2018 42nd New York Annual Course Success!

 

First, and this is a big one, we had outstanding registration, totaling close to 700 for the main sessions!!  We had a delegation of 15 physicians attend from China.

 We also had over 200 Workshop and Symposia registrants, at last count. This remains the largest regional GI meeting in the USA each year, and trails behind only DDW and the ACG meeting in terms of attendance.

We had 89 faculty, 41 presentations in the main session, 24 presentations in the Nurses and Associates program, and countless others in the satellite seminars.

In fact, there were 5 separate satellite and hands-on sessions during the Course, and several other special Programs. These sessions are each unique, innovative and in a word, outstanding.

We had attendees from all over the US and around the world, a testimony to the far reaching word of mouth “buzz” there is about this Course each year.

On top of all that, we had seven innovative lunchtime symposia, and 11 special lectures, including the Florence Lefcourt Lecture, given by Tonya Kaltenbach, the David Falkenstein Lecture, given by Todd Baron, the Ed Bini Lecture, given by Larry Brandt, the ASGE President’s Lecture by Steve Edmundowicz, the NYSGE President’s Address by Seth Gross, the Richard McCray Lecture, given by Sid Winawer, and the Peter Steven’s lecture, given by Stavros Stavropoulos.

We had an incredible scientific poster session, led by Susana Gonzalez and Lauren Khanna. This year we had over 50 different authors who submitted 38 posters, with several entries from outside the NYC area!!  The poster session review included a cocktail reception on Thursday evening. The room was packed; this is indeed a popular event!  The always popular Peter Steven’s Video Forum, led by Anthony Starpoli and Juan Carlos Bucobo, again was a huge success, with 6 outstanding videos, including one submitted from Canada.  The Fellow’s Forum on Thursday evening was superb, coordinated by Michelle Kim and Brian Bosworth; the feedback was excellent.

 The Doris C. Barnie Nurses and Associates Program, skillfully arranged as always by Barbara Zuccala and Nancy Schlossberg, again was a huge success, with outstanding lectures and interactive sessions. The Nurses and Associates program this year attracted well over 200 participants, all of whom were raving about the quality of the program. A huge thank you to Barbara and Nancy; we appreciate their efforts immensely.

The Live from New York Course was packed with a range of incredible cases again this year…our most sincere gratitude to Greg Haber for the unbelievable amount of energy and effort he puts into directing this truly outstanding piece of the Course each and every year.  Big time thanks to Sammy Ho as well for his co-leadership this year.   The NYU-Langone location continues to be excellent.  Many thanks to the team there who worked hard to coordinate everything. The quality of the HD transmission is truly spectacular; even more impressive is the quality of the material being presented and the quality of the Faculty doing the procedures and commenting on the care…fascinating procedures at the cutting edge of gastroenterology explained by masters in their field!!  

Gratitude is well-deserved to the many persons who give their time to the New York Course.

Thanks to our out of town guests at NYU, Todd Baron, Guido Costamagna, Jacques Deviere and Vanessa Shami, who were simply amazing, as well as to our NYC Faculty, who were equally awesome!

Thanks as well to all the panelists at the Marriott, who really were very lively and provocative this year, many of whom spent parts of both days with us…the panel discussions really brought out critical decision making points in each case…many thanks!!

 Also, we can’t thank David Robbins enough.  David is now the master of the hugely important role of being behind the scenes at the live course…really making it all happen, but rarely seen!!  We couldn’t have done it without him!!

Phil Joseph and his team at Advance Concepts get big time kudos as well.  Their audiovisual and technical expertise is beyond amazing and we appreciate their help greatly!!

Also thanks to the NYU staff (there are many, many people involved there)!!

 The Satellite Courses, both hand-on and didactic, continue to be a huge draw. Small groups, great teaching…what more could you ask for??  Nearly every session was filled to capacity, a fairly amazing thing when you consider all that is going on and the proximity of the meeting to the Holidays. The directors of each satellite session are truly responsible for the success of each individual program, and so we want to thank those individuals specifically:  Frank Kasmin, Nikhil Kumta, Ira Jacobson, Joesph Odin, Reem Sharaiha, Violeta Popov, Sammy Ho, Frank Gress, Amrita Sethi, and Arvind Trindade; all did an amazing job!!

 We also ran the Annual New York GI Fellows Endoscopy Course on Wednesday.  It was a full day Program for 36 GI Fellows in training, and featured a full range of lectures and hands-on training, with 12 specific hands-on stations for luminal and pancreaticobiliary teaching.  Amazing.  Thanks to the group that led that effort this year, Chris DiMaio, Adam Goodman, Reem Sharaiha and Stavros Stavropoulos. 

