UEG Week 2025 in Berlin provided a valuable chance to deepen collaboration with healthcare professionals, researchers, and patient advocates. The focus was on how to collaborate to promote early detection, enhance cancer care pathways, and ensure that patient voices remain influential in shaping the future of digestive health in Europe.

After last year’s successful edition in Vienna, DiCE was proud to be back at UEG Week 2025, this time in Berlin, to continue collaborating with the digestive cancers community to put patients at the centre of digestive health in Europe.

A key highlight was the Digestive Health Roundtable, held on 5 October, where patient leaders and healthcare professionals, including DiCE CEO Zorana Maravic, came together to shape the future of digestive health around three main themes:

• Cancer care and how to improve coordination and access from diagnosis through survivorship.
• Patient-reported outcomes and how to integrate patient perspectives into daily clinical practice and policy.
• Patient involvement in clinical trials and how to ensure meaningful participation and equitable access across EU member states.

The discussions generated concrete ideas for stronger collaboration between patients and professionals. Building on these outcomes, a Digestive Health Manifesto will be developed as a collective call to action to influence policy and raise awareness across Europe.

Additionally, UEG introduced “Meet the Patient Organisations!” for the first time as part of the Community Programme, providing delegates with an opportunity to learn directly from patient advocates. DiCE CEO Zorana Maravic participated in this new initiative, presenting DiCE’s main activities aimed at integrating patient co-creation into every clinical trial, research project, service, policy, and medical device developed for the digestive cancer community.

Finally, DiCE also hosted a booth where we engaged with healthcare professionals, researchers, and advocates to promote our ongoing activities and showcase new initiatives. Among them was our new survey for gastroenterologists, designed to assess their preparedness to detect early-onset digestive cancers.

We thank UEG and all our partners for making this year’s event another step forward in strengthening patient voices. Together, we’re paving the way for a more collaborative and patient-driven future in digestive health.

Author:

Luca Arfini