Windsock diverticulum

International teams will vie for a gold medal today in the fifth annual ASGE World Cup of Endoscopy. The popular competition features some the best educational videos submitted to DDW® 2015.

Each of the 10 participating countries will present one video, with the videos judged live and the winning countries receiving gold, silver or bronze medals. The atmosphere is one of friendly competition between the countries, as presenters often dress in native clothing and the crowd cheers on their countrymen and countrywomen.

“It’s a fun science, ” said ASGE Educational Products Committee Chair Gottumakkala S. Raju, MD, FASGE, professor in the department of gastroenterology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The videos selected for the World Cup competition came from the same pool as the videos selected for Monday’s ASGE Video Plenary Session. More than 140 videos from 26 countries were submitted this year.

To determine the best videos, a group of 20 endoscopists used a rigorous, multi-step, blinded process to review the videos. The reviewers, who didn’t know who made the videos or where they were produced, scored each video on a scale of zero to five and selected the top videos for further consideration. That process identified the 20 videos selected for Monday’s Video Plenary Session, with the top eight taking home top honors.

The top-rated remaining videos — which had to score at least a three on the judges’ five-point scale — from each of the 10 countries qualified for the World Cup.

“Between the top 20 and 30, it’s a 0.1 difference from one video to the next, ” Dr. Raju said. “When you have high-quality videos, it’s so tight.”

John J. Vargo, MD, MPH, AGAF, FASGE, from the U.S., will moderate today’s World Cup competition. The international panel of judges is: Robynne Chutkan, MD, FASGE (U.S.); Hironori Yamamoto, MD, PhD, FASGE (Japan; recipient of 2015 ASGE International Service Award); Juergen Hochberger, PhD, MD (Germany); Peter Siersema, MD, PhD, FASGE (Netherlands); Michael Bourke, MD (Australia); Alessandro Repici, MD (Italy); Fauze Maluf-Filho, MD, PhD, FASGE (Brazil); Ajay Kumar, MD, FASGE (India); and Chris Khor, MBBS, FRCP, FASGE (Singapore).

High-quality videos that didn’t make either the plenary or the World Cup can still find an audience. Videos that scored a three or better during the review process can be seen in the ASGE Learning Center in Hall A, and about 10 more videos will be presented at EndoFest in the fall. Videos shown during the plenary, World Cup or EndoFest will be given priority for publication in the “VideoGIE” section of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Please refer to the schedule-at-a-glance in today’s issue for the time and location of this and other DDW events.

2015 WORLD CUP PARTICIPANTS
Australia: Incision Therapy for an Unusual Esophageal Stricture

Brazil: Endoscopic Treatment of a Refractory Esophageal Fistula

China: Adventures in the Gallbladder! Initial Experience of Advanced Gallbladder Interventions After Gallbladder Stenting

Germany: Endoscopic Intraluminal Therapy of a Dislocated Magnetic Antireflux Device Causing Severe Dysphagia

Italy: Circumferential Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection of a Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a Cirrhotic Patient with Esophageal Varices

Japan: Case Series of Laparoscopic Assisted Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (LAESD)

Republic of Korea: Endoscopic Ultrasoud-guided Hepaticoduodenostomy: Management of Transection Injury of Bile Duct Following Cholecystectomy