 A special enormous thank you to Karen Cervenka, the Society’s Managing Director, for being so incredible.  Karen works seemingly endlessly (and then more!) to put every aspect of this very complicated Course together, and she once again did a simply phenomenal job.  Her enthusiasm, energy and dedication are very much appreciated!!!!  Many others at Digestive Health Works also worked very hard on our behalf…thanks to Bina Mesheimer, Robin Weidy, Barbara Connell and everyone else who contributed behind the scenes. 

 Thanks also to Montefiore CME, and in particular Nada Piacentino, Marilyn Sasso and Vic Hatcher for their help. Nada retired earlier this month, and we thank her as well for all her years of dedication to NYSGE and our Programs.

 We still miss Florence Lefcourt, the “heart and the soul of the Society”, but she “continues to be there” as well. Regular tributes to her remind us all of the wonderful woman who led us for so many years!!

The NYSGE Council helped whip the Program into shape many months ago, and we appreciate their efforts as well.  Today’s version of the Course is really built on the Courses of 20, 30 and now over 40 years ago…we thank the many NYSGE council members over all the years, as well as the original founders of the Society, and appreciate all they did to shape the Society and to shape this Course. Also, congratulations to the Society’s current President, Seth Gross, who has had a most successful year as President!!

Most of all, we want to thank you, the Faculty of this year’s Course. You took time away from your busy schedules to join us, traveling from far and wide (Belgium, Italy and every corner of the US), worked really hard on syllabus contributions and high quality presentations packed with videos, photos and cutting edge information.  We know how difficult that can be, and just want to express our sincere gratitude for all that each of you did. The spirit of collegiality is so readily apparent; we all work together really well, and that is terrific.  One more truly important thing…we all seemed to have loads of fun, and that’s maybe the best marker that things continue to go so well!! 

Yes, the 42nd Annual NYSGE Course was indeed a special one, and so thanks one more time for being part of it.   Our best wishes for a wonderful Holiday season and a Happy and Healthy New Year from all of us to all of you!!

 

Dave

Patrick

Tamas

Barbara

Nancy

Greg

Sammy

Adam

Karen

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NYSGE 2017 Finishes With A Bang!

The December, 2017 NYSGE Annual Course had the most registrants ever, totaling 735!!

In fact, registration was 60 people more than last year!! We also had over 200 Workshop and Symposia registrants, at last count. This remains the largest regional GI meeting in the USA each year, and trails behind only DDW and the ACG meeting in terms of attendance.

There were about 87 faculty, 41 presentations in the main session, 24 presentations in the Nurses and Associates program, and countless others in the satellite seminars.

Additionally, there were 5 separate satellite and hands-on sessions during the Course, and several other special Programs. These sessions are each unique, innovative and in a word, outstanding.

We had attendees from all over the US and around the world, a testimony to the far reaching word of mouth “buzz” there is about this Course each year.

On top of all that, there were five innovative lunchtime symposia, and 11 special lectures, including the Florence Lefcourt Lecture given by Dr. Larry Brandt, the David Falkenstein Lecture, given by Dr. David Carr-Locke, the Ed Bini Lecture, given by Dr. Jon Cohen, the ASGE President’s Lecture by Karen Woods, the NYSGE President’s Address by Dr. Chris DiMaio, the Richard Mc Cray Lecture, given by Dr. Sid Winawer, and the Peter Steven’s lecture, given by Dr. Phil Katz. We also were pleased to welcome the current ACG President, Dr. Irving Pike, to our Faculty.

We had an incredible scientific poster session, again led by Drs. Satish Nagula and Susana Gonzalez. This year we had over 80 different authors who submitted nearly 50 posters, with several entries from outside the NYC area!!  The poster session review was done along with a cocktail reception on Thursday evening. The room was packed; this is indeed a popular event!  The always popular Peter Steven’s Video Forum, led by Drs. Anthony Starpoli, Tamas Ganda and Nikhil Kumta, again was a huge success, with 4 outstanding videos.  The Fellow’s Forum on Thursday evening was superb, coordinated by Drs. Michelle Kim and Brian Bosworth; the feedback was all good.

The Doris C. Barnie Nurses and Associates Program, skillfully arranged as always by Barbara Zuccala and Nancy Schlossberg, again was a huge success, with outstanding lectures and interactive sessions. The Nurses and Associates program this year attracted well over 200 participants, all of whom were raving about the quality of the program. A huge thank you to Barbara and Nancy; we appreciate their efforts immensely.

The Live from New York Course was packed with a range of incredible cases again this year…our most sincere gratitude to Dr. Gregory Haber for the unbelievable amount of energy and effort he puts into directing this truly outstanding piece of the Course each and every year.  Big time thanks to Dr. Frank Gress as well for his co-leadership again this year.   The NYU-Langone location was excellent.  The quality of the HD transmission is spectacular; even more impressive is the quality of the material being presented and the quality of the Faculty doing the procedures and commenting on the care…fascinating procedures at the cutting edge of gastroenterology explained by masters in their field!!

