Saturday, January 21, 2023

1:20 pm – 1:50 pm

IBD Case Presentation [Interactive]

Dr. James C. Gregor is a Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario.  He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1988 and specialized in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He did further training in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics at the University of Toronto.
 
Dr. Gregor joined the medical staff at The London Health Sciences Centre in 1995. He served as Program Director for the Division of Gastroenterology from 1998 to 2002. Currently, he is the Site Chief for the Department of Medicine at the South Street Campus, Associate Chair of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, Site Chief and Program Director for the Division of Gastroenterology.
 
Dr. Gregor is a Past President of the Ontario Association of Gastroenterology (OAG) and currently sits on its Past Presidents’ Council. He is Chair and organizer of the annual Scholars Program for the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG). He is the Chair of the Specialty Committee in Gastroenterology for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
 
His research interests include therapeutic endoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, economic analysis, and quality of life assessments in gastroenterology.

Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, MHCM, is a Professor of Clinical Medicine and a Gastroenterologist that specializes in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She has recently transitioned to the University of Cincinnati, after successfully building the first standalone multidisciplinary IBD Center and serving as the Medical Director at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center the past five years. Dr. Afzali is now the Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati and Associate Chief Medical Officer of UC Health Systems and Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She received her medical degree and then completed an Internal Medicine residency and Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. While in fellowship, Dr. Afzali worked in outcomes research and epidemiology, and also graduated with a Master’s in Public Health. She recently also obtained another Master's in Health Care Management for physician executive leadership and business administration from Harvard University. Her areas of research interests include clinical outcomes and clinical trials for investigative therapies and diagnostics in IBD. She is a healthcare redesign leader and with interests in clinical operations and transformative medical care delivery. Dr. Afzali has extensive peer-reviewed publications, a clinical trialist in over 20 investigative drug and diagnostic trials, an invited lecturer on national and international programs, and serves on several international advisory boards and scientific committees. She is the incoming Chair of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Educational Affairs Committee and the incoming Chair of the World Gastroenterology Organization (WGO) Publications Committee, and Co-Editor of the WGO quarterly global newsletters.

Dr. Jairath is a Professor of Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and holder of the John and Susan McDonald Endowed Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Clinical Research at Western University. He is the Program Director for the Advanced IBD Fellowship at Western. He is also the Associate Chair (Research) for the Department of Medicine at Western. His research interests focus on clinical therapeutics for IBD, clinical trials, development and validation of clinical indices and patient reported outcome measures. His clinical practice is based at University Hospital, and he is Principal Investigator for several clinical trials.

Dr. Christopher Ma is an academic gastroenterologist at the University of Calgary, with cross-appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences. He has advanced clinical and research training in inflammatory bowel disease and clinical trial methods. His research portfolio primarily focuses on trial design and analytic methods, and the epidemiology and treatment of inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases.