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Report on the 12th Hands-on Workshop on Interventional Endoscopy and Ultrasound (HoWEU) at the Endoscopy Training Center, Dhulikhel Hospital Nepal
From 13 to 15.11.2025, the 12th Hands-on Workshop for Interventional Endoscopy and Ultrasound took place at the Endoscopy Training Center of Dhulikhel Hospital. On 13.11.2025, 35 participants from various disciplines (internal medicine, gastroenterology, surgery) took part in the ultrasound workshop, which was led by members of the Gastroenterology Foundation e.V. (Dr. Ursula Hege, Dr. Wolfgang Blank, Dr. Konstanze Tzavella, Dr. Roland Ott, PD Dr. André Ignee, Dr. Dirk Hagena and PD Dr. Markus Donner) in cooperation with Dr. Roshna Shrestha, Chief Physician of the Emergency Department of Dhulikhel Hospital. Organ-specific lectures alternated with practical exercises on test subjects. All lecturers visibly enjoyed the lively exchange and the exciting discussions with very interested and committed young Nepalese colleagues.
About 100 participants from all over Nepal as well as colleagues connected online took part on the 2nd day of the congress (live endoscopy, lectures, poster contributions). After two live endoscopies (PD Dr. Ignee, Juliusspital Würzburg: first drainage of a pancreatic pseudocyst using a HOT AXIOS stent in Nepal; Dr. Bibek Purbe: complex ERCP), a series of lectures on various aspects of gastroenterology and hepatology followed, which were organized by Nepalese experts and members of the GF as well as German guest speakers (Dr. Ute Pfeifer, Düsseldorf, Prof. Dr. Geier, Würzburg, PD Dr. Ignee, Würzburg, Prof. Dr. Breidert, Olten/Switzerland, Prof. Dr, Dirk Wilhelm, Munich, PD Dr. Donner, Olten/Switzerland). Out of 20 poster contributions, 3 posters and one clinical illustration were awarded by members of the GF. On 15.11.2025, prospective gastroenterologists and surgeons were instructed in hands-on sessions on various models in various endoscopic techniques by the doctors and nurses of the ETC, Dhulikhel as well as members of the GF (PD Dr. Ignee, Dr. Ott, Dr. Ute Pfeifer, Dr. Michael Guggenberger, PD Dr. Donner).
After three days, an exciting congress with numerous interesting encounters came to an end.
Our member Michael Ortmann, specialist nurse for endoscopy, started today with the training of his colleagues in Kyrgyzstan. In a first online session, he gave many useful tips and tricks. He will train the team on a regular basis and thus make a significant contribution to quality management.
We would like to thank Michael Ortmann very much for his great voluntary work!
Nepalese woman helps Nepal
In addition to all professional support, the ETC at the Dhulikhel hospital in Nepal also requires equipment and accessories. The material is unaffordable due to high prices.
Thanks to our fruitful cooperation with the company Mediglobe, we receive a large number of these required accessories as a donation.
However, transport must then be financed. This year, money was raised through donations as part of a special campaign: Samikshya Chaudhary, a young Nepalese woman, spent some weeks in Germany and invited to a "Momo Party" together with Dr. Volker Stagge during her stay in Pfaffenhofen.
She cooked typical Nepalese food, the traditional dumplings Momo for her guests and told them about Nepal and her life. The proceeds of the evening and the subsequent donations went to the Gastroenterology Foundation in order to pay the transport costs of the endoscopic accessories.
Thank you very much, Samikshya for this commitment!
The ultrasound device works and has already been used.?
The team of the department at the University Hospital Bishkek is very happy about this important diagnostic tool.
?We would like to thank Fujifilm Switzerland and the Section General Internal Medicine of the SGUM for the very generous donation.
This ultrasound machine, which we were able to purchase with the generous support of the Swiss Society for Ultrasound, is on its way to Kyrgyzstan.
Mr. Markus Cadorin (Fujifilm Switzerland) checked the settings before the journey starts. A big thank you to Mr. Cadorin and his team!
The photo shows a very happy team in the ETC at Dhulikhel Hospital in Nepal.
Thanks to the very generous support of the Namaste Foundation and Erbe Singapore, the department can now call one new and two used Erbotome their own.
?They are used to cut or obliterate tissue with high-frequency alternating current, for example.
Using these devices, more than 1,000 (thousand) life-saving procedures (endoscopic biliary tract operations) are performed annually in the Endoscopy Department of Dhulikhel Hospital.
More impressions of the ERCP training of the colleagues from Kyrgyzstan at the ETC in Nepal.
A big thank you to Prof. Gurung!
This job shadowing is a fantastic example of successful development aid.
On 11.8., three colleagues from our project in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, arrived for endoscopy training at the ETC in Dhulikel, they will stay until September 6th.
From left to right: Dr. Bakyt, Prof Gurung, Dr. Kalys, Dr. Atakulov.
8th Spring Workshop: Basics of Gastroscopy and Abdominal Ultrasonography
4th Workshop of the Endoscopy Assistant Nepal
On March 28 and 29, 2025, the 8th Basic Workshop for Endoscopy and Sonography and the 4th Workshop of the Nepalese Endoscopy Assistant Society, the professional society for endoscopy assistants, took place in parallel at Dhulikhel Hospital. Both courses were very well attended, each with about 25 participants, mainly from other hospitals from all over Nepal. As usual, the workshops were divided into lectures, live demonstrations and practical exercises that impart not only knowledge but also skills. In addition, there was enough time for exchange and discussions.
