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AGA journals select new editorial fellows
Congrats to the six GIs selected for this competitive program.
The AGA journals – Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), and Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH) – are pleased to announce their 2019-2020 editorial fellows.
Gastroenterology
Feng Su, MD
University of Washington, Seattle
Victoria Weis, PhD
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
CGH
Austin Chiang, MD, MPH
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn.
Jennifer Kolb, MD
University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora
CMGH
Cambrian Liu, PhD
The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Calif.
Tirthadipa Pradhan-Sundd, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, Penn.
The editorial fellows will be mentored on their respective journals’ editorial processes, including peer review and the publication process from manuscript submission to acceptance. They will participate in discussions and conferences with the boards of editors and work closely with the AGA editorial staff. Additionally, the fellows will participate in AGA’s new reviewer education program and will also be offered the opportunity to contribute content to their respective journals. The newly expanded program builds on the success of the previous 2 years when Gastroenterology had an editorial fellow.
The journals’ board of editors and editorial staff congratulate the fellows and are excited to work with them over the next year.
Get to know this rock star IBS researcher and mom
AGA Research Foundation pilot awards are an invaluable tool for investigators – they provide seed funding to explore promising new lines of research and generate preliminary data for larger grants. So, when Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD, received the 2016 AGA–Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Research Scholar Award in Neurogastroenterology, she was able to double down on a project to identify why men and women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the most common but least understood of all digestive disorders, report different symptoms and respond differently to treatment. Based on her recent accomplishments, we’re excited for you to get to know Dr. Rao, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and our AGA Research Foundation researcher of the month.
The Rao lab AGA-funded project focused on building upon Dr. Rao’s previous findings, which showed that disrupting nerves in the bowel had vastly different effects on males and females. These surprising results led Dr. Rao to explore whether sex hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen, might regulate how well things move through the bowel. Dr. Rao believes that identifying the underlying causes for sex differences in bowel function could lead to more effective and personalized treatments for patients with IBS. You can read the specifics of Dr. Rao’s research in the October 2017 issue of Gastroenterology and the October 2018 issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
IBS symptoms in women more typically involve constipation while young men with IBS more commonly report diarrhea. Over time, as men age, however, they tend to experience more constipation, Dr. Rao said. “Sex hormones might be signaling directly to the nerves in our gut and playing a role in these sex differences,” Dr. Rao said. “It might mean we can’t think of this as one disorder. IBS in a male may be different than IBS in a female, and that could change how we approach diagnosis and treatment.”
The AGA grant laid the groundwork for Dr. Rao’s findings, which led to a new understanding of how different types of cells in the gut nervous system regulate bowel functions – and how this regulation is different in males and females. The AGA grant helped Dr. Rao secure funding from the National Institutes of Health to launch new projects focused on how disruption of the gut nervous system causes disease.
Dr. Rao received the AGA award in 2015, when her son, Avinash, was aged 2 years. She acknowledged the delicate balancing act of raising a family and advancing her research.
“A lot of things were happening at once,” she said. “As a young parent, having the support of this award and having a technician (made possible by the award) made a big difference.”
Her son, now 5 years old, is growing up in a science-centric household because Dr. Rao’s husband is also a scientist. Not surprisingly, Dr. Rao says, her son is becoming a budding scientist.
“He talks about experiments all the time,” she says. “He even articulated to me the other day why we work on mice to learn how to help people. I never taught him that. I was floored.”
Five new GI technologies to know
The AGA Tech Summit Shark Tank is our annual reminder that the field of GI is ripe for innovation. Continue reading for an overview of the five new technologies pitched to our panel of sharks.
The smart toilet seat. A toilet seat developed by Toi Labs, called TrueLoo, is equipped with lighting and cameras that capture images of bowel movements and urination for subsequent analysis. The company describes TrueLoo as a low-cost disease-screening tool that has major potential for early detection of conditions ranging from dehydration to gastrointestinal cancer.
AI to aid screening endoscopy. A new tool called Ultivision, being developed by the startup Docbot, was described as a strategy to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to aid endoscopists in screening for dysplasia in either screening colonoscopy or in surveillance of Barrett’s esophagus. The tool integrates with existing endoscopic tools. As tissue is visualized, the AI is programmed to highlight suspected dysplasia with a colored box to alert the endoscopist.
