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In 1996, with the publication in Pathologica of the article “Who needs a gastroenterology pathologist?” ¹, Massimo Rugge, Roberto Fiocca and Cesare Bordi, the three scientific fathers of Italian gastrointestinal (GI) pathology, officially established the Italian Group of Gastrointestinal Pathologists (GIPAD) of the Italian Society of Anatomic Pathology and Diagnostic Cytology (SIAPeC). This scientific group was created because of the impelling need for educational proposals regarding GI diseases, which are an important share of daily diagnostic load of our surgical pathology laboratories.

The Tradition of GIPAD has always been based on an ongoing effort to meet the updating needs for GI and non-subspecialized pathologists: the first recommendations were published in 1999 ^2,3 with the purpose of providing a basic set of information to include in a standard GI histology report. In 2011, GIPAD drafted GI-Pathologist Guide Lines concerning the most frequent and/or controversial topics in the field of GI histology diagnostic practice with interdisciplinary look: in addition to pathologists, endoscopists, gastroenterologists, pediatricians and surgeons were involved ⁴.

The numerous discoveries on the physiological basis and molecular features of neoplastic and non-neoplastic diseases in GI pathology of the last 10 years, with the new WHO Classification of Tumours of Digestive System ⁵, required an additional updating with a clear and complete synthesis, comprehensive of the most important clinical correlations, useful for a daily consultation. For this reason, we have enthusiastically accepted the proposal of Dr. Mattia Barbareschi to dedicate special issues of Pathologica, the official journal of Italian pathologists, to new GI pathology fields. The impracticality in organizing live GI meetings in the COVID-19 era, made this work more demanding but also more necessary for all pathologists and their updating.

We asked for the valuable contribution to internationally-recognized experts among Italian pathologists to act as coordinators of work groups, each focusing on a particular GI pathology topic. We are especially grateful to Italian Group of Endocrine Pathologists (GIPE), Italian Group of Emathology Pathologists (GIE), Italian Group of Molecular Pathology and Predictive Medicine Pathologists (PMMP) and Pathologist of Italian Group for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (P-IG-IBD) for their significant contributes.

According to the cornerstone spirit of GIPAD we inherited from our scientific teachers, we hope that these monographies can help our colleagues in their routine practice with special regards on novel topics in GI diagnosis and intrigue them in GI world. This would be a nice opportunity to rediscover importance of team work between pathologists and the other GI actors (also in COVID-19 era).

References

1. Rugge M, Fiocca R, Bordi C. Who Needs a Gastroenterology Pathologist?. [Article in Italian] Pathologica. 1996; 88:359-60.
2. Goldsmith JD, Siegal GP, Suster S. Reporting guidelines for clinical laboratory reports in surgical pathology. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2008; 132:1608-16. DOI
3. Ruby SG. Clinician interpretation of pathology reports: confusion or comprehension?. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2000; 124:943-944. DOI
4. Rugge M. “Die Grenzen meiner sprache sind die Grenzen meiner Welt” - Pathologists and their readers. Dig Liver Dis. 2011; 43:S279-81. DOI
5. WHO Classification of Tumours Editorial Board. WHO Classification of Digestive System Tumours. IARC press: Lyon; 2019.