Thanks to our out of town guests at NYU, Drs. Juergen Hochberger, Laurent Palazzo, Chris Thompson and Shyam Varadarajulu, who were simply amazing, as well as to our NYC Faculty, who were equally awesome!

Thanks as well to all the panelists at the Marriott, who really were very lively and provocative this year, many of whom spent parts of both days with us…the panel discussions really brought out critical decision making points in each case…many thanks!! Special thanks on the panels to Drs. Doug Howell and Mouen Khashab, and Nancy Schlossberg, who traveled from far away to join our educational panels.  We had special “Mentored by the Masters” programs, enhancing Fellows’ education during the live cases on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning; many thanks to the ten Faculty members who led the way there.

Also, we can’t thank Dr. David Robbins enough.  David is now the master of the hugely important role of being behind the scenes at the live course…really making it all happen, but rarely seen!!  We couldn’t have done it without him!!

Phil Joseph and his team at Advance Concepts get big time kudos as well.  Their audiovisual and technical expertise is beyond amazing and we appreciate their help greatly!!

Also thanks to the NYU staff (there are many, many people involved there)!!

The Satellite Courses, both hand-on and didactic, continue to be a huge draw. Small groups, great teaching…what more could you ask for??  Nearly every session was filled to capacity, a fairly amazing thing when you consider all that is going on and the proximity of the meeting to the Holidays.  A huge thank you to Drs. Brian Bosworth and Jon Cohen, who really innovated years ago to get these Programs going and who continue to help them thrive.  The directors of each satellite session are truly responsible for the success of each individual program, and so we want to thank those individuals specifically:  Drs. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, Reem Sharaiha, Ira Jacobson, Frank Kasmin and David Hass; all did an amazing job!!

The Hands-on and Demonstration areas, a unique and very popular feature of the Course, again conceived years ago and designed expertly by Dr. Jon Cohen, was superb once more, and seems to always be popular. Many thanks to Brian Bosworth, who continued this year to greatly help with the organization of this piece of the course. Thanks once again to Dr. Kai Matthes and his “team”, who are invaluable in getting this together and who provide many of the ex-vivo models and tissue specimens that we use. Finally, many thanks to the many faculty who helped out in the hands-on areas.

A special huge thank you to Karen Cervenka, the Society’s Managing Director, for being who she is.  Karen works seemingly endlessly to put every aspect of this very complicated Course together, and she once again, incredibly, did a simply phenomenal job.  Her enthusiasm, energy and dedication are very much appreciated!!!!  Many others at Digestive Health Works also worked very hard on our behalf…thanks to Bina Mesheimer, Robin Weidy, Barbara Connell and everyone else who contributed behind the scenes.

Thanks also to Montefiore CME, and in particular Nada Piacentino, Marilyn Sasso and Vic Hatcher for their help.

We still miss Florence Lefcourt, the “heart and the soul of the Society”, but she “continues to be there” as well. Regular tributes to her remind us all of the wonderful woman who led us for so many years!!

The NYSGE Council helped whip the Program into shape many months ago, and we appreciate their efforts as well.  Today’s version of the Course is really built on the Courses of 20, 30 and now over 40 years ago…we thank the many NYSGE council members over all the years, as well as the original founders of the Society, and appreciate all they did to shape the Society and to shape this Course. Also, congratulations to the Society’s current President, Dr. Chris DiMaio, who has had a most successful year as President!!

Most of all, we want to thank you, the Faculty of this year’s Course. You took time away from your busy schedules to join us, traveling from far and wide (France, Germany and every corner of the US), worked really hard on syllabus contributions and high quality presentations packed with videos, photos and cutting edge information.  We know how difficult that can be, and just want to express our sincere gratitude for all that each of you did. The spirit of collegiality is so readily apparent; we all work together really well, and that is terrific.  One more truly important thing…we all seemed to have loads of fun, and that’s maybe the best marker that things continue to go so well!!

Yes, the 41st Annual NYSGE Course was indeed a special one, and so thanks one more time for being part of it.   Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year from all of the course directors and organizers to the faculty and attendees!!

David A. Greenwald, MD

Director of Clinical Gastroenterology and Endoscopy

Mount Sinai Hospital

Gastroenterology Fellowship: Journeys, Quests and Career Choices.

 

 

The NYSGE is a nationally renowned gastrointestinal society, but a huge driving force for our successful society are the fellows in training working at our various institutions. There are 539 total members in NYSGE, and 227 of them are fellows and residents in training. Although our fellows are strong clinicians and work tireless hours seeing patients, setting up carts, and performing emergency endoscopies in the middle of the night, they somehow find time to pursue academic interests and publish very interesting research.

