St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City has been designated a World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) Training Center, becoming only the third facility of its kind in Southeast Asia and expanding the Philippines’ capacity to train specialists in advanced digestive and liver care.
The hospital’s Institute of Digestive and Liver Diseases (IDLD), now the WGO Manila Training Center, will offer specialized training to Filipino and regional gastroenterologists in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy and clinical hepatology.
Programs will cover advanced procedures including Endoscopic Mucosal Resection, Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection, Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography and Endoscopic Ultrasound, as well as liver transplantation.
The center will offer clinical and endoscopic observerships, simulation-based programs and basic endoscopic skills workshops, giving more specialists access to advanced training in the Philippines.
“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,” IDLD head Dr. Ian Homer Y. Cua said.
Cua said building local expertise could bring advanced care closer to Filipino patients, particularly those with early-stage gastrointestinal cancers and liver diseases.
The center will work with Philippine gastroenterology, digestive endoscopy and hepatology organizations, as well as international partners, while supporting clinical research, faculty exchanges and mentorship.
St. Luke’s IDLD houses the country’s first Center for Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and has experience in adult-to-adult living donor liver transplantation.
Its endoscopy unit is also recognized under Philippine and international endoscopy quality programs.
