Message from the Chief
Arvydas D. Vanagunas, M.D: Professor and Chief
The division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is comprised of thirty full-time, six emeriti and thirteen contributed-service faculty members; ten clinical fellows; three post-doctoral research fellows and more than sixty staff members. We provide consultative services at the Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and run busy outpatient practices in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology and interventional endoscopy as part of Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation’s multi-specialty practice. The outpatient practices, directed by our ambulatory medical practice director Dr. Christian G. Stevoff, offer patients more than 18,000 office visits and approximately 12,000 procedures annually.
Clinical services offered by the division are state-of-the-art covering the broad spectrum of the subspecialties. The endoscopy laboratory of Northwestern Memorial Hospital is directed by Dr. John Martin; it encompasses eighteen procedure rooms. Our interventional endoscopy service – one of the busiest in the country – is widely recognized for expertise in endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP); endoscopic ultrasound; thermal ablation of malignant and premalignant lesions; and palliative cancer treatments with endoluminal stents. The Motts Tonelli Esophageal Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital – a physiology laboratory for esophageal, gastric, and intestinal motility studies – offers innovative, coordinated care for patients needing esophageal treatment. The clinical nutrition service, organized by Dr. Julie Roth, manages a large inpatient nutritional support service.
Members of the division’s faculty hold clinical and research interests that are diverse, and include esophageal disease, swallowing disorders, pancreatic/biliary disease, liver disease – including management of liver transplantation, general gastrointestinal disease – including colorectal cancer screening, weight loss, high-risk colon cancer prevention – including gastrointestinal genetic disorders, irritable bowel syndrome – including related health psychology services, and nutrition/intestinal absorption disorders.
The division’s combined research activities result annually in approximately $2 million in direct costs, which are supported by NIH, industry/technology or foundation grants. A good number of our clinical fellows are actively engaged in research projects supported by NIH-funded training grants, and we offer advanced training in interventional endoscopy, as well as intestinal motility, to selected candidates.
Clinical fellows participate in a three-year Gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship program in either a clinical track, where the training emphasizes clinical patient care and research, or in a research track where the latter two years of the fellowship are devoted largely to basic science research. Research trainees have an opportunity to work within the division’s laboratories, which include collaborations with investigators in the school’s basic science departments and in clinical departments such as Surgery, Pathology and Pediatrics. Dr. Ikuo Hirano serves as director or the fellowship program. Additionally, we offer a fourth-year, ACGME-accredited fellowship in Transplantation Hepatology, which is available to individuals who previously have completed a Gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship. Dr. Josh Levitsky serves as co-director for this advanced, specialization curriculum.
I hope that this broad overview of the activities of the division communicates its unique and dynamic posture. I believe that our division offers a rigorous and stimulating environment for postgraduate medical education in all facets of the subspecialty of gastroenterology. We welcome your consideration of Northwestern for your postgraduate clinical or research training in gastroenterology, hepatology or endoscopy.
Arvydas D. Vanagunas, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Chief
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
