WGO Training Center in Rome, Italy

Introduction:

The WGO Training Center in Rome, the European Endoscopy Training Centre (EETC) is a comprehensive center fully devoted to teaching and training in digestive endoscopy.

The ongoing progress and improvement of modern devices generate new technologies which require a continuous training of the operators who work in the field of Digestive Endoscopy.

For this reason there is a constant request for the training and re-qualification of medical and surgical specialists through advanced and highly specialised training Courses.

The idea of creating a Centre in Rome entirely devoted to the teaching of digestive endoscopy has its roots in the well established and long-lasting experience in training activities that have taken place over the past 20 years at the Gemelli University Hospital’s Digestive Endoscopy Unit. From 1987 to 2007, more than two hundred endoscopists have spent monthly to yearly training periods at the Gemelli’s Digestive Endoscopy Unit. Moreover the same Unit has organized, since the early nineties, 83 Courses on therapeutic ERCP with close to 600 participants and thirteen annual editions of the European Workshop on Therapeutic Digestive Endoscopy and Radiology with live video demonstrations gathering every year approximately 300 attendants from several countries worldwide.

A permanent structure fully dedicated to the purpose of teaching and training in digestive endoscopy was therefore the natural complement of this intense activity. The European Endoscopy Training Centre (EETC) (www.eetc.it), a comprehensive centre fully devoted to teaching and training in digestive endoscopy, was created in July 2003 at the Catholic University School of Medicine in Rome, Italy. Since its opening and WGO endorsement in July 2003, the EETC has organised 120 Courses for endoscopists, for a total of 1500 participants and 15 Courses for Nurses.

Main Objectives / Goals:

To provide a practical and theoretical training process in advanced endoscopic techniques.
To promote the implementation and diffusion of up-dated guidelines.
To support the knowledge and promotion of modern endoscopic techniques through hands-on training on isolated organs and/or electronic simulators.
To promote reaching diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms of the main endoscopic pathologies on the basis of evidence-based medicine by taking part in live demonstrations carried out by Experts and broadcasted from the Endoscopy Unit.
To promote comparing various techniques and devices.
To promote comparing different experiences through interactive discussions with experts.
To support mutual exchange and optimisation of the digestive endoscopy activities in terms of planning and management by comparing the different methods of organisation of local Units.

Facilities:

The center is a permanent structure fully dedicated to the purpose of teaching and training in digestive endoscopy and is located in the center of the Catholic University’s campus, close to the animal lab, in a fully renovated old building. The building has two floors extending over approximately 500 square meters. The heart of the EETC is situated at the basement floor: there is an operating theater with five working stations fully equipped with state-of-the-art Olympus video-endoscopes, Erbe electrosurgical generators with Argon Plasma Coagulation, and medical gases, where trainees can perform on animal models, under appropriate tutoring, a variety of therapeutic endoscopic procedures. A large number of different endoscopic procedures can be carried out on the isolated upper and lower GI tract of the swine by using the Erlangen EASIE model: polypectomy, mucosectomy, hemostatic procedures on bleeding vessels, APC treatments, self-expandable metal stent insertion, antireflux procedures, bile duct sphicterotmy and stenting, etc. If strictly necessary, the EETC is also fully certified and authorised to use live animals under general anaesthesia to perform special procedures. The presence of a vertinary doctor specialised in animal care guarantees that all ethical requirements are fully respected.

The basement floor also comprises two cloakrooms, the secretariat and the scientific direction office. On the first floor, an auditorium for 20 - 25 people, with updated Audio-Visual equipment controlled by a SMART Symposium and permanently linked via Intranet to the Endoscopy suite located within the University Hospital Policlinic A. Gemelli allows theoretical teaching as well as live transmission of endoscopic procedures performed by the local staff or by invited guest faculties. A small specialised library-meeting room and another room equipped with four personal computer working stations for individualised electronic interactive teaching are also located at the first floor. As a result, the EETC represents a unique geographical entity where all the steps of the teaching process that should precede hands-on experience on patients may be replicated.

Areas of Training:

Endoscopic treatment of upper GI bleeding
Endoscopic treatment of GERD
Colonic endotherapy
Esophageal endotherapy
Treatment of acute and chronic pancreatitis.
Polypectomy and mucosectomy of the oesophagus, stomach and colon.
Bilio-pancreatic therapeutic endoscopy (Basic and Advanced)
Small bowel diagnosis and therapy through traditional endoscopy and videocapsule endoscopy.
Therapeutic Diagnostic Endoscopy of the small bowel
Principles and techniques of dilation and stenting of strictures of the GI tract
Courses on pre and post-operative assessment of patients undergoing therapeutic digestive endoscopy dedicated to the nurses of our Hospital are also carried out by the endoscopy nurses of our Unit

Contact:

Mrs. Raffaella Aragona
Policlinico A. Gemelli
Istituto di Clinica Chirurgica
Segreteria del Prof. Costamagna
9 Floor - Wing B - Room 910B
Largo A. Gemelli, 8
00168 Roma
ITALY
Email: gcostamagna@rm.unicatt.it
Website: www.eetc.it

Further Information:

For more comprehensive information on the Rome Training Center, including trainee application process, course offerings, and other details which may be of importance to potential partners or trainees, please refer the downloadable Rome Training Center Info Package:

Rome Training Center Info Package ( )