The team spent the week soaking up the sun and all things esophagus at the 38th annual Medical and Surgical Aspects of Esophageal and Foregut Disorders: Pathophysiology and Treatment held in Maui. FSIE Innovation Team members Dr Steve DeMeester (course director), Lisa Leeth and Angi Gill (course coordinators) put on a fabulous and rigorous program full of cutting edge data as well as fantastic social events. The team got to learn and mingle with the greatest minds in Foregut disease. 

Dr. Brett Parker won the highly coveted IRCAD scholarship at the 2019 FSIE Silent Auction. Brett was a Foregut Surgery Fellow and Innovations Team member at the time and planned to go in 2020 after graduation. His plans were delayed while he moved from Portland, started his surgery practice and started a family! He is now an assistant professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins. Despite his busy schedule, he was finally able to make the trip to Strasbourg, France to participate in the Upper GI Robotics Advanced Course. It was amazing! Thank you IRCAD for supporting FSIE!

The FSIE Board shared the meeting with good friends and innovations team members at the American Foregut Society Meeting in Florida!

After a 2 year "break" FSIE Annual Summer Celebration was back in downtown Portland. This year's theme was to thank the staff of The Oregon Clinic Center for Advanced Surgery and all the Innovations Team members for all their hard work and dedication to high quality patient care! 

6 fantastic aspiring doctors completed an intensive 2-week internship this week. The program included lectures from surgeons, live surgery and hands-on skills. The course ended with an awesome liver surgery lab and the final knot-tying competitions! Thank you to the dedicated Innovations Team who made it possible. It was a great time for all!

FSIE board member Dr Kevin Reavis serves as the Chairman of the AMA Digestive Disease Section Council and SAGES AMA board representative. In this role, Dr Reavis presented testimony in support of equitable insurance coverage for patients. He argued opposition to the practice of some private insurance companies arbitrarily denying coverage for procedures by declaring them "experimental" if those same procedures are accepted by Medicare. Here is his full 60 second floor speech regarding Resolution 110. 

“Good morning Dr. Speaker...
Kevin Reavis from Portland Oregon
Delegate for the Society of American Gastrointestinal & Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES)
Speaking on behalf of the Digestive Diseases Section council as chair.
No conflicts.
We agree with our colleagues in New York and speak in support of referral for report.
We understand that there may be unintended consequences with this resolution, however denial of well established disease treatments as "experimental" for perpetuity must end. There is no limit to what an insurer can term "experimental" and throw out denial after denial after denial.
"allow markets to determine benefit packages" as mentioned in the reference committee report is an invitation for denial as well.
We enjoy providing our patients the latest appropriate treatments for complex diseases. Once these treatments have been vetted by the AMA and have a CPT and further established as appropriate by Medicare it is incredibly frustrating to explain to patients that their treatment has been denied and their insurance company is less willing to cover their treatment than the federal government.
Referral for report will allow us to move forward in formulating a transition from this most aggravating reality. Thank you.”

FSIE is pleased to welcome another outstanding group of undergraduates to participate in the Annual Summer Surgical Internship after a 2 year pandemic hiatus. We received an overwhelming number of excellent candidate applications and carefully selected 7 students for the internship. They come from a wide variety of universities including OSU, University of Michigan, Connecticut College, California State Fresno, Vanderbilt University and UNLV. Former 2019 intern Sarah McKay has returned from medical school at Albany Medical to continue her research and serve as the program coordinator. A truly stellar group! 

FSIE was pleased to hold the first live POEM course since the pandemic. We hosted 10 attending level participants and 4 fellows in training at the Providence Portland Surgical Simulation Lab. As usual, it was a nice mix of gastroenterologists, thoracic surgeons and general surgeons. The course offered a detailed hands-on experience including 3 explant labs with one on one proctoring and the latest technology. The participants were able to observe 3 live POEM operations with direct access to the surgeon in real time through the moderator. And of course we had excellent food including a fun night at Steeplejack Brewing Company. Thanks to the FSIE Innovations team for an outstanding event!

SAGES 2022 was held in Denver Colorado this past week and it was a huge success! ALL current fellows, Drs Maggie Hodges, Teresa Gross and Andreas Hennig, had outstanding podium presentations. The rest of the team was also notable throughout the meeting-it seemed everywhere we looked, another member was on the stage sharing wisdom. Notably, Innovations Team alumni Emily Speer, Ezra Teitelbaum and Amber Shada were each recognized with SAGES Excellence Coins! This is a huge honor given for outstanding contributions to the meeting. CONGRATULATIONS! But of course, it wasn't all work and no play. Thank you to Lisa Leeth for organizing the annual Swanstrom Fellowship Reunion at Union Station Thursday night- a great evening catching up and enjoying delicious food in a cool venue. And lastly, this years Sing-off was exceptional. After 2 long years without a "proper" party- the masks came off the fully vaccinated crowd at Grizzly Rose. Dr Reavis rode the mechanical bull among other shenanigans! FSIE Innovators, past and present, have assumed the moniker "Portland Endofreaks" since their breakout performance on the 2013 sing off stage. This year's "Scope all Holes" set to Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" was true to form (aka hilariously goofy) with Ashwin Kurian, Val Halpin and Emily Speer dominating the mic.  Not sure who had more fun- the SAGES crowd or the band (Denver's Radio Band) who appreciated the crowd! Congratulations to the SAGES Program Committee on a job well done! 

