The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and United European Gastroenterology (UEG) have a vision to create a thriving community of endoscopy services across Europe, collaborating with each other to provide high quality, safe, accurate, patient-centered and accessible endoscopic care. Whilst the boundaries of what can be achieved by advanced endoscopy are continually expanding, we believe that one of the most fundamental steps to achieving our goal is to raise the quality of everyday endoscopy. The development of robust, consensus- and evidence-based key performance measures is the first step in this vision. ESGE and UEG have identified quality of endoscopy as a major priority. This paper explains the rationale behind the ESGE Quality Improvement Initiative and describes the processes that were followed. We recommend that all units develop mechanisms for audit and feedback of endoscopist and service performance using the ESGE performance measures that will be published in future issues of this journal over the next year. We urge all endoscopists and endoscopy services to prioritize quality and to ensure that these performance measures are implemented and monitored at a local level, so that we can provide the highest possible care for our patients.

The use of the soft diverticuloscope to expose and fix the septum seems to be the optimal approach in terms of increasing the safety and clinical efficacy of flexible endoscopic diverticulotomy.

Video capsule endoscopy is being increasingly used to investigate the esophagus and colon as well as the small bowel. With the advancement of technology used in capsule endoscopy there have been marked improvements in diagnostic rates for colon capsule endoscopy in the detection of colonic polyps and colorectal cancer. It is also being increasingly used in the field if inflammatory bowel disease to investigate for mucosal inflammation and could potentially be used to assess mucosal healing. It also has role in completing the evaluation of colonic pathology in those in whom colonoscopy is incomplete. Esophageal capsule is preferred by patients over esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) but as yet does not rival EGD in terms of diagnostic accuracy however the advent of magnetically steerable capsules may improve this. This review covers advances in the field of colon and esophageal capsule endoscopy; it covers diagnostic capabilities of these 2 tools as well as technical aspects of both procedures and preparation.

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