Obesity phenotyping tool. The Pheno Test, developed by Phenomix Sciences, applies “multi-omics” to a blood-based test to separate patients with obesity into four phenotypes: hungry brain (satiation signal is impaired), hungry gut (signals to eat are upregulated), emotional hunger (psychological reasons drive eating behavior), and slow metabolism (failure to burn fat at normal rates). With this knowledge, treatment can be tailored appropriately leading to better outcomes.
Capsule diagnostic tool. The Atmo Gas Capsule from Atmo Biosciences is an ingestible capsule that measures gases at the source, which can accelerate the diagnosis of diseases such as IBS and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). According to the company, this technique is highly accurate and offers an alternative to more invasive and expensive diagnostic tools.
Winner: “all-in-one” IBD app. Our Shark Tank winner by both popular vote from AGA Tech Summit attendees and the six-member Shark Tank panel was Oshi Health, selected for its IBD app. The app allows patients to track symptoms, a first step in understanding personalized flare pattern, as well as find resources to learn about their disease and communicate with other patients about their experiences. In a future iteration, information gathered by the app will be made available to physicians to provide current information about disease status to better individualize therapy.
2020 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress now open for registration
Join the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and AGA next January in Austin, Tex., for the premier conference on IBD.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress combines the strengths of the nation’s leading IBD patient organization, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and the premier GI professional organization, AGA, to bring together IBD professionals, across all disciplines, to transform IBD care.
The 2020 Congress Committee Chair David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF, University of Chicago, and Cochair Uma Mahadevan, MD, AGAF, University of California, San Francisco, lead a faculty that includes thought leaders in the fields of GI, research investigation, surgery, pediatrics, advanced practice, IBD nursing, diet and nutrition, mental health, radiology, and pathology.
The congress’s agenda includes main sessions that will emphasize case studies and panel discussions. There will also be parallel sessions on basic and translational science for senior and junior investigators. In addition, opening breakout sessions, taking place Jan. 23, will be available for selection free of charge.
Attendees of the 2020 congress will be able to meet with IBD leaders, discover different perspectives, leave with practical information they can immediately implement to take care of their next IBD patient and hear what’s on the horizon in potential treatment.
There will also be plenty of social events and plenty of time to build a strong network, including a Friday night Welcome Reception that should not be missed.
In addition, the 2020 congress is taking place in Austin, Tex. The capital of Texas and the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin is famous for its inspiring and enticing entertainment, culture, cuisine, and outdoor settings. Make a week of it and enjoy all Austin has to offer.
Early-bird registration ends Sept. 18. General abstract submissions for basic, translational, and clinical research begin Aug. 28 and end Oct. 23. To learn more and register, visit www.crohnscolitiscongress.org.
AGA welcomes new president, Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF
Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF, began his term as the 114th president of the AGA Institute at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW 2019).
Dr. El-Serag is former editor in chief of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He currently serves as chair of the department of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, following a decade leading and expanding Baylor’s gastroenterology and hepatology section. He is one of the few academic gastroenterologists serving as a chair of a department of medicine in the United States.
Originally Palestinian, Dr. El-Serag became a U.S. citizen in the early 2000s after medical school in Libya. He completed his training at community hospitals in the United States. His path from Benghazi to Baylor is described in the May issue of Gastroenterology by Baylor colleague Dr. Fasiha Kanwal.
“I firmly believe that the success I achieved in the United States would not have been possible anywhere else in the world, and it is as much a testament to the accepting society and medical system as to whatever intrinsic ability or skill I have,” noted Dr. El-Serag.
The major focus of Dr. El-Serag’s scholarly work is the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma. Much of the modern literature on this topic includes his more than 100 publications. Since 2014, Dr. El-Serag has been named by Thomson Reuter as among the top 1% of clinical scientists.
Dr. El-Serag “is an innovative scientist, a compassionate physician, and a gifted educator. He is a relentless advocate of science and training, with an astute political sense — all key to influencing and shaping policy,” said Dr. Kanwal.
Dr. El-Serag’s term as AGA president concludes May 2020. Follow him on twitter at @SeragHashem.
AGA journals select new editorial fellows
Congrats to the six GIs selected for this competitive program.
