Nadeem Ahmad Afzal, MD, MBBS, MRCP, MRCPCH, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Room EG244D, Mailpoint 44, Floor G, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton, Hampshire SO16 6YD, United Kingdom. n.afzal@soton.ac.uk

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Nadeem Ahmad Afzal was appointed Consultant in Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in 2004 at Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust, UK. He leads the paediatric endoscopy services offering a range of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures to babies and children in Hampshire. Dr Afzal received specialist training in paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology in Great Ormond Street, Barts and the London, Royal Free and Kings College Hospitals and served as research fellow at the University College of London, studying role of nutrition in paediatric inflammatory bowel diseases. Dr Afzal received his doctorate on the subject from Queen Mary, University of London. In 2010, he was appointed Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at School of Medicine, Southampton. Dr Afzal has an active research programme in the university and is nearing 30 Medline publications. Dr Afzal has an interest in therapeutic endoscopy reporting first successful use of Mitomycin for treatment of intractable paediatric oesophageal strictures in The Lancet. Subsequently, a larger study in 6 countries led to world-wide adoption of Mitomycin in paediatric gastroenterology practice. Dr Afzal has participated in several collaborative multi-centre studies including work on endoscopic gastroplication in children. Dr Afzal serves on the national British paediatric inflammatory bowel disease and medicines for children working groups. He is a peer reviewer for a number of gastroenterology and paediatric journals and an active member of the editorial board of the Word Journal of Gastrointestinal Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Dr Afzal is deeply involved in charity work and assists Humanity First Medical (www.humanityfirstmedical.org) on a wide range of International projects.

Spiros D Ladas, MD, Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology, Medical School, University of Athens, Chairman, 1st Department of Internal Medicine-Propaedeutic, Director, Medical Section, “Laiko” General Hospital of Athens, 17 Agiou Thoma Street, 11527 Athens, Greece. sdladas@otenet.gr

BIOGRAPHY

Graduated (1970) and obtained his PhD Degree (1977) from the University of Athens, Spiros D. Ladas was elected Professor of Medicine & Gastroenterology (2004) of the Medical School, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, and appointed Chairman of the 1st Department of Internal Medicine-Propaedeutic at "Laiko" University General Hospital of Athens, Greece. He organized in his Department a Gastroenterology/Hepatology/Endoscopy Division, providing clinical service to the hospital and developed basic/clinical research in these fields, published in ISI journals. All through his career he teaches Internal Medicine/Gastroenterology to medical students, being also responsible for the organization of their clinical teaching in his Department. He has served in several National and International Societies/Committees including the Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology (President 2003), the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) (Councillor, 2003-6, Vice-President 2007-8), the ESGE Guidelines Committee (Chairman, 2005-8). He was invited and lectured/chaired in numerous national/international congresses/symposia and participated for establishing European Guidelines on Helicobacter pylori infection (EHPSG, Maastricht 2000, 2005, 2010) and Colon Cancer Prevention (ESGE, 2003). He has published numerous SCI journal papers and several books/book chapters on gastrointestinal endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, ethics and Helicobacter pylori, cited more than 2,000 times (ISI, 170 books) by other authors. He is currently member of the Editorial Board of several Endoscopy/Gastroenterology journals and referee of more than 10 medical journals, including Lancet, Gut, Am J Gastroenterol, Endoscopy. He organized as President several congresses, including the national Gastroenterology Congress (2000), two European Symposia on Ethics in Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy (2002, 2006) and an International on Sedation in Digestive Endoscopy (2009).

Juan Manuel-Herrerías, MD, PhD, AGAF, Professor, Gastroenterology Service, Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Aparato Digestivo, Avda. Dr. Fedriani, s/n, 41071 Sevilla, Spain. jmhg@us.es

BIOGRAPHY

Juan Manuel Herrerías obtained his Doctoral Degree in 1974 from the Seville University (Spain) and on the same year he became full professor in Internal Medicine in the same University. Since 1975 he has been Head of Gastroenterology - Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena (Seville), focusing his scientific interests on acid peptic disease, therapeutics in gastroenterology and hepatology, alcoholic and viral liver diseases, endoscopy with special reference to capsule endoscopy. President of the Spanish National Gastroenterology Committee (Ministery of National Health and Ministery of Education and Sciences - Madrid), 1994-1998 and from 2007 to-date; former President of the Spanish Society of Gastroenterology. Until now he has published over 300 papers in national and international journals and described for the first time in the world laparoscopic image of lepromatous leprosy and colonoscopic aspects of the alcoholic colitis. He has developed investigation in the field of biliary lithiasis (therapy with biliary acids and lithotripsy and was the one who introduced in Spain, outside investigation protocols, the capsule endoscopy and developed studies with all the types of capsules in adults and children. He is the author of several books on hepatology, colitis, NSAIDs gastropathy, and Atlas on Capsule Endoscopy. He is exdirector of many Spanish journals and also a referee of several national and international journals. He has given lectures in many European countries, in the American continent and in Asia. He is Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine since 1996 and Fellowship of the American Gastroenterological Association since 2007, amongst others.

