Bruce E Sands, MD

Bruce Sands, MD, MS is the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine. Dr. Sands is an expert in the management of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and has earned an international reputation for his care of patients with complex and refractory disease.  He joined Mount Sinai in 2010 as Chief of the Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology.  Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Sands was Medical Co-Director of the Crohn's & Colitis Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he also served as the hospital's Acting Chief of the Gastrointestinal Unit as well as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

A longtime advocate for the continued translational research in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, Dr. Sands is widely recognized for his innovative treatment of IBD and for his clinical investigations of new therapeutics.  He was among the first to report the efficacy of infliximab-a drug used to treat autoimmune diseases-in ulcerative colitis, a result later confirmed in large, multi-center randomized controlled trials.  Dr. Sands was also principal investigator for the landmark ACCENT II study, an international project that demonstrated the efficacy of the anti-tumor necrosis factor antibody infliximab as a long-term treatment for fistulizing Crohn's disease.

Dr. Sands' research also explores IBD epidemiology and includes the creation of a population-based cohort of IBD in Rhode Island, a project that is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.,

A leader in several major professional organizations, Dr. Sands has served as the chair of the Clinical Research Alliance of the Crohn's Foundation of America, Chair of the Immunology, Microbiology and Inflammatory Bowel Disease Section of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), and chair of the International Organization for the Study of IBD. He is an AGA Fellow (AGAF) and a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology (FACG). In 2006 he was named Humanitarian of the Year by the New England Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, and the Massachusetts General Physician Organization honored him for "Excellence in Action" in recognition of his distinguished patient care.

His work has appeared in several leading peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Gut.  Dr. Sands is also a reviewer for many prominent publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sands served as an Associate Editor for the field's leading journal, Gastroenterology, from 2011 to 2016.

Dr. Sands received his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicinein Massachusetts and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  He then completed clinical and research fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2001 Dr. Sands also earned a Master of Science in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.