Areas of Expertise

Dr Wilson performs a range of treatments, including:

• Colonoscopy (including bowel cancer screening)
• Endoscopy
• Endoscopic mucosal resection of colonic polyps
• Colonic stricture dilation

Some of the most common conditions she treats are:

• Irritable bowel syndrome (including food intolerance)
• Inflammatory bowel disease (Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease)
• Consequences of cancer treatment
• Radiation proctopathy
• Pelvic radiation disease
• Lower anterior resection syndrome (LARS)

About Dr Ana Wilson

Dr Ana Wilson is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and Partner at OneWelbeck, who specialises in luminal gastroenterology, including endoscopy and colonoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome.

She is a clinical lead for Gastrointestinal Consequences of Cancer Treatment at St Mark’s Hospital and the Royal Marsden Hospital, caring for patients with digestive system problems following surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. She is also an honorary senior clinical lecturer at Imperial College London.

Dr Wilson’s NHS endoscopy practice is based at the Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy, St Mark’s Hospital – an international centre of excellence. As an accredited bowel cancer screening colonoscopist, a large proportion of her work there is devoted to bowel cancer screening through colonoscopy within Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.

Dr Wilson played an instrumental part in shaping the design and layout of the Digestive Health Centre. “It was very important to us that patients would not only have the best endoscopists performing the procedure but have their procedure performed in a unit that will cater for their comfort and where safety is paramount.”

“We were very keen that rooms would have the configuration which ensure comfort for endoscopists and patients. We were also keen that patients all had individual toilets in their cubicles in which they were both admitted and discharged ensuring the highest level of privacy and dignity.”

Dr Ana Wilson, BA, BMBCh, MD, MRCP qualified from University of Oxford in 2002. She obtained Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 2005 and trained in gastroenterology and general internal medicine in Oxford Deanery. She spent three years at the Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy, St Mark’s Hospital undertaking research in the use of colonoscopy in diagnosis and assessment of dysplasia, under the supervision of Prof Brian Saunders. This led to an MD thesis at the Imperial College, London, and she has been widely published on the subject.

After completing her training, Dr Wilson specialised further in management of complex inflammatory bowel disease and endoscopy at University College Hospital, London. She was appointed as Consultant Gastroenterologist and Specialist Endoscopist at St Mark’s Hospital, in December 2012.

At St Mark’s Hospital, she is one of a few specialists specialising in ulcerative colitis surveillance (detection of pre-cancerous lesions). She leads the service for patients who have gastrointestinal problems following cancer treatment both at St Mark’s Hospital and The Royal Marsden. Dr Ana Wilson partnered with Welbeck Health in 2018 to collaboratively develop the OneWelbeck Digestive Health Centre.

Research Highlights

Dr Wilson is actively involved in research around colonoscopic surveillance in ulcerative colitis and is currently supervising a fellow working towards an MD in risk prediction and clinical decision-making related to dysplasia (pre-cancerous lesions). Her other main area of interest is related to GI disturbance following cancer treatment and she is currently supervising two PhD students looking into pathophysiology and effects of lower anterior resection syndrome on quality of life. She was a co-applicant on a number of successful NIHR grants, most recently RfPB grant looking at the role of ondansetron in lower anterior resection syndrome.

Dr Wilson has contributed to many peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters, including under her maiden name Dr Ana Ignjatovic.

She has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings and has contributed to a number of guidelines on the use of advanced imaging in lesion recognition including in inflammatory bowel disease.