Till Wehrmann, MD, PhD, Professor, FB Gastroenterologie Gastroenterologie, Deutsche Klinik fuer Diagnostik, Aukammallee 33, 65191 Wiesbaden, Germany. till.wehrmann@dkd-wiesbaden.de 

BIOGRAPHY

Till Wehrmann was born in April, 1957 in Wiesbaden, Germany. After his high school degree he studied medicine at the Universities of Kiel and Frankfurt am Main. The doctoral thesis, subjected to sphincter of Oddi motility, was carried out under the tutorial ship of Prof. Dr. Meinhard Classen 1985 at the J.W. Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main.In 1986 the clinical education began for internal medicine first in the community hospital of Hanau and then from 1987-2000 at the Centre of Internal Medicine at the University Hospital in Frankfurt am Main, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Caspary. In 1993 he received his graduation for internal medicine, in 1994 followed by the graduation for gastroenterology. In 1996 he achieved the Ph.D. with studies related to sphincter of Oddi dsysfunction. Since that time he worked as a senior physician on the university medical centre of Frankfurt. In April 2000 he was elected as the Head of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Academic Hospital “Siloah” in Hannover. In 2002 he became extraordinary professor at the J.W. Goethe's University in Frankfurt am Main. Since October 2006 he additionally served as the Director of the Endoscopy Unit in the Academic Hospital “Oststadt” in Hannover. By April 2008 he changed to the position as the Head of the Division of Gastroenterology to the Deutsche Klinik fuer Diagnstik in Wiesbaden.His scientific work mainly focuses on interventional endoscopy and endosonography as well as on GI-motility disorders. Other activities are subjected to sedation in endoscopy. In 2007 he served as the chair of the Endoscopy Section of the German Society for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS), in October 2011 he was elected to the secretary general of the Endoscopy Section of the DGVS.

Kazuya Akahoshi, MD, PhD, Head of Department of Gastroenterology Director of Endoscopy Center,Aso Iizuka Hospital, Yoshio 3-83, Iizuka city, 820-8505, Japan

William Robert Brugge, MD, Gastrointestinal Unit, Blake 452C Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, United States

Qiang Cai, MD, PhD, FASGE, FACG, AGAF, Professor of Medicine, Division of Digestive Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine, 1365 Clifton Road, Suite B1262 Atlanta, GA 30322, United States

Juan J Vila Costas, MD, Gastroenterology Department, Hospital de Navarra, c\Irunlarrea, 3, Pamplona 31.008, Spain

Atsushi Irisawa, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Aizu Medical Center, Fukushima Medical University, 10-75, Shiromae, Aizuwakamatsu 965-8555, Japan

Andreas Sieg, Professor, MD, Practice of Gastroenterology, Bergheimer Str. 56a, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Gaetana Ilaria Tarantino, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, ISMETT / UPMC Italy, Palermo 90100, Italy

Tony Chiew Keong Tham, MD, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, Belfast BT16 1RH, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Konstantinos Triantafyllou, MD, PhD, Hepatogastroenterology Unit, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine - Propaedeutic, Attikon University General Hospital, Medical School, Athens University 1, Rimini street, Haidari 12462, Greece

Bor-Shyang Sheu, MD, Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng Li Road, Tainan 70428, Taiwan, China

Marcela Kopacova, MD, PhD, Professor, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology, Charles University Teaching Hospital, Sokolska 581, Hradec Kralove, 500 05, Czech Republic

Hongchun Bao, PhD, Research Fellow, The Center for Micro-Photonics, Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia

Michael John Bourke, MBBS, FRACP, Director, Department of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Westmead Hospital, Suite 106a 151-155 Hawkesbury Road,  Sydney, Australia

Ian Craig Lawrance, Professor, Centre for Inflammatory Bowel diseases, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Level 5, T Block, Alma St, Fremantle Hospital, Fremantle 6160, Western Australia, Australia

Rupert W Leong, Associate Professor, Director of Endoscopy, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Concord Hospital, Ambulatory Care Endoscopy, Level 1 West, Main Building, Hospital Rd, Concord NSW 2139, Australia

