Caring for patients with IBD requires a multidisciplinary approach. So the organizers of Tuesday’s DDW^® Clinical Symposium Endoscopic and Surgical Principles in IBD set out to create a multidisciplinary educational program. The 90-minute symposium is jointly sponsored by AGA, ASGE and SSAT.

“It’s natural for these three sponsoring societies to work together on educational initiatives because it parallels how clinicians should work together on patient care,” said symposium moderator David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF, professor of medicine and chief of the gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition section at the University of Chicago Medicine, IL.

Dr. Rubin will co-moderate the symposium with Fabrizio Michelassi, MD, chair of surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York. Dr. Michelassi will open the symposium with a presentation on the surgical management of Crohn’s disease. He will discuss a specific type of bowel-sparing strictureplasty that he popularized.

The next presenter, Andre D’Hoore, MD, PhD, from the University of Leuven, Belgium, will discuss the surgical management of ulcerative colitis.

“They will emphasize key points that are important in the context of the new medical therapies we’ve been using,” Dr. Rubin said. “Considering how to operate on patients who are on immunosuppression therapy is really important. That’s why it’s important to have us all together.”

Dr. Rubin will then discuss the role of endoscopy for diagnosing and monitoring IBD.

“I want to address the evolving approach to managing IBD by treating to achieve mucosal healing,” he said. “I’ll review appropriate and careful use of endoscopic technologies to map the disease and clarify the diagnosis.”
Dr. Rubin will also discuss the evolving concept of monitoring stable patients.

“How do we use our technologies to anticipate and prevent relapses so outcomes can be improved? This is a really important concept, because historically we’ve just treated people until they felt better,” Dr. Rubin said. “Now we know there are much better outcomes if we monitor patients after healing to make sure they stay healthy.”

The session’s final presenter, Matt Rutter, MD, of Nuffield Health Tees Hospital, United Kingdom, will discuss cancer prevention in ulcerative colitis.

“Dr. Rutter is a world-renowned expert on colon cancer prevention,” Dr. Rubin said. “He’s one of the pioneers in the use of endoscopic technologies to identify dysplasia in colitis, and he has really advanced the field with his work throughout the years. Some of the work he’s done using chromoendoscopy and incorporating it into the guidelines has literally changed the way we think about approaching this.”

Please refer to the DDW Mobile App or the Program section in Tuesday’s DDW Daily News for the time and location of this and other DDW events.