FSIE President and Founder Dr Lee Swanstrom (third from left)and his surgical buddies (L-R) Dr John Hunter, Dr Jeff Peters and Dr Nat Soper) were honored at the 37th Annual esophageal course, “Medical and Surgical Aspects of Esophageal and Foregut Disorders: Pathophysiology and Treatment” in Hawaii for their outstanding contributions to surgery. In addition to giving fantastic lectures to the participants, they also generously mentored young surgeons on the beach!

After a couple bumpy years we are happy to announce FSIE will be back in-person for this years annual SAGES meeting. SAGES has done a great job keeping the conference going in 2020 and 2021 but 2022 holds great promise not seen since the good old days of 2019! The meeting will be held March 16-19, 2022 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. Shout out to FSIE Innovations Team Alumnus Kelly Haisley, MD for being part of the program committee! Here's a sneak peek at what we have going on...

Video Accepted: HYBRID APPROACH TO DUELING ESOPHAGEAL DISORDERS
Presenter: Andreas Hennig, DO, MBA
Session Name: Foregut Session
Session Date: Friday, March 18, 2022
Session Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
 
Abstract Accepted: Abnormal response after multiple rapid swallow provocation is not predictive of early post-operative dysphagia following fundoplication
Presenter: Maggie M Hodges, MD, MPH
Session Name: Foregut Session
Session Date: Friday, March 18, 2022
Session Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
 
Video Accepted: LINX Rescue: a novel approach
Presenter: Teresa S Gross, MD
Session Name: Foregut Video Session
Session Date: Thursday, March 17, 2022
Session Time: 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Talk Title: Thriving not Surviving
Presenter: Rodrigo Pedraza, MD
Session Date: Wednesday March 16th
Session Time: 3:00-5:00 pm
 
Moderator: Kevin M Reavis, MD
Session Name: Foregut Quickshot SS14
Session Date: Thursday, March 17, 2022
Session Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
 
Talk Title: Evaluation of Gastroparesis: Available Technologies and Clinical Application
Presenter: Christy M Dunst, MD
Session Name: All Things Foregut Physiology
Session Date: Thursday, March 17, 2022
Session Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

FSIE/Swanstrom Fellow Party
Thursday Night
Location TBD
 
Talk Title: Why Start a Foregut Fellowship
Presenter: Christy M Dunst, MD
Session Name: Defining Foregut Surgery (SAGES/SSAT/ASMBS/AFS)
Session Date: Saturday, March 19, 2022
Session Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Wow- are we excited to say "See you at SAGES!"

FSIE will be forever bonded with our 2020-2021 Foregut Surgery Fellows Melissa DeSouza and Timothy Mansour. . They are the first to officially get that title and of course we all muddled through a strange year together. Kuddos to you both for your huge accomplishments- writing book chapters, presenting work, virtual meetings and PNW foregut journal club and somehow, an incredible case log! Great job! 

FSIE Intern Sarah McKay was awarded a SAGES podium presentation for her work on long term outcomes after POEM. Sarah was an FSIE Summer intern in 2019 and stayed on with the research team to complete her ambitious project which is awaiting publication after a successful virtual presentation at this years annual meeting. Quite a feather in the cap of an already accomplished young woman! Sarah recently graduated magna cum laude from Oregon State University with a BS in Public Health. She currently works as a medical scribe at The Oregon Clinic as she prepares for medical school. Go Sarah!

​Clinical research fellows have been an integral part of FSIE since our founding.  Typically, these fellows are sponsored by Providence Portland Medical Center, Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, the Oregon Clinic or our industry partners. The 2019-2020 academic year blessed us with the great fortune of having 4 of our most outstanding fellows in the history of the program. These four surgeons remained the heart of FSIE activities demonstrating enthusiasm and dedication with ease and flexibility despite the unexpected events of 2020. They quickly adapted to weekly Zoom research meetings, journal clubs and clinical case conference. They masked up and kept the gears turning at the hospital. Despite these challenges, this group finished multiple manuscripts for publication, finished their programs and one (Dr Mueller) even completed her PhD! We are sad to see them go but excited to watch their careers blossom as they move on to their next adventure. They will always have a special place in our hearts as the Class of 2020!
 
Congratulations!
Dr. Brett Parker- Advanced GI-Foregut Surgical Fellow
Dr. Reid Fletcher-Advanced GI-Foregut Surgical Fellow
Dr. Ahmed Sharata- NOTES Clinical Research Fellow
Dr. Dolores Mueller- Foregut Research Fellow

The gang got together this weekend for a virtual reunion! Although FSIE is sad to have had to cancel the summer internship this year, last year's interns remind us what a great program it is! Looking forward to the class of 2021! Thanks team!