ACG 2016 Preview: 8 Topics You’ll Want to Know About

The American College of Gastroenterology’s annual meeting this year in Las Vegas will feature lectures, workshops and research presentations essential for staying up to date in the field. The College will also inaugurate Cleveland Clinic gastroenterologist Carol Burke, MD, as its president for 2016-2017. She highlighted for us some important underlying themes that will be covered:

Managing risk –

The healthcare reimbursement system transfers risk from insurance plans to patients, physicians and institutions. Data on care delivery models impacting readmission rates, increasing quality of care, and promoting physician knowledge of established guidelines will be discussed.

New medications –

Better understanding of disease pathogenesis has led to new medications, and multiple research sessions will be devoted to presenting results of randomized multicenter clinical trials in gastroparesis, IBS and IBD. I am eager to see the data on tofacitinib and ozanimod, novel oral agents for managing ulcerative colitis.

Improving patient care –

The impact of a medical home care delivery model for patients with IBD will be presented by University of Pittsburg Medical Center’s Miguel Regueiro, MD. Within one year, it led to improved quality of life and reduced resource utilization including emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

Cleveland Clinic physicians and researchers are well-represented in the schedule. Not-to-miss topics include:

Comparative risks of blood thinners –

Chung Tsai, MD, PhD, and colleagues evaluated the use of blood thinners in more than 12 million Americans between 2004 and 2012. Disturbing trends in upper GI bleeding and associated mortality were linked to the use of antiplatelet and antithrombotic agents.

Physician knowledge of cancer screening guidelines –

Dr. Burke, along with internal medicine residents Abhishek Karwa, DO, and Rashad Patell, MD, will present research findings that knowledge of colorectal cancer screening and polyp surveillance guidelines is flawed among experienced gastroenterologists and trainees alike. One potential solution they are creating is a mobile app to foster using correct recommendations in clinical practice.

Reducing readmission rates after IBD hospitalization –

Maged Rizk, MD, and co-investigators prospectively studied variables predicting readmission rates for patients hospitalized with IBD. Based on their results, they developed a novel index to determine which patients are at highest readmission risk and identified factors most important to address to mitigate recurrent hospitalization.

Achalasia treatment: POEM leads to more esophageal acid exposure than Heller –

Although peroral endoscopic myotomy is more appealing to patients because it is less invasive than laparoscopic Heller myotomy, Madhu Sanaka, MD, and colleagues conducted pH studies and found POEM leads to substantially higher esophageal acid exposure despite similar rates of symptomatic GERD in the two groups. Long-term impact of these findings needs to be understood.

Offering fecal microbiota transplant in the office –

Bret Lashner, MD, will lead a symposium on the nuts and bolts of FMT. Topics include identifying appropriate patients, FMT efficacy for various conditions, and the logistics of performing the transplant.