The Department of Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases strives to provide the most innovative care and treatment strategies for patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, according to the most current scientific evidence. The Department, seeing over 3,800 patients annually, also provides a multidisciplinary approach to these conditions, with the help of specialists and experts in the field, and according to the latest developments in medical technology. The team’s goal has always been to provide the patient with a complete personalized program for diagnosis and treatment.
The Center’s achievements recently underwent an objective and independent assessment by the British branch of KPMG, which deals with monitoring the quality of referral centers. In the period of May-June 2014, the Department, together with seven other Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Diseases centers worldwide – referral hubs in Europe and Canada – was concluded to be a model of excellence worldwide for overall quality of care. In addition to multidisciplinary medical, surgical and radiological staff, the Center was identified as the only in the world to be equipped with a psychologist – expert in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, a sign of the special attention given to patients’ overall wellbeing, beyond pure medical symptoms.
Thus, KPMG has concluded that global Inflammatory Bowel Diseases centers willing to become specialized hubs should view Humanitas standards as exemplary. To this end, we are now committed to developing and quantifying the parameters of quality of care for other centers to monitor.
The Center is also equipped with advanced diagnostic tools and procedures intended to aid early diagnosis and continuous monitoring of conditions through endoscopic and radiological tests.
Alongside the clinical activities, the Centre is engaged in the research and development of new effective therapies for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The Humanitas laboratory carries out basic research along multiple areas, focusing on several aspects of these diseases, in order to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause these conditions in the first place.
The Center performs numerous scientific research projects and collaborates with major referral centers worldwide. It plays an active role in the production of international guidelines on clinical management of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.
Specifically, the Center collaborates daily with the Humanitas Department of Colorectal surgery, headed by Dr. Antonino Spinelli, the latter performing large volumes of highly specialized surgeries for chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, with a laparoscopic approach and cutting-edge protocols for postoperative management, thus optimizing patients’ post-operative recovery. During the postoperative period, the Centre engages nurses specialized in the management of stoma, for patients that require such care.
