This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
BLOG: Live from ACG 2015 with Healio Gastroenterology
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The 3-day ACG Annual Scientific Meeting follows the 2-day Postgraduate Course, from which Healio Gastroenterology’s featured blogger, Austin Chiang, MD, a GI fellow from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will share daily highlights as he attends sessions during the course and the scientific meeting. Here is his take on day one of the Postgraduate Course on Saturday, October 17.
HONOLULU — The annual conference held by the American College of Gastroenterology, ACG 2015, is already well underway. Thousands of professionals in the field are here to soak up the latest in medical knowledge in condensed form, presented by a selection of renowned experts from across the nation. The post-graduate course spans the entire weekend, and here is my open diary of my experience as a fellow attending the conference for the first time.
Austin Chiang
6:27am
Stepping into registration, social media is a resounding theme this year at ACG 2015. Easels with the hashtag #ACG2015 are everywhere, and now, everyone can find me on Twitter from the sticker I wear on my shirt, which reads: Follow Me on Twitter! Somehow the Brigham GI fellows have managed to find each other among the crowd of 4,000 attendees, and we find a place at the front of the room. Familiar faces from the GI interview trail 2 years ago remind me of how encounters with these colleagues, collaborators, and peers are only the first of many to come throughout my career.
6:47am
We’re off to a great start. Philip Katz, MD, takes the podium first to talk about refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Like so many presenters to follow, despite all the science and data, the patient was never lost in the shuffle. Over and over I was reminded that while some medications in theory are effective, side effects often limit use among patients. Likewise, while certain therapeutic procedures may show promise in treating a condition, sometimes other options may be favored when taking into consideration potential risks and subsequent quality of life.
7:05am
Nick Shaheen, MD, MPH, from University of North Carolina, is discussing eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), and again the patient is at the forefront. The desired outcome, he notes, for treating EoE shouldn’t be an eosinophil count. Rather, we ought to keep in mind whether symptoms are resolved or other concerns such as need for the repeat endoscopy is reduced.
There is a lot I have yet to learn as my fledgling career unfolds. Many of the questions I have, have probably already been addressed through existing research. Having some of these questions answered succinctly in these presentations is just what I need to learn everything all in one place. The truth of the matter is, it is difficult to stay afloat the latest and greatest given how broad GI is (and will continue to be), and given how new research is constantly generated. I can never claim to be an expert in every field within gastroenterology, so this course is a great way to learn about new, unfamiliar topics and reinforce familiar ones. On the note of how super-specialized medicine has become, it’s no mystery that institutions have carved out certain niche strengths and I can’t help but notice certain institutions being credited repeatedly for their extensive research in these talks. It’s obvious which institutions maintain prowess in certain areas.
7:42am
Mark Pochapin, MD, from NYU, talks about video capsule endoscopy and CT colonography for screening for polyps and colon cancer after an incomplete colonoscopy, and is followed by Vani Konda, MD, from the University of Chicago, who discusses Barrett’s esophagus. Interestingly, I discovered during the Q&A sessions after each topic section that many established gastroenterologists were asking similar questions I was asking myself. It’s easy to forget that much of what is presented is brand new to not just us trainees, but also to established gastroenterologists in the community. GI is ever-evolving and becoming more and more complex. I begin to wonder if training in a research-heavy program at a tertiary care center like mine has possibly misled me to think that certain concepts and paradigm shifts are less novel than they truly are elsewhere.
8:13am
There’s a short break between talks and John Saltzman, MD, FACG, the Chair of the ACG Educational Affairs committee and Director of Endoscopy back home at the Brigham is introducing us to several alumni who trained at the Brigham in the past.
I’m happy to see that no one is forgotten as part of the Brigham family.
Feeling humbled and fortunate to be a part of my crew.
10:10am
David Greenwald, MD, is talking about bowel preps. While citing a paper from 2010, he says he only recently adopted morning preps for patients with procedures scheduled for the afternoon.
It’s striking how it’s taken so long for this research to make an impact on his practice habits. I begin to wonder why some research changes clinical practice immediately while other concepts take so much longer to adopt.
10:34am
We break off into one of three symposiums. I choose Issues in Endoscopy given my interest in therapeutic endoscopy. One speaker, Neena Abraham, MD, gave an incredible talk on “cardiogastroenterology,” which is giving me flashbacks to my first year of fellowship taking inpatient consults, as one of the slides so adeptly outlined how long to discontinue antithrombotics prior to procedures — again, a slide I wished we had long ago to help guide our management of these cardiac patients on the inpatient service suffering from GI bleeding as a result of their antithrombotic treatment.
1:45pm
We’re back from lunch, and it’s time for round 2. Next up, some of our favorite topics in liver.
On a side note, I’ve been having a great time live-tweeting this conference.
3:47pm
Only able to catch the first round of GI Jeopardy, it was nonetheless fun witnessing the incredible knowledge demonstrated by the fellows from UCLA, University of Washington, Ochsner Clinic, Mt. Sinai and Case Western Reserve University. Maybe it’ll be our turn next year?
Stay tuned for part two of this series after Sunday’s course.
Follow Austin Chiang @austinchiangmd and Healio Gastroenterology @HealioGastro on Twitter for live tweets from the conference.
Chiang is blogging on his own behalf and in conjunction with Healio Gastroenterology. The views and opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the views or opinions of the ACG.