UpFront

Welcome to the September 2025 issue of Frontline Gastroenterology (FG). Given the schedule of when I need to write September’s UpFront, I have recently returned from attending the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Annual conference held this year in Glasgow, 23 June 2025–26 June 2025. The conference was an excellent opportunity to see the very best gastroenterology abstracts being presented and see expert speakers from around the globe. It was a hugely successful conference for FG: we hosted a joint symposium with our sister journal GUT covering the ‘Best of’ topics in our specialty, presented the ‘BMJ Frontline Gastroenterology Best Abstract for Patient Benefit in Gastroenterology’ to Dr Benjamin Norton from University College London, and had an important informal meeting with all our Associate Editors who were present in Glasgow. The highlight of the conference, however, was being part of the celebrations for Professor Emad El-Omar, Editor in Chief of GUT, who was presented with the ‘BSG Lifetime Achievement Award’. Professor El-Omar steps down from being Editor-in-Chief of GUT later this year, after being in the position for 16 years. He is a huge inspiration and mentor to many, a great friend and someone who is absolutely deserving of this accolade. The entire FG team and I wish Professor El-Omar the very best wishes in the future—we will miss him, but thank him for all he has done for BMJ/BSG journals—henceforth to be known as the ‘GUT portfolio’. Figure 1 shows some of the highlights from the BSG conference.