UEG Young Talent Group – aims, key achievements and opportunities for early career gastroenterologists: Pilar Acedo

The UEG Young Talent Group (YTG) encourages young gastroenterologists to develop their careers through education, networking and training. We were delighted to catch up with UEG YTG Chair Dr. Pilar Acedo to discuss the training, education and professional opportunities available to young digestive healthcare specialists through UEG, the aims and key achievements of the UEG YTG, her highlights as chair and tips on early career progression.

Questions

1. How important is it to include early career professionals in organisations such as UEG? (0:16)
2. What training, education and professional opportunities does UEG provide for young digestive healthcare specialists across Europe? (1:50)
3. What are the main aims and key achievements of the UEG Young Talent Group? (3:28)
4. What have been your highlights in your role as the UEG Young Talent Group Chair? (4:46)
5. What tips on career progression can you offer to early career gastroenterologists? (5:53)

Disclosures: Pilar Acedo has nothing to disclose in relation to this video interview.

Support: Interview and filming supported by Touch Medical Media Ltd. Interview conducted by Victoria Jones.

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Transcript

How important is it to include early career professionals in organisations such as UEG? (00:17)

I think it’s really important. Of course, I am a bit biased, but I think it’s really important not only for the organisation, but also for the early career professionals, per se, the young gastroenterologists, in this case. I think for organisations it’s really key because the juniors are going to be shaping the future in the field. So it’s really important to motivate them, engage with them since the beginning, to better understand their needs, to get their views, their needs, their inputs, and take them into consideration when developing, you know, new courses or training opportunities. Then also it’s really important to ensure that the emerging talents are well trained and are motivated and engaged because they are going to be becoming the experts of the future. Then regarding the young gastroenterologists, I think it’s also key because they can benefit from free opportunities for career development, to boost their CVs, for example. They are going to have opportunities for education, networking, and training, and also they can get in contact with experts in the field. Sometimes it’s difficult, right, to get in touch with international experts, and they can establish new connections too, which is kind of key and you can get involved in volunteering and this can boost your career too.

What training, education and professional opportunities does UEG provide for young digestive healthcare specialists across Europe? (01:50)

So UEG is providing a lot of different opportunities. So, yes, to summarize, we have in person activities and also virtual opportunities. So in person, for example, the summer school – these are hands on, is hands on training. Then also visiting fellowships, you can visit another lab in another country, which is really well known and a lot of young gastroenterologists are applying. Then also we have research fellowships to give the opportunity to juniors to go to another lab and get involved in research, which is very important. Post graduate training, teaching programs and then UEG week. Also, the juniors can get involved as junior co-chairs. We have mentoring opportunities and also opportunities for networking. For example, “Let’s Meet” is really also a well known. Regarding virtual opportunities, we organise webinars and also master classes, online courses. This is all for free, which is kind of impressive. The young gastroenterologists can get involved in surveys, and also in, for example, the UEG journal. They can become junior editors or be involved in the blog or the Young GI Angle. And we have a new career development program starting this year or last year, and also it’s really good for your career development and as I said before, they have all access, like, for free to all these resources.

What are the main aims and key achievements of the UEG Young Talent Group? (03:27)

So we try to get more involvement for the young GIs as speakers, for example, at the UEG Week. They can also be involved as junior co-chairs. This is a really good opportunity for them to learn from experts but also to gain visibility, to have more impact in the field. Then they can also be authors, as I mentioned before, for the UEG journal. This is also really important for your career, to have a publication in a really good journal. They can we have achieved that the juniors are having a better representation in committees and in boards within UEG and I have to say all the senior members of UEG have been super supportive and this is not always the case. We have increased the number of opportunities for the juniors, all for free, so the visiting fellowships, the research fellowships, the master classes, the career development, all the mentoring, and a lot of educational activities. Also the networking, I think is really key. During the UEG week, we have a lot of experts in there and we have improved the networking within the juniors within Europe and the Mediterranean area, I think, has been great.

What have been your highlights in your role as the UEG Young Talent Group Chair? (04:46)

So all the previous chairs have been fantastic but I am really happy to say I am a basic scientist, a translational scientist, and I was aiming to bring together a bit more clinical scientist and basic or translational scientist, and I think we have improved that. Clinicians can understand why research is important and how we can work together or how important it is to be able to communicate. This has been really motivating for me. Also starting the career development program, which I said was new starting from last year, and also seeing the team becoming more interdisciplinary, having basic scientists, translational scientists, gastroenterologists, and also now surgeons. This has been fantastic. I’m really also happy to say we got two members from Ukraine. So we supported juniors from the Ukraine to give us feedback, and I think in this moment was pretty critical. So it was really, really nice to see.

What tips on career progression can you offer to early career gastroenterologists? (05:53)

Well, a lot of things. But I guess if I need to choose some is to participate in all the free activities that we can benefit from. It’s really difficult sometimes, you know, to attend things if you need to pay for them, but UEG is providing us with really high quality content and everything is for free. So you can gain new skills, boost your CV, become more competitive, and it’s really important to always be up to date on the new things in the field. Also network, networking is key for your career progression, so use all these opportunities and also find a good mentor. There’s the mentoring program that we offer to find this mentor that you need for moving forward in your career and always, I would like to say, that always all the juniors can contribute with new ideas, so we are always really happy to get feedback from them.

Subtitles and transcript are autogenerated