The AGA journals – Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), and Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH) – are pleased to announce their 2019-2020 editorial fellows.
Gastroenterology
Feng Su, MD
University of Washington, Seattle
Victoria Weis, PhD
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
CGH
Austin Chiang, MD, MPH
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn.
Jennifer Kolb, MD
University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora
CMGH
Cambrian Liu, PhD
The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Calif.
Tirthadipa Pradhan-Sundd, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, Penn.
The editorial fellows will be mentored on their respective journals’ editorial processes, including peer review and the publication process from manuscript submission to acceptance. They will participate in discussions and conferences with the boards of editors and work closely with the AGA editorial staff. Additionally, the fellows will participate in AGA’s new reviewer education program and will also be offered the opportunity to contribute content to their respective journals. The newly expanded program builds on the success of the previous 2 years when Gastroenterology had an editorial fellow.
The journals’ board of editors and editorial staff congratulate the fellows and are excited to work with them over the next year.
Get to know this rock star IBS researcher and mom
AGA Research Foundation pilot awards are an invaluable tool for investigators – they provide seed funding to explore promising new lines of research and generate preliminary data for larger grants. So, when Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD, received the 2016 AGA–Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Research Scholar Award in Neurogastroenterology, she was able to double down on a project to identify why men and women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the most common but least understood of all digestive disorders, report different symptoms and respond differently to treatment. Based on her recent accomplishments, we’re excited for you to get to know Dr. Rao, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and our AGA Research Foundation researcher of the month.
The Rao lab AGA-funded project focused on building upon Dr. Rao’s previous findings, which showed that disrupting nerves in the bowel had vastly different effects on males and females. These surprising results led Dr. Rao to explore whether sex hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen, might regulate how well things move through the bowel. Dr. Rao believes that identifying the underlying causes for sex differences in bowel function could lead to more effective and personalized treatments for patients with IBS. You can read the specifics of Dr. Rao’s research in the October 2017 issue of Gastroenterology and the October 2018 issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
IBS symptoms in women more typically involve constipation while young men with IBS more commonly report diarrhea. Over time, as men age, however, they tend to experience more constipation, Dr. Rao said. “Sex hormones might be signaling directly to the nerves in our gut and playing a role in these sex differences,” Dr. Rao said. “It might mean we can’t think of this as one disorder. IBS in a male may be different than IBS in a female, and that could change how we approach diagnosis and treatment.”
The AGA grant laid the groundwork for Dr. Rao’s findings, which led to a new understanding of how different types of cells in the gut nervous system regulate bowel functions – and how this regulation is different in males and females. The AGA grant helped Dr. Rao secure funding from the National Institutes of Health to launch new projects focused on how disruption of the gut nervous system causes disease.
Dr. Rao received the AGA award in 2015, when her son, Avinash, was aged 2 years. She acknowledged the delicate balancing act of raising a family and advancing her research.
“A lot of things were happening at once,” she said. “As a young parent, having the support of this award and having a technician (made possible by the award) made a big difference.”
Her son, now 5 years old, is growing up in a science-centric household because Dr. Rao’s husband is also a scientist. Not surprisingly, Dr. Rao says, her son is becoming a budding scientist.
“He talks about experiments all the time,” she says. “He even articulated to me the other day why we work on mice to learn how to help people. I never taught him that. I was floored.”
Five new GI technologies to know
The AGA Tech Summit Shark Tank is our annual reminder that the field of GI is ripe for innovation. Continue reading for an overview of the five new technologies pitched to our panel of sharks.
The smart toilet seat. A toilet seat developed by Toi Labs, called TrueLoo, is equipped with lighting and cameras that capture images of bowel movements and urination for subsequent analysis. The company describes TrueLoo as a low-cost disease-screening tool that has major potential for early detection of conditions ranging from dehydration to gastrointestinal cancer.
AI to aid screening endoscopy. A new tool called Ultivision, being developed by the startup Docbot, was described as a strategy to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to aid endoscopists in screening for dysplasia in either screening colonoscopy or in surveillance of Barrett’s esophagus. The tool integrates with existing endoscopic tools. As tissue is visualized, the AI is programmed to highlight suspected dysplasia with a colored box to alert the endoscopist.
