Advanced Clinical Inflammatory Bowel Disease, II level Master Program 2023/24

The II level Master's Degree in Advanced Clinical Inflammatory Bowel Disease aims to provide and expand medical and instrumental knowledge for the management of patients suffering from chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.

The expected outcome, to be verified through a final assessment, is:

a) Acquisition of the necessary skills for the management of patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease;

b) Theoretical and practical acquisition of endoscopic techniques and the use of endoscopic and histological scores;

c) Updated acquisition of indications for advanced biological therapies and small molecules.

Main objectives

The Master will focus mainly on the application of advanced therapies (biological and small molecules) in clinical practice.

In addition to that, the master will focus on patient management based on the standard of care proposed by the most recent guidelines of the European Crohn's and Colitis Organization (ECCO) and on new therapeutic targets (treat-to-target strategy and tight control).

During the Master it will also be possible to deepen the application of clinical and endoscopic scores used in inflammatory bowel disease and the most recent advanced endoscopic techniques for the surveillance of colorectal cancer and for the evaluation of disease activity (virtual and vital chromoendoscopy).

Furthermore, it will be possible to learn how to manage the most severe patients during hospitalization, focusing on rescue therapy and surgical indications.

While attending the Master, in order to achieve complete autonomy in the management of patients affected by Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the participant will be involved in outpatient activities and in the execution of endoscopic procedures dedicated to such cases, even to the most complex situations.

Also, the participant will interact with other specialists involved in the management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease and extraintestinal manifestations or surgical complications, such as the rheumatologist, the dermatologist, the surgeon, the ophthalmologist, within a multidisciplinary assessment.

Additionally, the Center has a pathologist dedicated to inflammatory bowel diseases with whom it will be possible to interact in order to learn and apply the histological scores for the evaluation of the disease’s microscopic activity.

The training course is certainly demanding: it requires both an adequate previous knowledge of inflammatory bowel diseases and a continuous development of specific technical skills.

Finally, the course aims to provide the participant with adequate notions regarding endoscopic therapies, devices and techniques, as well as the ability to evaluate therapeutic indications and set up an adequate monitoring of the disease.

During the course, practice through sessions in the endoscopic room and to outpatient activities will be prioritized. As such, participants will initially be observers and then later become experts and autonomous operators.

To sum up, the main objective of the course is to make the participant autonomous in the management of patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Master's Director

Prof. Silvio Danese - Professor of Gastroenterology, Medicine and Surgery  Faculty of San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
Director of the Functional Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy of San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy