Interview with Dr. Ferdinando D'Amico—Winner of the Journal of Clinical Medicine 2024 Travel Award

Dr. Ferdinando D'Amico is a gastroenterologist in the Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy Department of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) directed by Prof. Silvio Danese. After graduating in medicine from the Catholic University of Rome in 2015, he obtained a specialization in gastroenterology at the Humanitas University of Milan in 2020. In 2024, he obtained his Ph.D. in “Histology in inflammatory bowel diseases” at the Humanitas University of Milan. He is mainly interested in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis). He is the author and co-author of more than 150 scientific articles published in international journals and book chapters. He consistently participates as a speaker at international congresses and conferences.

The following is a short interview with Dr. Ferdinando D'Amico:

1. As the winner of this award, is there anything you would like to express?
Yes, I want to thank JCM for this opportunity, which allowed me to disseminate my research data at an international conference and interface with experts from all over the world.

2. Did you promote the journal at the conference? In addition, how do you prefer to share the journal with your community?
Yes, I promoted the journal at the conference by clearly specifying in my poster that “Travel expenses were partially covered by the Travel Award sponsored by the open access Journal of Clinical Medicine published by MDPI”.

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3. Where do you obtain journal award participation information? In your previous cooperation with JCM and MDPI, what impressed you most?
I received information about the journal award through an email from the journal. Regarding JCM, I appreciate two things in particular: the articles are reviewed very quickly and the time between submission and publication is very short.

4. Could you briefly introduce your current research to our readers?
I am a gastroenterologist at the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan (Italy). I mainly deal with clinical research. My main research topics are the role of histology in IBD, new endpoints for IBD, the role of fecal calprotectin in patient management, and the efficacy and safety of new drugs.

5. Which research topics do you think will be of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?
In the coming years, I believe there will be increasingly greater attention toward achieving composite endpoints that can allow greater disease control. To achieve this objective, there will be increasingly greater attention to tight control through the use of non-invasive tools such as intestinal ultrasound and combination strategies of multiple advanced drugs (dual therapy) will be increasingly frequent and will be used increasingly earlier in the therapeutic algorithm of patients with IBD.

6. Which qualities do you think young researchers need?
I believe that a young researcher must first and foremost be in love with what they do. Passion is the key element that drives research. They must have patience as the search does not provide results in a short time and they must have great willpower.

7. JCM is an open access (OA) journal. What is your opinion of the open access model of publishing?
Open access is a method that allows for the simple and rapid dissemination of scientific articles. In fact, everyone has access to published works.

More information about journal awards can be found at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jcm/awards.