Obesity phenotyping tool. The Pheno Test, developed by Phenomix Sciences, applies “multi-omics” to a blood-based test to separate patients with obesity into four phenotypes: hungry brain (satiation signal is impaired), hungry gut (signals to eat are upregulated), emotional hunger (psychological reasons drive eating behavior), and slow metabolism (failure to burn fat at normal rates). With this knowledge, treatment can be tailored appropriately leading to better outcomes.
Capsule diagnostic tool. The Atmo Gas Capsule from Atmo Biosciences is an ingestible capsule that measures gases at the source, which can accelerate the diagnosis of diseases such as IBS and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). According to the company, this technique is highly accurate and offers an alternative to more invasive and expensive diagnostic tools.
Winner: “all-in-one” IBD app. Our Shark Tank winner by both popular vote from AGA Tech Summit attendees and the six-member Shark Tank panel was Oshi Health, selected for its IBD app. The app allows patients to track symptoms, a first step in understanding personalized flare pattern, as well as find resources to learn about their disease and communicate with other patients about their experiences. In a future iteration, information gathered by the app will be made available to physicians to provide current information about disease status to better individualize therapy.
2020 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress now open for registration
Join the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and AGA next January in Austin, Tex., for the premier conference on IBD.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress combines the strengths of the nation’s leading IBD patient organization, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and the premier GI professional organization, AGA, to bring together IBD professionals, across all disciplines, to transform IBD care.
The 2020 Congress Committee Chair David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF, University of Chicago, and Cochair Uma Mahadevan, MD, AGAF, University of California, San Francisco, lead a faculty that includes thought leaders in the fields of GI, research investigation, surgery, pediatrics, advanced practice, IBD nursing, diet and nutrition, mental health, radiology, and pathology.
The congress’s agenda includes main sessions that will emphasize case studies and panel discussions. There will also be parallel sessions on basic and translational science for senior and junior investigators. In addition, opening breakout sessions, taking place Jan. 23, will be available for selection free of charge.
Attendees of the 2020 congress will be able to meet with IBD leaders, discover different perspectives, leave with practical information they can immediately implement to take care of their next IBD patient and hear what’s on the horizon in potential treatment.
There will also be plenty of social events and plenty of time to build a strong network, including a Friday night Welcome Reception that should not be missed.
In addition, the 2020 congress is taking place in Austin, Tex. The capital of Texas and the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin is famous for its inspiring and enticing entertainment, culture, cuisine, and outdoor settings. Make a week of it and enjoy all Austin has to offer.
Early-bird registration ends Sept. 18. General abstract submissions for basic, translational, and clinical research begin Aug. 28 and end Oct. 23. To learn more and register, visit www.crohnscolitiscongress.org.
AGA welcomes new president, Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF
Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF, began his term as the 114th president of the AGA Institute at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW 2019).
Dr. El-Serag is former editor in chief of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He currently serves as chair of the department of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, following a decade leading and expanding Baylor’s gastroenterology and hepatology section. He is one of the few academic gastroenterologists serving as a chair of a department of medicine in the United States.
Originally Palestinian, Dr. El-Serag became a U.S. citizen in the early 2000s after medical school in Libya. He completed his training at community hospitals in the United States. His path from Benghazi to Baylor is described in the May issue of Gastroenterology by Baylor colleague Dr. Fasiha Kanwal.
“I firmly believe that the success I achieved in the United States would not have been possible anywhere else in the world, and it is as much a testament to the accepting society and medical system as to whatever intrinsic ability or skill I have,” noted Dr. El-Serag.
The major focus of Dr. El-Serag’s scholarly work is the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma. Much of the modern literature on this topic includes his more than 100 publications. Since 2014, Dr. El-Serag has been named by Thomson Reuter as among the top 1% of clinical scientists.
Dr. El-Serag “is an innovative scientist, a compassionate physician, and a gifted educator. He is a relentless advocate of science and training, with an astute political sense — all key to influencing and shaping policy,” said Dr. Kanwal.
Dr. El-Serag’s term as AGA president concludes May 2020. Follow him on twitter at @SeragHashem.
AGA journals select new editorial fellows
Congrats to the six GIs selected for this competitive program.
The AGA journals – Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH), and Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CMGH) – are pleased to announce their 2019-2020 editorial fellows.
