Dr Fernando Casals Seoane

Background and training

I trained as a gastroenterologist at La Princesa University Hospital in Madrid, where I have worked since 2009 and coordinate the Inpatient Unit. There I combine clinical work (inpatients, outpatient clinics, diagnostic and therapeutic upper and lower endoscopy, and abdominal ultrasound) with teaching as a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid and residency tutor, and with clinical research.

Before that I read Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid. I completed training in hepatology and liver transplantation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and at Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid.

Since 2024 I have also held clinics and performed endoscopy at Hospital Ruber Juan Bravo. The private practice I am now opening answers a specific situation: the waiting list has grown beyond what is reasonable, and some patients need someone to review their case without waiting months.

European Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

I obtained certification from the European Section and Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the body which, within the European Union of Medical Specialists, defines and verifies the training standard for the specialty across Europe.

It is obtained by passing a European examination and certifies that training and practice meet that common standard. Few gastroenterologists in Spain hold it.

It is not an honorary title or an award. It is an external, independent verification of the level of training, and that is exactly why I think it is worth mentioning here: it is one of the few things a patient can check for themselves.

Research and publications

I have been principal investigator at La Princesa University Hospital in several international clinical trials, mainly along two lines: acute pancreatitis, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in cystic fibrosis.

The best known is the WATERFALL trial on fluid therapy in the early phase of acute pancreatitis, whose results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2022 and changed standard practice. I have also been principal investigator for the WATERLAND and WATERFINDER trials and for a trial on preventing recurrent gallstone pancreatitis.

In cystic fibrosis I have been principal investigator in the SOLUTION, PANC 2002 and MS1819 studies, aimed at optimising enzyme replacement therapy.

My doctoral thesis studied the course of osteopenia and osteoporosis over five years in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, and was awarded Summa Cum Laude by the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Teaching

I have been an honorary professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid since 2015 and a residency tutor in Gastroenterology since 2018. I have supervised several final-year dissertations and speak regularly at the Spanish National Course on Emergencies in Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

I am also the author of chapters in several specialty textbooks, including Urgencias y Emergencias en Gastroenterología y Hepatología and Práctica clínica en Gastroenterología y Hepatología.