3rd stop: St. Joseph ́s Hospital Peramiho
The highlight of the trip was the ceremonial inauguration of the new endoscopy department. It consists of 4 rooms and is integrated into a larger building, which also contains the new emergency department. Both facilities were inaugurated very solemnly, accompanied by dances, drum music, choir singing and lots of holy water and incense. I also gave lectures in Peramiho at the invitation of the acting chief physician, Dr. Adeodatus Haule, and took part in rounds together with Dr. Amani Kapinga. He had completed his two-year endoscopy training in "our" training centre in Muhimbili and had taken over the management of the new endoscopy department. He performed the first gastroscopies there together with me. One problem initially was the sedation of the patients for the endoscopic procedures – it was completely unknown and out of the horizon that the endoscopists handled diazepam and propofol themselves. So an anesthesiologist (an older, very nice colleague) was brought in. I was very pleased that after a short time he saw that it is actually no problem to leave the anesthesia/sedation to the endoscopists if they know the drugs and their dangers exactly. I sat down with the hospital board to explain what else was urgently needed – in addition to examination tables, suitable cabinets, etc., above all a semi-automatic endoscope washing machine in order to work at a sufficiently high level of hygiene right from the start.
In the front left of the picture you can see the newly built department
ceremonial inauguration
first endoscopy in the new department
Report on the working stay of Prof. Markus Menges in Tanzania October/November 2024
1st stop: Endoscopy Training Unit of the GF in Muhimbili (University Hospital Dar-es-Salaam).
In Dar-es-Salaam, I met with Dr. Pascal Zengo Kashinde, for whom we finance the specialist WB. He was of great help to me in the urban jungle of Dar. It was a little difficult to get to know in person the current head of the Training Unit, Dr. Eva Are, but we succeeded. She is fully involved in the normal university clinic operations – we met her during a visit to the hepatology ward. The training unit is going very well, which I was able to convince myself of – with a daily average of 30 (!) endoscopies of the upper and lower GI tract. Obviously, it is now also fully integrated into the gastroenterology-hepatological university clinic and the former frictions have apparently been overcome.
2nd stop: St. Benedict ́s Hospital Ndanda
The departure of Dr. Zengo understandably tore a hole in the endoscopy staff, which is "plugged" by three colleagues, one of whom is a beginner. The other two, Dr. Dayness Ludovick and Dr. Abdul Yasser, were usually able to cope with the routine examinations. It was agreed to send the endoscopy nurses (2 men, 1 woman as head) to a further training course at the Muhimbili Hospital in Dar-es-Salaam, which has since been done. In daily lectures, hands-on trainings in endoscopy and ultrasound and participation in the rounds, I was able to contribute a little to improving the endoscopic and clinical knowledge of my colleagues. Dr. Justin Sauter, who was sent by the EK Foundation to evaluate the project, was a great help in terms of the project report for the EKF Foundation. We met in Ndanda and sat together for many an hour in the evening to collect the numbers and data that would later be included in the project report.
The endoscopy team in Ndanda
daily lecture
endoscopy in Ndanda
Anthony Mmole und Fredrick Kisika, the endoscopy nurses in Ndanda
During a visit, Prof. Breidert was able to gain important impressions of the development of the endoscopic department.
The donated accessories arrived safely.
Prof. Matthias Breidert with one of the devices donated by GF and the team of the department
The equipment of the endoscopy department in Bishkek has received an important expansion.
With the help of a very generous offer from Olympus Switzerland, the Gastroenterology Foundation has purchased four demonstration endoscopes. Prof. Matthias Breidert personally picked them up from Olympus and brought them to Kyrgyzstan. They have already been put into operation there. ?
The team is very pleased to receive a delivery of endoscopy accessories, which we were able to deliver to Bishkek with the generous support of the company Endo-Flex.
The endoscopes are picked up from Olympus. Many thanks to the Olympus Team Switzerland!
Arrival of the endosopes at the department
Ready to use!
C Bow and examination table
Step by step, the fantastic team is approaching the day the X-ray machine can tsart its duty. Here you can see some impressions from Bishkek:
A construction crane had to be borrowed...
... the window on the 5th floor of the newly built hospital had to be broken out...
... to make room for the heavy equipment. Finally arrived!
Prof. Hans Allscher visited the training center in Rabat, Morocco, which was co-founded by the Gastroenterology Foundation.
?Prof. Naima Amrani has been leading it since then and is still very attached to our association.
The X-ray machine arrived safely in Bishkek shortly before New Year's Eve!
We are very happy about this. ?We are waiting for placement in the building and commissioning.
Finally, the very generous donation of endoscopy accessories from our company member MediGlobe has arrived safely at the ETC in Dhulikhel. A big thank you to everyone involved, especially the wonderful team at MediGlobe and our shipping company TTM.
We have received a very generous donation from the Olten Cantonal Hospital: an X-ray machine for our partners in Kyrgyzstan.
The Zaugg company has professionally packed device and accessories fpr shipping. Thank you very much!
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von: Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH
