I am Dr. Sidra Rasheed, and I work as Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore, Pakistan. It is a public sector tertiary care hospital and a referral center for advanced luminal GI and biliopancreatic diseases.
I completed my specialization in gastroenterology and hepatology in 2017 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. I have been a member of WEO since 2019 and have followed the WISE program since then. I always wanted to be one of the selected WISE candidates. I am learning EUS and also performing some basic interventional EUS procedures. However, I believe this program is a good guide to enhance the knowledge and skill of the endoscopist because of its well-structured nature and up-to-date educational content. Therefore, I applied for the WISE 2024 program. I am grateful to Professor Dong-Wan Seo for selecting me and giving me the opportunity to be part of the 2024 WISE family.
This was a well-regulated online course divided into five well-spaced modules. Each module had a pretest which was constructed to include interesting clinical cases, EUS images, and technical aspects of procedures. In our course, live case demonstrations were from the Asan Medical center, the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, and the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, where experts showed us various techniques for basic and advanced EUS. The lecture topics covered all the concepts starting from delineation of basic anatomy to the most advanced tumor ablation techniques that use EUS. They were assigned according to rising difficulty level among the modules and delivered by internationally recognized experts in the field. Also, the lecture content followed the latest guidelines. Moreover, all candidates were required to submit cases that highlighted technical difficulties while performing EUS. Six cases were selected for presentation in each module.
Additionally, this course included the 2024 EUS Summit. We were required to submit abstracts for the Summit. I was lucky enough to get a travel grant to attend the Summit, where my abstract was presented. It was very well attended both virtually and physically. Internationally renowned speakers presented their work, which was appreciated by the audience. WISE candidates had the opportunity to access all the lectures for up to 10 days after the summit.
Last but not least, the organizing teams for WISE 2024 and the EUS Summit deserve huge appreciation for the successful execution of the course and summit under the visionary leadership of Professor Dong Wan Seo. Prof. Seo’s commitment and dedication was awe-inspiring as was his professional excellence. His steadfast belief in learning new skills and knowledge was highly motivating.
At the end of the course, I feel myself to be much WISEr and more aligned with the latest guidelines for patient management. I am blessed and privileged to be part of the WISE family and looked forward to staying connected.
