Acquisizione competenze tecnico-professionali:Iron deficiency anemia is a very frequent and well-known condition affecting billions of people worldwide. There is also emerging evidence that non-anemic iron deficiency is a disease in its own right. Iron deficiency is yet often underdiagnosed and undertreated in many different clinical conditions. In fact, from a clinical point of view iron deficiency anemia interests most of the medical disciplines and even non-medical, nutritional conditions. For these reasons a multidisciplinary debate represents a distinctive element of the present course. In summary, the aim of this course on iron deficiency is to increase the awareness on the clinical importance of iron deficiency anemia and to focus on its management problems. Therefore, we expect that at the end of this course the attendees have obtained an updated knowledge of the physiopathology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and therapy of iron deficiency in patients from a variety of medical and surgical settings.