Professor Schoepfer is responsible for the outpatient consultation of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the CHUV. He is internationally recognized for his work on inflammatory bowel diseases and in particular eosinophilic esophagitis. He was appointed associate professor at UNIL on April 1, 2018.
A highly visible area of his research concerns eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a pathology first described in 1993. He founded and directs the international group “Eosinophilic Esophagitis Activity Index (EEsAI)” which aims to establish instruments for the measurement of EoE activity from clinical, endoscopic, and histological points of view. In this context, he developed and validated the first score (“EEsAI PRO instrument”) which was used in multiple clinical and pharmacological studies. This work has made it possible to offer patients new specific treatments.
Since 2005, the gastroenterologist has participated in the “Swiss IBD Cohort Study” where he represents the CHUV and has been leading the “Swiss Eosinophilic Esophagitis Cohort” since 2014. His many publications concern the natural history of digestive inflammatory diseases, the standardization of the measurement of their activity, and the evaluation of new treatments. His work was notably rewarded with the Honorary Prize of the Swiss Society of Gastroenterology in 2014 and the Allergy Prize of the Swiss Society of Allergy and Immunology in 2016.
At the clinical level, Alain Schoepfer is responsible for the outpatient consultation of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the CHUV, the volume of which has more than doubled over five years. He is a reference for inflammatory bowel diseases and co-author of guidelines at the national and international levels.
Passionately committed to teaching, he develops a strong post-graduate training activity in Switzerland and beyond our borders. Note that it also regularly organizes information events for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.