Practice Management News

A group of gastroenterology and hepatology societies, including AGA, ACG, ASGE, AASLD, ANMS and NASPGHAN, have developed consensus principles on reforming the maintenance of certification process for gastroenterologists, which they shared in a letter to the president of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

The National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases awarded a grant to researcher Kimberly D. Tremblay, PhD, associate professor, department of veterinary and animal sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, to develop a new model liver system using embryotic cells, according to a press release.

Researchers in The Netherlands found that surveillance before hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis improved overall survival in real-life practice, as well as decreased tumor size and increased surgical therapy time, according to study data published in the Journal of Hepatology. 

The AGA has announced its support for the recent call-to-action issued by a number of scientific groups calling for an interdisciplinary, public-private “Unified Microbiome Initiative,” citing gastroenterology’s critical role in understanding the human gut microbiome.

HONOLULU — NAFLD fibrosis score, a noninvasive marker, and fibrosis on liver histology were not in accordance with each other when used among a population of patients who were morbidly obese and underwent bariatric surgery, according to data presented at ACG 2015.

The North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition awarded Ajay Jain, MD, medical director of the pediatric liver transplant program at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, a $150,000 grant to study preventative strategies for total parenteral nutrition-associated disorders, according to a press release.

Endoscopic biliary draining yielded a superior adverse event rate compared with percutaneous drainage among patients with pancreatic cancer, according to the results of a retrospective cohort study.

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that treatment on the Enhanced Recovery in Liver Surgery pathway enabled patients to recover and return to normal life functioning sooner compared with traditional pathway treatment after liver surgery, according to published findings.

In relation to an FDA Drug Safety Communication report released last week about hepatitis C drugs Viekira Pak and Technivie potentially causing liver injury, AbbVie spoke to Healio.com/Hepatology about the changes they have implemented to the drug labels to reflect the risk for injury.  

HONOLULU — With the heavy impact sleep has on overall health and gastrointestinal disorders specifically, an expert at ACG 2015 challenged his peers to implement “composite treatment” of patients where their overall health, including diet and sleep fragmentation, is considered alongside GI therapies.