Treat-to-Target: The Era of Targeted Immunosuppressive Agents in IBD Management

With the advent of biologic agents, the treatment of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) has changed from managing symptoms to achieving remission of disease. Disease remission is associated with better outcomes than symptomatic care alone. The Treat-to-Target paradigm provides targets that serve as surrogates for achieving disease remission. The most important target is endoscopic mucosal healing and other targets include symptomatic response, symptomatic remission, biomarker normalization, and normalization of patient's quality of life. Targets are reached via utilization of biologic medications that may be modified or substituted as goals are not met. IBD Qorus represents a national collaborative of academic IBD centers and private gastroenterology practices using the Treat-to-Target approach and patient-centered communication methods to provide better care for all patient's suffering from IBD.