William R. Brugge MD

William Brugge, MD, is a teacher-clinician in the Gastroenterology Division at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. As a gastroenterologist and therapeutic endoscopist, the vast majority of his time is spent on outpatient care in the endoscopy unit and in his office.

Dr. Brugge's academic and research focus involves the field of advanced endoscopy. He was one of the pioneers in the development of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and introduced this technique to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1993. Although EUS was originally designed to simply stage gastrointestinal malignancies, it has evolved into an important diagnostic and therapeutic technique for endoscopists. The application of EUS in the diagnosis, staging, and biopsy of pancreatic malignancies has been a particularly important focus for Dr. Brugge. He has concentrated on the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cystic neoplasms. Leading a large multi-center trial, Dr. Brugge found that EUS imaging morphology and cyst cytology were relatively non-diagnostic for differentiating between mucinous and serous cystadenomas. The trial demonstrated that cyst fluid tumor markers were the most diagnostic tool and CEA was the most accurate marker. His team has also completed a number of studies in cyst fluid KRAS, GNAS, and other molecular markers.

Dr. Brugge has also examined the possibility that EUS could be used as a treatment of cystic neoplasms. EUS-guided ethanol ablation of cystic neoplasms was developed at MGH under his direction. His team published the results of prospective randomized trial of the ethanol lavage in the ablation of cystic neoplasms of the pancreas.

In the past, Dr. Brugge has dedicated time to the teaching and training of endoscopic procedures. In this role, he helped establish a Joint Fellowship Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital that provided a training experience in ERCP, EUS, and other advanced endoscopic procedures. Along similar lines, he has developed a series of CDs, DVDs, and on-line material that provide teaching tools for fellows and attending physicians.

Recently, Dr. Brugge has accepted the challenge of leading and developing a new Gastroenterology Division at Mount Auburn Hospital, a community-based Harvard teaching hospital. In this position, he will be recruiting a number of new faculty members, developing the endoscopy unit, and establishing an EUS service.