29 WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY NEWS JANUARY 2015 Editorial | Expert Point of View | Gastro 2015: AGW/WGO | WDHD News | WGO & WGOF News | WGO Global Guidelines | Calendar of Events FIP-WGO Joint Session: Coping with Common Gastrointestinal Symptoms in the Community Varocha Mahachai, MD, FRCPC, FACG, AGAF Department of Medicine Division of Gastroenterology Chulalongkorn University Hospital Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok 2014 Federation of International Pharmacy (FIP) World Congress. Self-care in the 21st Century: Reflux and Heartburn as a Self-care Model. Speakers (from left to right): Varocha Mahachai, MD, Gerald Dziekan, MD, John Chave, MA, John Alfred Bell, AM, Charles Pollack, MD, PhD. The session was organized by the In-ternational Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) at the World Congress of Phar-macy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, held 30 August – 4 September 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand. It represented a unique opportunity for WGO, repre-senting gastroenterologists throughout the world, to engage directly with pharmacists on the approach to the management of common gastrointes-tinal symptoms. The WGO Global Guideline on common gastrointestinal (GI) symp-toms in the community (http://www. worldgastroenterology.org/Common- Symptoms) was presented by the President of the Gastroenterological Association of Thailand, Professor Varocha Mahachai from Chulalong-korn University and Bangkok Medi-cal Center on behalf of WGO. The WGO Global Guideline on the management of common GI symp-toms, including heartburn, abdomi-nal pain/ discomfort, bloating, and constipation, was developed in 2013 by a joint committee consisting of GI experts, primary care physicians, and representatives of FIP. The main objective was to provide a unique and globally useful guideline that can help in the management in common GI symptoms in the community. The guideline is unique in featuring four levels of care in a cascade approach, starting from self-care, and then the pharmacists’ role, before moving on to the roles of primary care doctors and, finally, specialists. The majority of patients in the community present with symptoms rather than diagnosed conditions. The WGO Global Guidelines have been developed to provide resource-sen-sitive recommendations, rather than focusing on the gold standard of diag-nosis and treatment. Most patients are troubled, but not disabled, by these GI symptoms and they tend to seek relief using self-care, over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Functional GI disorders (FGID) are common and comprise a large proportion of GI practice. When symptoms are mild patients tend to self-medicate, but they should consult a physician if they fail to improve. The approach to other common GI symptoms, includ-ing abdominal pain, bloating and constipation, was further discussed. It is important to recognize those alarm features that should prompt con-sultation with a physician. This was followed by a presentation by Eugene
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