.:: ECOG History

THE ECOG : LITTLE  STORY FROM BIRTH TO THE VERY FIRST STEPS.
writen by Walter Burniat, MD

Nearly “twenty years after”, like in the story of the “French Musketeers”, I have been asked to tell you some words about gestation, birth and first steps of the ECOG. This will be a complement to the interview of EME Poskitt (she was co-former and past President as I was) that  appeared in the second  ECOG Newsletter 2007 – KE Flodmark, responsible editor. I am not an archivist. However I did compile documents and letters from the very beginning when the ECOG was even not expected.  All these I will transfer to the ECOG Secretary, as this is an important part of the chain of events, the collective memory attesting projects, suggestions, conflicts, acts, collaborations in Scientific and Clinical fields. A first and deciding encounter was in Stockholm, June 1988 at the 1^st European Congress on Obesity (EASO). As I was proudly standing before my poster “Obese children: a clinical approach in pediatric practice”, I suddenly heard in my back: “Mine are fatter!”. So was addressing to me Elisabeth Mary Embree Poskitt. Surprise: Elisabeth and not Emile or Eugène or…? I really was conviced – as a “macho”?-  the co-author with TJ Cole (he will play later in the story too) “Do fat babies stay fat? BMJ 1977;1:7-9” was certainly a bearded English Professor. “No beard, no professor?” to parody Hemingway. We met, we talked and discussed about eventual projects related to research in childhood obesity. In that time, Elisabeth was Senior Lecturer in Child Health, working in the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital Alder Hey. As she described herself, her main sphere of activity with obese children was to run a weekly obesity clinic where she saw referrals from the community, from general practicioners and from other pediatricians. She already was a member of the EASO and interested in epidemiology, management, metabolic and significance of anthropometric patterns. I was working in the very newborn Hôpital Universitaire des Enfants, the first and still unique Hospital for Children in Belgium administrated together by the IRIS Associated Public Hospitals in Brussels  and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. For the last four years I was in charge of an outpatient clinic for overweight/obese children and adolescents. Also interested in metabolic, clinic and dietary treatment and follow up. I was also member of the BASO (Belgian Association for the Study of Obesity) and the EASO. In Stockholm, Elisabeth and me stated our disappointment: only 12 papers in the 300 presented concerning with childhood obesity! How could this lack of interest be changed? How to involve pediatricians in childhood obesity and medical doctors for adults to a new pediatric concern? We decided to keep in contact and think about next issues. In February 1989, I did send a letter to Elisabeth – “Dear Doctor EME Poskitt…”, pointing on  the programme of the next ECO to be held in Oxford: again, no specific session dedicated to children. Future however could be a prospect for us: the IASO Congress in Kobe, Japan 1990 but maily the EASO Congress in Nice 1991. So we did not resign. With the agreement of Elisabeth, attending the ECO Oxford in March 1989, holding my “pilgrim staff”, I did visit all poster authors presenting with a paper on childhood obesity. This mainly to bring contacts and collect addresses. After, Elisabeth and me co-signed and sent a circular and a questionnaire to the people listed in August 1989 (here attached) . We received 12 answers – we called the answering “the very 12”. Among them: Karl Zwiauer (Austria), Marie-Françoise Rolland-Cachera (France), Myriam Van Winckel (Belgium), Lazlo Blatniczky (Hungary) , Francesco Dammaco (Italy) who did give us two other names: Saverio Chiarappa (Italy) and Margherita Caroli (Italy). Having these positive answers: to summarize “yes something must be internationally organized to study and manage obesity in children, at least in Europe”, we did mail to Gerard Ailhaud and Bernard Guy-Grand, organizers of the ECO Nice Meeting 1991, to ask for a specific session “childhood obesity”. I had already met Ailhaud in Padova at the 5^th European Congress in Metabolism, 1989. We had a short discussion about the topic. Unfortunately they did not accept our proposition. Anyway we thought “Show must go on”! Again we did not resign.

