WGO center to expand Philippines’ GI specialist capacity

The designation of St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City’s Institute of Digestive and Liver Diseases (IDLD) as a World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) Training Center is expected to expand access to specialized gastroenterology training in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia.

The WGO Manila Training Center is the first WGO training center in the Philippines, the third in Southeast Asia and the organization’s 25th training center worldwide.

The center will provide structured clinical and endoscopic observerships, simulation-based training and ex-vivo workshops, with a focus on advanced diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy and clinical hepatology, including liver transplantation.

“This designation as a WGO Training Center is both a testament to St. Luke’s clinical excellence and a transformative step for gastroenterology training in the Philippines and across the Asia-Pacific,” St. Luke’s IDLD Head Ian Homer Y. Cua said.

“By combining global benchmarks with our institution’s advanced infrastructure, we are empowering the next generation of specialists to master complex diagnostic and therapeutic techniques,” he added.

WGO President Carolina Olano said the training centers were established because access to quality medical education and training remains unequal.

“Excellent training is not equally or equitably accessible to everybody,” Ms. Olano said during the inauguration of the Manila center on Tuesday.

She said WGO training centers are intended to serve as platforms for capacity building, equitable access and sustainable opportunities for new generations of healthcare professionals.

Rather than simply replicating one training model, Ms. Olano said the centers combine global standards with local relevance and prioritize regional diseases and healthcare challenges.

The Manila center will allow local and international trainees to gain exposure to advanced procedures including endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound.

Training will also cover clinical and transplant hepatology, bariatric and metabolic endoscopy, motility diagnostics and inflammatory bowel disease care.

St. Lukes’ IDLD Training Officer Marianne Linley Sy-Janairo said the center’s program is built around four objectives: expose, simulate, build and connect.

The program will expose trainees to high-volume advanced practice, subspecialty services and multidisciplinary decision-making. Simulation-based programs and ex-vivo workshops will provide opportunities to develop procedural skills in a controlled setting.

The center will also build local and regional capacity in endoscopy and hepatology while connecting trainees and faculty through research partnerships, joint publications and reciprocal training exchanges.

Two annual observership programs will be offered for international trainees and early-career gastroenterologists, with each program lasting between two weeks and one month.

The center will have two training tracks. One will focus on simulation-based mastery and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy, culminating in a Basic Endoscopy Skills Training Lower Gastrointestinal Workshop.

The second will focus on image-enhanced endoscopy and advanced therapeutics, including optical diagnosis, lesion recognition and therapeutic techniques.

Both tracks will include clinical and endoscopic observerships, institute conferences and education sessions, and hands-on ex-vivo workshops.

Ms. Sy-Janairo said the center’s distinguishing feature is its integration of clinical observation with structured simulation-based education, didactic learning, deliberate practice, ex-vivo training and faculty feedback.

The program will also allow local trainees to access the broader WGO network, including training opportunities in niche subspecialties that may not be available locally.

For St. Luke’s President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis P. Serrano, the designation reflects the hospital’s broader goal of developing local expertise rather than simply acquiring advanced medical technology.

“True global excellence means serving as a source of knowledge, training, mentoring and empowering the next generation at home so Filipinos receive world-class treatment,” Mr. Serrano said.

St. Luke’s IDLD has established the country’s first Center for Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and provides advanced therapeutic endoscopy and liver care, according to the hospital.

The institute will also serve as a hub for collaborative clinical research, faculty exchange, mentorship and evidence-based care.

Mr. Serrano said the WGO designation was a fitting milestone as St. Luke’s prepares to mark its 123rd anniversary, whose theme is “Global Excellence, Generations of Care.”

He said the hospital aims to share its achievements and expertise through the new training center, allowing the benefits of specialized education to extend beyond the institution.

For Ms. Olano, the broader goal is a multiplier effect in which trained specialists return to their communities and teach others.

“The most important thing is the multiplier effect,” she said, noting that the success of a training center should not be measured simply by attendance but by what trainees change after returning home.

The Manila center joins WGO’s network of training centers, which Ms. Olano said should develop into a connected global learning community rather than a group of isolated institutions.

She said the Manila center is expected to become an important educational hub for Southeast Asia while contributing its expertise to the wider WGO network. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba