Message from current President

The Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA) was officially founded on March 21 2008 in Bangkok. Under the leadership of Young-Tae Bak from Korea, (Founding President 2008-2011) ANMA has organised two strongly attended scientific meetings in 2009 (Seoul) and 2011 (Beijing), published the first Asian Consensus on Irritable Bowel Syndrome in 2010 and supported the Asian Pacific Digestive Weeks in 2008-2010.

On March 3, 2011, I was given the honour and privilege to serve as President of this exciting young association. To support me in my plans I am very grateful to have a very strong team. Uday Chand Ghoshal from India is our Secretary. Sutep Gonlachanvit from Thailand is our Treasurer. Justin Wu from Hong Kong is in charge of scientific and educational programmes. Andrew Chua from Malaysia is in charge of regional and international liaison.

We aim to build on the high quality of the scientific activities of the association with three initiatives. The first initiative is to organise regional research projects from which to develop evidence based guidelines. It gives me particular pleasure to announce that ANMA has started work on a pan-Asian survey of clinical presentation, patient needs and treatment experience of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID). The second initiative is to develop a systematic training programme that will enable young gastroenterologists to grow to assume leadership responsibilities within the association. The third initiative is to form special interest groups to provide a platform for meaningful engagement with experts from outside of Asia.

If you would like to know more about our programmes, how to become a member of ANMA, or if you would just like to support the work of ANMA, you are most welcomed to write to me at kok_ann_gwee@nuhs.edu.sg

Yours sincerely,

Kok Ann Gwee, MD, PhD

April 2011