Rome Foundation (RF) Expands Educational
Collaboration in China

Over the last 2-3 years the Rome Foundation has introduced a major initiative to expand their global educational and research activities including the Rome IV project with Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. With regard to Asia, the Rome Foundation is pleased to have Meiyun Ke MD (China) join the International Liaison Group to help promote educational activities and serve as a liaison to the Rome Foundation from this geographical area. In addition, the Rome Foundation has created an Asian Committee for FGIDs (Chair, Kok An Gwee, Singapore, co-chair Bill Whitehead, USA) which is seeking to understand symptoms from the Asian perspective. This information will be incorporate into the Rome IV committee work. A working team committee has also been established to look at cross cultural research (Ami Sperber, chair) which includes members Shin Fukudo (Japan) and Minhu Chen (China). For Rome IV, there will be a chapter on Multi-cultural Aspects of FGIDs (Chair Ami Sperber, Israel, co-chair Carlos Francisconi, Brazil) with Xiuicai Fang (China) as a member, and also a Questionnaire committee seeking to validate the Rome IV criteria in several languages (Bill Whitehead, USA Chair) which includes Yunsheng Yang (China).

This year the Rome Foundation has initiated an important program to help provide educational resources to teach functional GI and motility disorders to physicians all over China. In October, 2012 with the assistance of the North American Educational Foundation (NAMEF) directed by Wenjing Ding, MD, members of the Rome Foundation Board (Doug Drossman, USA, Lin Chang USA, and John Kellow, Australia) as well as Rome Member Ami Sperber (Israel) gave presentations on upcoming Rome IV activities at the Festival of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy FGE 2012, Sanya at the Sanya Island and then moved to Beijing to provide an introduction and workshop on the use of the Rome Foundation Diagnostic Algorithms at the FGE 2012 Beijing with Chinese Society of Gastroenterology at the Chinese PLA General Hospital. They were joined by Ceciel Rooker, RF Marketing, Development and Public Relations who set up booths at both locations to distribute the Rome Foundation Diagnostic Algorithms, newly translated into Chinese by Yunsheng Yang, Lihua Peng and Qiyang Huang.

Dr. Yunsheng Yang, Gastroenterology director at this hospital is also the president-elect of the Chinese Society of Gastroenterology. he has made a commitment to training Chinese gastroenterologists within his facility in the area of FGIDs. Accordingly, in cooperation with NAMEF, the Chinese PLA hospital and the Rome Foundation, an in-house training program will be developed to occur at their new international training center. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at the meeting in Beijing and beginning in 2013 Rome Foundation members will travel to Beijing to provide lectures and workshops in the FGIDs. A planning committee from the Rome Foundation (Lin Chang USA, chair, Douglas Drossman (USA) and Magnus Simren, Sweden) will work with representatives of NAMEF and the Chinese PLA hospital to develop a unique curriculum to help increase greater knowledge of these disorders.