conjunction with the World Congresses of Gastroenterology. Without exception, they have all been wonderful meetings.
The meeting was administered by a steering committee with membership from the four founder Asian Pacific Associations: APSDE (Asian Pacific Society of Digestive Endoscopy), APASL (Asian Pacific Association of Study of Liver), APAGE (Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology) and the ISDS-AP (International Society of Digestive Surgery – Asia Pacific). In 2010, the APDWF was incorporated as a company in Hong Kong with our registered office based in Hong Kong. The APDWF Board consisted of 12 members, 3 from each sister Asian Pacific organization. From within the Board, executive committee members including the President, Secretary General and treasurer were elected. The executive committee is responsible for the day-to-day running of the APDWF. The Meeting Lab has provided loyal secretarial services from 2003. From 2014, all secretarial services have been formalized with contractual terms.
My involvement in Asian Pacific gastroenterology has been through APAGE, where I had served for many years as Secretary General, Vice President and then as President from 2010-2014. In 2010, Malaysia organized a highly successful APDW in Kuala Lumpur. I was President of that meeting and we were overwhelmed by a truly wonderful support and response from faculty and delegates.
I assumed the position of President of APDWF in 2014. This year marks my swansong and I will step down as President of the APDWF at APDW Seoul 2018, having served the APDWF for 8 years.
The APDWF weaves together the aims of four sister Asian Pacific Associations: APSDE, APASL, APAGE and the ISDS-AP in coming together on an annual basis, to hold a combined scientific meeting on fields-gastroenterology, Hepatology, gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy and GI and liver surgery, where there is intrinsically much shared and overlapping knowledge, clinical practices and research. In an age where there are many small speciality meetings, the APDW provides a unified platform in organizing a common meeting in Asia-Pacific.
But the success of the APDW also depends very much on the contribution of the component associations and societies. Over the almost 2 decades since its inception, the “earth has moved under our feet”. While the four sister organization are now well established within each broad field, many subspecialties have emerged. With expanding knowledge through research and clinical practices, many of these specialities have become established disciplines in their own right. We have groups that focus on inflammatory bowel disease, liver cancer, fatty liver, minimally invasive surgery and many subgroups on different aspects of therapeutic endoscopy. Younger members of our GI fraternity, often helm these groups and they will prove to be an incredible resource, who will contribute greatly to the progress of all these disciplines. But they must be heard! To this end, all sister organizations of the APDWF, must reflect and represent fully their respective disciplines in a fair and democratic way. The structure and system of running organizations in our region must evolve and change and or else we will risk becoming irrelevant!
The Asian Pacific region is a diverse continent and because of this very diversity, we have become enriched. Although the APDWF sets certain guidelines for organizing meetings, we have enjoyed the many different styles of organization (and different venues). Each local organizing committee brings a distinct flavour to the meeting and that is the special characteristic of the our APDWs. And all have poured their “heart and soul” in organizing the “best meeting ever” in their city. The APDWF will always be eternally grateful to the Presidents and members of all the local organizing committees. It is through your sterling efforts that the APDW has progressed to its current high status.
The APDW will continue to grow but the APDWF but also must continuously look into itself to make it stronger to better lead the Asian Pacific region and serve the local organizing committee of our beloved yearly APDW!
