Dr Eytan Wine was graduated from the School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in 1998, with training in paediatrics at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, followed by specialty training in gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where he also earned a PhD degree for studies in bacterially induced intestinal inflammation.

His first position as an attending physician began in 2009 at the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, where in 2021 he was appointed to a professorship of paediatrics at the University of Alberta – which he has just left to work again in Toronto at the Hospital for Sick Children.

His academic interests have centred on the interplay among diet, enteral microbiome, and intestinal inflammation.

When interviewed in Helsinki, at the 2025 annual meeting of ESPGHAN, he chose, however, rather than to concentrate on his contributions in this area, instead to address the important clinical question of:

• How to select initial therapy and

• How to progress to longer-term therapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, given the sometimes bewildering array of options in both testing and treatment.

He asks:

• What are the best treatments for paediatric inflammatory bowel disease in 2025, and how do we define "best"?

• How do we navigate a world with so many therapy options and choose the ‘best’ one for an individual patient?

• Finally, does the order matter in which we deploy the weapons in our armamentarium?

• Do we start with our most effective therapy or keep it for refractory cases only?

All this, with the ground beneath us continually quaking and shifting...

To specialise in the care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease requires substantial effort.With a guide like Dr Wine, however, one can be more confident that one is choosing well – as the references below demonstrate.

Literature

• Bressler B. Is there an optimal sequence of biologic therapies for inflammatory bowel disease? Therap Adv Gastroenterol 2023 Apr 5; 16:17562848231159452.Doi: 10.1177/17562848231159452. eCollection 2023. PMID: 37057077. PMCID: PMC10087655

• Spencer EA. Choosing the right therapy at the right time for pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: Does sequence matter. Gastroenterol Clin North Am 2023 Sep; 52(3):517-534.Doi: 10.1016/j.gtc.2023.05.006. PMID: 37543397

• Noor NM et al. Review article: Novel therapies in inflammatory bowel disease - An update for clinicians. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2024 Nov; 60(9):1244-1260.Doi: 10.1111/apt.18294. PMID: 39403052

  Dr. Wine´s favourite song: Michael Jakson - We are the world

  ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo