Speakers

Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, MHCM, is a Professor of Medicine and specializes in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. She is the Executive Vice Chair of Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and Associate Chief Medical Officer of UC Health Systems. She received her medical degree, medicine residency training and gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Washington. She also graduated with a Master’s in Public Health in epidemiology and recently obtained another Master's in Health Care Management for physician executive leadership and business administration from Harvard. She is a clinical trialist and a healthcare redesign leader with interests in clinical operations and transformative medical care delivery. She is the Chair of the ACG Educational Affairs Committee, Vice-Chair of the WGO Publications Committee and Co-Editor of WGO’s e-WGN. Dr. Afzali is the Co-Founder of Scrubs & Heels, an organization committed to women in medicine and gastroenterology; and IBD Horizons, an organization dedicated to providing evidence based IBD education globally.

Bincy P. Abraham, M.D., M.S., AGAF, FACG, FASGE, FCCF is the Distinguished Professor and Director of the Fondren Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program at the Underwood Digestive Diseases Center of Houston Methodist Hospital. She is also the Program Director for the Gastroenterology Fellowship and Associate Program Director of the Advanced IBD Fellowship at Houston Methodist Hospital. She earned her medical degree from University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, where she continued with internal medicine residency and fellowship in gastroenterology, and a Masters of Clinical Investigation. She is trained in and passionate about intestinal ultrasound in IBD patient care.

Dr. Hironori Yamamoto serves as Professor of the Department of Endoscopic Research and International Education at Jichi Medical University in Japan. He invented double-balloon endoscopy in 1998. He is one of the pioneers of endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). He started ESD in 1998 and he is the first reporter of complete ESD cases in the stomach and colon (Yamamoto, et al. Successful en bloc resection of a large superficial gastric cancer by using sodium hyaluronate and electrocautery incision forceps. Gastrointest Endosc. 2001;54:629-32.) He currently serve as a director of Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society, responsible for International Committee of the society.

Dr D Nageshwar Reddy is currently the Chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Hyderabad, India. Past President of World Endoscopy Organization. He graduated from Kurnool Medical College obtaining internal medicine, Masters in Madras Medical College and D.M in Gastroenterology from PGIMER, Chandigarh. He subsequently worked as a Professor of Gastroenterology in Andhra Pradesh Health Sciences before setting up Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, a tertiary care Gastro intestinal Specialties Hospital. His main area of research interest has been in G.I. Endoscopy particularly in Therapeutic Pancreatio Biliary Endoscopy and Innovations in Transgastric Endoscopic Surgery. He has published over 900 papers in National & International Peer review journals and has contributed chapters in 23 International Text Books of Gastroenterology and has edited 8 G.I. Endoscopy Text Books. He is on the Editorial Board of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Digestive Endoscopy, World Journal of Gastroenterology, World Gastroenterology News, Gastroenterology Today, The Journal of Chinese Clinical Medicine, and Recent Patents on Medical Imaging, Indian Journal of Gastroenterology and Gastro-Hep.com. He is the peer reviewer of the Journals like Lancet, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Endoscopy, World Journal of Gastroenterology, Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Indian Journal of Gastroenterology. He was the President of Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India in 2001. He has been a visiting faculty for 112 international endoscopy workshops and forum member of Asian Endoscopy Masters Forum.

Seth A. Gross, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Clinical Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at NYU Langone Health. As a gastroenterologist, Dr. Gross specializes in advanced endoscopic procedures. His clinical practice is focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of gastrointestinal pre-cancerous conditions and cancers, such as esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Gross’ research interests lie in the area of gastrointestinal malignancies as well as quality and innovation in endoscopy. Dr. Gross oversees the clinical programming and quality initiatives for the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at NYU Langone Health. He is a member of U.S. Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer He is a board of trustee for the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), reimbursement advisor to the American Medical Association for the ASGE, and an associate editor for the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Dr. Shah serves as the Mr. and Mrs. Ronald F. Kinney Executive Dean of Research Honoring Ronald F. Kinney, Jr. and the Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, Honoring Peter Carryer, M.D. at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He has been on staff at Mayo Clinic for 25 years and previously served as Chairs of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Department of Medicine. Dr. Shah has maintained an NIH-funded research program at Mayo Clinic for 25 years which focuses broadly on alcohol related liver disease, cirrhosis, portal hypertension and its complications with over 350 peer review publications in prestigious journals such as Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature, Proceedings of National Academy of Science, New England Journal of Medicine and others. His research spans from laboratory based studies to clinical trials to informatics; the program’s achievements are recognized by his title as Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator. He has lectured widely both nationally and internationally. Dr. Shah maintains an active clinical practice focused in hepatology. Outside of Mayo Clinic Dr. Shah has served on the Governing Board of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, Council for the American Gastroenterologic Association, and National Advisory Council for National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He has served as Associate Editor for multiple peer review academic journals including Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, and American Journal of Gastroenterology. Dr. Shah is a member of the prestigious American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and Association of American Physicians (AAP). Dr. Shah received his undergraduate, medical, and clinical medicine training at Northwestern University. He obtained advanced clinical and research postdoctoral fellowship training in hepatology and liver disease at Yale University. In his leisure time, Dr. Shah likes to ski, play guitar, kayak, exercise, and spend time with his wife, two daughters, and his Labrador retriever.

Dr Vivek Kaul is the Segal-Watson Professor of Medicine (and former Division Chief) in the Gastroenterology & Hepatology Division at the University of Rochester Medical Center. His clinical, research and medical education efforts are focused in Therapeutic Endoscopy/Endosurgery, Interventional Endoscopic Ultrasound and advanced ERCP. He also specializes in esophageal endotherapy for Barrett’s & Esophageal Cancer. He has specific expertise in complex interventional endoscopy, especially in the patient with GI-cancer. He is a PI and/or co-investigator on several national and international trials in endoscopy, pancreatic and esophageal disease. Dr Kaul serves on several national committees with the ASGE and the ACG and is a past Governor of the ACG for Northern NY. He is chair of the ACG Innovation & Technology Committee and also chairs the EUS special interest group (SIG) for the ASGE. He is also Chair of the World Gastroenterology Organization’s Endoscopy Committee and serves on the WGO Governing council. In addition, he is Co-Chair of the AGA national GI division Chief’s consortium. Dr Kaul also serves as the alternate ASGE RUC advisor to the AMA and serves on several national and international task forces such as the ACG GI-On Demand task force and the WGO Global Climate Change Working Group. Dr Kaul is a reviewer for several journals, is a sought after speaker and has published extensively in the field of interventional endoscopy and several other aspects of Gastroenterology. Dr Kaul regularly lectures and shares his endoscopy expertise at centers in the USA and around the world.