In the past year there have been countless abstracts, papers, and publications involving our fellows. Although there are a multitude of publications, a selected listing here includes Anoop Appannagari, AET at Stony Brook, who published an interesting case in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy titled “Two endoscopic resection methods for the removal of an over the scope clip.” Lionel D’Souza, the BI-Mount Sinai AET recently published a case in ACG Case Reports Journal titled “A rare case of isolated pancreatic Tuberculosis.” Sunil Amin, AET of Columbia, helped publish the abstract titled “Longer time interval between ERCP and surgery associated with improved survival in pancreatic cancer patients” at ACG this past year. Nikhil Kumta (formerly the AET at Cornell) and Ming Ming Xu, the current AET at Cornell, who with other co-authors recently published a video in Endoscopy titled, “Submucosal tunneling endoscopic resection of a symptomatic leiomyoma in the proximal esophagus” which was also presented at the David B. Falkenstein Fellow’s Night. Shailja Shah, Mount Sinai Fellow won the distinguished poster award for her research in Ulcerative Colitis and the winner of the Peter Stevens Endoscopic Video Forum went to Sam Seroya of BI-Mount Sinai, both presented at this year’s Annual Dinner.

These extracurricular academic pursuits by our fellows are beneficial as they expand the knowledge and frontiers of Gastroenterology, but they also benefit the applicants as they are truly important markers of dedication, hard work, and persistence which are essential when applying for jobs. The light at the end of the tunnel comes quickly for many fellows, and after years of college, medical school, residency, and then fellowship come to a close, the real world rears its head come winter and spring for all of our senior fellows.

Job hunting can be a daunting task, and below are anonymous selected quotes of recently graduated fellows in the NY area to advise the current graduating fellows:

• “The job search can be one of the most daunting tasks for any young physician finishing training. After having our career paths determined for us though the match process for the past 6 or 7 years, we are suddenly faced with the complete freedom to explore any type of practice setting in any location. This can be both amazing and terrifying. The first and most important step is to be honest with yourself about the situation that will be best for you and your family.”

• “Use the interview to understand each practice model’s unique benefits and risks.”

• “Ask around!  Discuss the position with your program director and people you trust.  Try to reach out to physicians who may have been recently hired by the practice you are interviewing for, or possibly who have left that practice in recent years.  Why did they decide to join that group?  Why did they leave?”

• “Do not sell yourself short!  While you may not have experience outside of training, remember that the employers are seeking to fill the position.  They want YOU.”

• “Have an attorney review your contract for loopholes.  Everything is negotiable.  If the terms are not equitable, continue to push for change so that they are.  You do not want to sign something that you will regret signing later on.

• “Be flexible to an extent.  Some groups have specific needs and may ask if you would be willing to meet that need (reading capsules, learning nutrition/TPN, etc).  Consider these as these may still be good opportunities, but of course don’t sacrifice your goals/interests and settle on something you hate doing just to get the job.”

• “Look at the dynamics and culture of the group (academic or private), could you see yourself fraternizing with these people for several years?  Are you proud to call them your colleagues?  Remember that these people will – for better or worse- represent the practice and take care of your patients when you’re on vacation, in the hospital, on call, etc.”

• “Get a sense of the local admitting hospitals and ancillary services. Having an awful pathology department or radiologist will ultimately hurt your practice.”

 

Demetrios Tzimas, M.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Advanced and Therapeutic Endoscopy Service – Director of Medical School GI Pathophysiology

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology  – Stony Brook University School of Medicine

2016 NYSGE Annual Course

40th Annual New York Course
Four Decades at the Forefront of Endoscopy
December 15-16, 2016

Under the direction of expert faculty, this course is designed to improve endoscopic practice through live case presentations, video and hands-on demonstrations, didactic lectures including audience interaction and questions, and hands-on training using animal tissue models.

The course goals are to help participants improve their ability to accurately diagnose and effectively treat the spectrum of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders, enhance quality in all practice settings, embrace advances in healthcare delivery, payment systems, and healthcare information sharing; apply state-of-the-art technology in a cost-effective way, understand trends in interventional endoscopic and surgical procedures, and to foster an evidence-based approach to endoscopic decision-making for commonly encountered and controversial problems in gastroenterology.

As gastrointestinal endoscopy continues to experience a rapid expansion of knowledge and technological innovation, and advances in therapeutic endoscopy challenge or entirely replace certain purely diagnostic endoscopy techniques, the need for superior continuing education becomes increasingly important. This course will enable participants to attain and apply cutting edge information and evolving technological innovations to elevate practice levels and enhance patient care and treatment outcomes.

Learn more about the 40th  Annual Course held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.

 

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