Gastroenterology
Feng Su, MD
University of Washington, Seattle
Victoria Weis, PhD
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
CGH
Austin Chiang, MD, MPH
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn.
Jennifer Kolb, MD
University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora
CMGH
Cambrian Liu, PhD
The Saban Research Institute, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Calif.
Tirthadipa Pradhan-Sundd, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, Penn.
The editorial fellows will be mentored on their respective journals’ editorial processes, including peer review and the publication process from manuscript submission to acceptance. They will participate in discussions and conferences with the boards of editors and work closely with the AGA editorial staff. Additionally, the fellows will participate in AGA’s new reviewer education program and will also be offered the opportunity to contribute content to their respective journals. The newly expanded program builds on the success of the previous 2 years when Gastroenterology had an editorial fellow.
The journals’ board of editors and editorial staff congratulate the fellows and are excited to work with them over the next year.
Get to know this rock star IBS researcher and mom
AGA Research Foundation pilot awards are an invaluable tool for investigators – they provide seed funding to explore promising new lines of research and generate preliminary data for larger grants. So, when Meenakshi Rao, MD, PhD, received the 2016 AGA–Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Research Scholar Award in Neurogastroenterology, she was able to double down on a project to identify why men and women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the most common but least understood of all digestive disorders, report different symptoms and respond differently to treatment. Based on her recent accomplishments, we’re excited for you to get to know Dr. Rao, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and our AGA Research Foundation researcher of the month.
The Rao lab AGA-funded project focused on building upon Dr. Rao’s previous findings, which showed that disrupting nerves in the bowel had vastly different effects on males and females. These surprising results led Dr. Rao to explore whether sex hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen, might regulate how well things move through the bowel. Dr. Rao believes that identifying the underlying causes for sex differences in bowel function could lead to more effective and personalized treatments for patients with IBS. You can read the specifics of Dr. Rao’s research in the October 2017 issue of Gastroenterology and the October 2018 issue of Journal of Neuroscience.
IBS symptoms in women more typically involve constipation while young men with IBS more commonly report diarrhea. Over time, as men age, however, they tend to experience more constipation, Dr. Rao said. “Sex hormones might be signaling directly to the nerves in our gut and playing a role in these sex differences,” Dr. Rao said. “It might mean we can’t think of this as one disorder. IBS in a male may be different than IBS in a female, and that could change how we approach diagnosis and treatment.”
The AGA grant laid the groundwork for Dr. Rao’s findings, which led to a new understanding of how different types of cells in the gut nervous system regulate bowel functions – and how this regulation is different in males and females. The AGA grant helped Dr. Rao secure funding from the National Institutes of Health to launch new projects focused on how disruption of the gut nervous system causes disease.
Dr. Rao received the AGA award in 2015, when her son, Avinash, was aged 2 years. She acknowledged the delicate balancing act of raising a family and advancing her research.
“A lot of things were happening at once,” she said. “As a young parent, having the support of this award and having a technician (made possible by the award) made a big difference.”
Her son, now 5 years old, is growing up in a science-centric household because Dr. Rao’s husband is also a scientist. Not surprisingly, Dr. Rao says, her son is becoming a budding scientist.
“He talks about experiments all the time,” she says. “He even articulated to me the other day why we work on mice to learn how to help people. I never taught him that. I was floored.”
Five new GI technologies to know
The AGA Tech Summit Shark Tank is our annual reminder that the field of GI is ripe for innovation. Continue reading for an overview of the five new technologies pitched to our panel of sharks.
The smart toilet seat. A toilet seat developed by Toi Labs, called TrueLoo, is equipped with lighting and cameras that capture images of bowel movements and urination for subsequent analysis. The company describes TrueLoo as a low-cost disease-screening tool that has major potential for early detection of conditions ranging from dehydration to gastrointestinal cancer.
AI to aid screening endoscopy. A new tool called Ultivision, being developed by the startup Docbot, was described as a strategy to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to aid endoscopists in screening for dysplasia in either screening colonoscopy or in surveillance of Barrett’s esophagus. The tool integrates with existing endoscopic tools. As tissue is visualized, the AI is programmed to highlight suspected dysplasia with a colored box to alert the endoscopist.
