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Editorial: What are the therapeutic advances in gastroenterology? Opinions from world experts

This year's Digestive Diseases Week (DDW), held recently in San Diego, USA, showed us how far we have come in treating gastrointestinal and hepatic diseases. The conference was a vital exposition of our successes, our current thinking, latest results and future steps. It explored the areas of basic science where there is intense activity into the causes and mechanisms of disease, and also revealed the clinical advances we are making with new drugs, regimens and strategies. This type of conference will be repeated across several continents this year, and collectively they will lead to the dissemination of best evidence and clinical practice in gastrointestinal (GI) medicine. This is also the focus of Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology, aided and abetted by our international editorial board. Thus, we thought it would be timely to ask for their opinions on significant therapeutic advances in gastroenterology, what the future holds, and what needs to be addressed. This collation of expert comment provides a clinical picture of where we are currently, and where we need to head in the years to come. Whether or not the following views are shared or disparate does not matter – the point is that research in gastroenterology is in good hands and will continue to thrive in the years to come.