The multidisciplinary team for management of inflammatory bowel diseases

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) characterized by a relapsing clinical pattern that typically affect people during their adult and economically productive lives. Affected patients require clinical follow-up because of periodic disease flare-up and of the risk of long-term complications. Extensive diagnostic procedures, medical and surgical treatments are often needed over a lifetime. The challenge posed by management of IBD is better faced by a multidisciplinary team that includes health care providers with complementary diagnostic or therapeutic skills. The team is expected to provide the best practice to manage IBD by defining a realistic "diagnostic and therapeutic pathway" for the patients to follow based on locally available professional, structural and technological resources. This approach appears to improve quality of care for IBD patients and to be cost-effective. (c) 2008 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.