Obesity phenotyping tool. The Pheno Test, developed by Phenomix Sciences, applies “multi-omics” to a blood-based test to separate patients with obesity into four phenotypes: hungry brain (satiation signal is impaired), hungry gut (signals to eat are upregulated), emotional hunger (psychological reasons drive eating behavior), and slow metabolism (failure to burn fat at normal rates). With this knowledge, treatment can be tailored appropriately leading to better outcomes.
Capsule diagnostic tool. The Atmo Gas Capsule from Atmo Biosciences is an ingestible capsule that measures gases at the source, which can accelerate the diagnosis of diseases such as IBS and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). According to the company, this technique is highly accurate and offers an alternative to more invasive and expensive diagnostic tools.
Winner: “all-in-one” IBD app. Our Shark Tank winner by both popular vote from AGA Tech Summit attendees and the six-member Shark Tank panel was Oshi Health, selected for its IBD app. The app allows patients to track symptoms, a first step in understanding personalized flare pattern, as well as find resources to learn about their disease and communicate with other patients about their experiences. In a future iteration, information gathered by the app will be made available to physicians to provide current information about disease status to better individualize therapy.
2020 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress now open for registration
Join the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and AGA next January in Austin, Tex., for the premier conference on IBD.
The Crohn’s & Colitis Congress combines the strengths of the nation’s leading IBD patient organization, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, and the premier GI professional organization, AGA, to bring together IBD professionals, across all disciplines, to transform IBD care.
The 2020 Congress Committee Chair David T. Rubin, MD, AGAF, University of Chicago, and Cochair Uma Mahadevan, MD, AGAF, University of California, San Francisco, lead a faculty that includes thought leaders in the fields of GI, research investigation, surgery, pediatrics, advanced practice, IBD nursing, diet and nutrition, mental health, radiology, and pathology.
The congress’s agenda includes main sessions that will emphasize case studies and panel discussions. There will also be parallel sessions on basic and translational science for senior and junior investigators. In addition, opening breakout sessions, taking place Jan. 23, will be available for selection free of charge.
Attendees of the 2020 congress will be able to meet with IBD leaders, discover different perspectives, leave with practical information they can immediately implement to take care of their next IBD patient and hear what’s on the horizon in potential treatment.
There will also be plenty of social events and plenty of time to build a strong network, including a Friday night Welcome Reception that should not be missed.
In addition, the 2020 congress is taking place in Austin, Tex. The capital of Texas and the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin is famous for its inspiring and enticing entertainment, culture, cuisine, and outdoor settings. Make a week of it and enjoy all Austin has to offer.
Early-bird registration ends Sept. 18. General abstract submissions for basic, translational, and clinical research begin Aug. 28 and end Oct. 23. To learn more and register, visit www.crohnscolitiscongress.org.
AGA welcomes new president, Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF
Hashem B. El-Serag, MD, MPH, AGAF, began his term as the 114th president of the AGA Institute at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW 2019).
Dr. El-Serag is former editor in chief of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He currently serves as chair of the department of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, following a decade leading and expanding Baylor’s gastroenterology and hepatology section. He is one of the few academic gastroenterologists serving as a chair of a department of medicine in the United States.
Originally Palestinian, Dr. El-Serag became a U.S. citizen in the early 2000s after medical school in Libya. He completed his training at community hospitals in the United States. His path from Benghazi to Baylor is described in the May issue of Gastroenterology by Baylor colleague Dr. Fasiha Kanwal.
“I firmly believe that the success I achieved in the United States would not have been possible anywhere else in the world, and it is as much a testament to the accepting society and medical system as to whatever intrinsic ability or skill I have,” noted Dr. El-Serag.
The major focus of Dr. El-Serag’s scholarly work is the epidemiology and clinical outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma. Much of the modern literature on this topic includes his more than 100 publications. Since 2014, Dr. El-Serag has been named by Thomson Reuter as among the top 1% of clinical scientists.
Dr. El-Serag “is an innovative scientist, a compassionate physician, and a gifted educator. He is a relentless advocate of science and training, with an astute political sense — all key to influencing and shaping policy,” said Dr. Kanwal.
Dr. El-Serag’s term as AGA president concludes May 2020. Follow him on twitter at @SeragHashem.