I really think the next cornerstone, the most determinant for the ECOG Story, was the “Obese Child” Congress organized in Ancona, September 1990 by Pietro Luigi Giorgi and Carlo Catassi. As soon as we heard about, we did send a personal letter, the  circular and  the questionnaire we mentioned, and we proposed our participation. Miracle: Elisabeth and me were invited to give a lecture at the plenary session. Ancona was a very International Congress, the very first organized in Europe on childhood obesity. We met there R Suskind (USA), Björntorp (Sweden), von Almen (USA), Durnin (UK), Rossi (CH), Chiumello (Italy), Di Toro (Italy), Ailhaud (France) and many Italian lecturers. Fascinating lectures and roundtables covering genetics, morphology, energy metabolism, and biochemistry, nutrition, psychology and clinical aspects (1).  PL Giorgi and C Catassi offered also an opportunity to meet those interested in the possible forming of a “Childhood Obesity Group” as we did suggested them. I did “coach” two meetings – Friday 21, during lunch time and Saturday 22 night on the 8^Th floor of the Faculty. Here attached you can find the minutes. These are the very roots of the ECOG. I like to stress this basic statement: “there was a general agreement for a group which was not a “new scientific society” but an active working” and, further, “a collaboration with EASO and IASO would be useful in a second step as the group would be effectively aging”. In Ancona I did accept to continue to act as coordinator: office and secretariat. It was also decided a first workshop could be organized in November 1991 in Brussels. The next months new colleagues joined us. We had an informal business meeting at the ECO Nice May 1991, to prepare the Brussels ECOG Workshop but also a pediatric participation in the next ECO 1992 in The Netherlands. Jaap Seidell, one of the main EASO organizers planned a childhood session with the help of Karl Zwiauer (he would be the Chairman).

November 1991: from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 we had the first ECOG Workshop in Brussels – Prevention in Childhood Obesity, together with a Symposium “The Obese Child” dedicated the Saturday morning to Belgian pediatricians, general practitioners, nurses, other health professionals working in schools, and so on. This was organized with the support and sponsoring of the Ministry of Health of the Communauté Française de Belgique, the Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Université Catholique de Louvain. Also in attachement you will find the scientific programme. Participants to the Workshop are listed below (2).  Besides the plenary sessions and roundtables, free communications were presented. Here we met new members, also in future Board charge: Marie-Laure Frelut, Claudio Maffeis, Denes Molnar. The ECOG business meeting in Brussels concluded to the necessity of 1. creating officially the ECOG and to register the association 2. to proceed to the elections of a representative Board of Directors 3. to drawn up a draft for By Laws. Elisabeth and me were in charge. 4. what about a next Workshop in 1992?  We met again six months later at the EASO Congress in Noordwijkhout, The Netherlands. Elisabeth Poskitt was elected the President of the ECOG, Karl Zwiauer the Vice-President, Walter Burniat the Secretary and Margherita Caroli the Treasurer. A By Laws draft written by Walter Burniat and improved by Elisabeth Poskitt was submitted to the participants, this to be discussed and adopted in Napoli November 1992. In Napoli indeed Professor Di Toro and Margherita Caroli  were welcoming the 2^nd ECOG Workshop as a Satellite of the 5^Th International Congress on Pediatric Nutrition.The ECOG main topic  was “The prevalence of childhood obesity in Europe”. A specific session on Childhood Obesity was also organized within the “big” Congress. Lectures appeared as papers in Nutrition Research.

The story of the coming years, 1992 to 2007 is still to be narrated. A few but important events: the first ECOG Satellite to the ECO in Dublin 1997, the first ECOG Satellite to the ICO (IASO Congress) in Paris 1998 (organized by Marie-Laure Frelut), the Textbook “Obesity in children and adolescents – the CUP 2002”…

I do hope we shall come back to the basic deal agreed from the baby birth: “to act as a working group, not as to another and new scientific society”.

Walter Burniat, MD

Department of Pediatrics

Hopital Universitaire des Enfants “Reine Fabiola”, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Avenue JJ Crocq 15 1020 Brussels Belgium

Email : wburniat@ulb.ac.be

(1)     The Obese Child. Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Vol2. Eds: PL Giorgi, RM Suskind, C Catassi. Karger 1992;pp 1-256.

(2)     Participants to the 1^st ECOG Workshop, Brussels 1991: C Braet (Gent, Belgium), W Burniat (Brussels, Belgium), M Caroli (Francavilla Fontana, Italy), C Catassi (Ancona, Italy), S Chiarappa (Bari, Italy), G Chiumello (Milano, Italy), A Deccache (Brussels, Belgium), J De Schepper (Brussels, Belgium), M Elcarte Lopez (Pamplona-Iruna, Spain), ML Frelut (Margency, France), M Guillaume (Brussels, Belgium), M Jeanjean (Brussels, Belgium), M Jehanne (Roscoff, France), B Kalvachova (Praha, Czechoslovakia), E Locard (Lyon, France), C Maffeis (Verona, Italy), N Mamelle (Lyon, France), D Molnar (Pécs, Hungary), EME Poskitt (Liverpool, United Kingdom), M Prevost (Brussels, Belgium), IM Ratsch (Ancona, Italy), MF Rolland-Cachera (Paris, France), C Van Aelst (Brussels, Belgium), M Van Winckel (Gent, Belgium), R Zannoli (Chieti, Italy), K Zwiauer (Vienna, Austria).