Liang Qiao, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Storr Liver Unit, University of Sydney at Westmead Hopspital, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia

Rajvinder Singh, Senior Medical Practitioner/Gastroenterologist, The Lyell McEwin Hospital, SA, Australia

Michael Swan, MBBS, FRACP, Department of Gastroenterology, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton Road, Clayton, Victoria, Australia 3168

Christine Kapral, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Konventhospital Barmherzige Brueder, Seilerstaette 2, 4021 Linz, Austria

Giovanni Dapri, MD, Assistant Professor, European School of Laparoscopic Surgery, Saint-Pierre University Hospital, 322 Rue Haute, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

Pierre Henri Deprez, MD, PhD, Professor, Gastroenterology Department, Cliniques universitaires St-Luc, UCL Université catholique de Louvain, Ave Hippocrate 10, 1200 Brussels, Belgium

Tom G Moreels, MD, PhD, Professor, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Antwerp University Hospital, Wilrijkstraat 10, B-2650 Antwerp, Belgium

Christophe Moreno, MD, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepato-Pancreatology, Erasme Hospital, Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology, Free University of Brussels, 808 route de Lennik, Brussels 1070, Belgium

Werner Van Steenbergen, MD, PhD, Professor, Liver Unit, University hospital Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Daniel Urbain, MD, PhD, Professor, Head of Department Gastroenterology, UZBrussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium

Everson Luiz de Almeida Artifon, MD, PhD, FASGE, University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, Rua Guimaraes Passos,260-Apto 121 Vila Mariana-Sao Paulo-Sp-Brazil Zc-04107030, Brazil

Fátima Figueiredo, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rua Fonte da Saudade 162 Ap 401 Lagoa, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 22471-210, Brazil

Joaquim Prado P Moraes Filho, MD, FACP, FACG, University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, R Itapaiuna 1165 casa 28, CEP 05707-001 São Paulo, Brazil

Fernando Fornari, Professor, NeuroGastro UPF Department, Universidade de Passo Fundo, Rua Teixeira Soares n° 817, Passo Fundo-RS, 99010080, Brazil

Fauze Maluf-Filho, MD, Hospital das Clínicas, São Paulo University School of Medicine, 488 Olegario Mariano, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

José Luiz Sebba Souza, MD, Clinics Hospital, University of São Paulo, 255 Eneas de Carvalho Ave. 9 th Floor. Room 9159, São Paulo, Brazil

Claudio Rolim Teixeira, MD, PhD, Foundation of Gastroenterology of Rio Grande do Sul, FUGAST, Av. Silva So 255, Porto Alegre, Brazil

F Douglas Bair, MD, FRCPC, Staff Gastroenterologist, Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital, Suite 125B - 690 Dorval Drive, Oakville, Ontario L6K 3W7, Canada

Majid Abdulrahman Al Madi, MBBS, FRCPC, Gastroenterology Division, McGill University Health Center, McGill University, Royal Victoria Hospital, 687 Pine Ave West, Montreal QC H3A 1A1, Canada

André Roy, Professeur titulaire de chirurgie / Université de Montréal, Chirurgie hepato-biliaire et pancréatique, Transplantation hépatique, Endoscopie rétrograde thérapeutique, Hôpital Saint-Luc / CHUM, 1058 Saint-Denis, Montréal, Québec H2X3J4, Canada

Alan A Weiss, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, British Columbia Cancer Agency, 600 West 10th Avenue, British Columbia V5Z 4E6., Vancouver，Canada

Brian Michael Yan, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, University of Calgary, Rm 6D16, Teaching Research and Wellness (TRW) Building, 3280 Hospital Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta,  T2N – 4N1, Canada

Paul Richard Harris, MD, Associate Professor, Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Medical Research Center, School of Medicine, 391 Marcoleta, Chile

Italo Francisco Braghetto Miranda, MD, FACS, Professor in Surgery, University of Chile, Santos Dumont 999 Santiago, Chile

Zhong-Ming Bai, Director, Department of Gastroenterology, Mackay Memorial Hospital Clinic, Taipei 10449, Tanwan, China

Annie On On Chan, MD, PhD, Honorary Associate Professor, Director, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Center, The Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Happy Valley, Hong Kong, China

Wei-Hung Chan, MD, PHD, Visiting Physician, Department of Anesthesiology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, China

Yang-Yuan Chen, MD, Chief of Endoscopic Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Tanwan, China

Philip Wai Yan Chiu, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Institute of Digestive Disease, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, 30-32 Ngan Shing Street, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, China

Wai-Keung Chow, Visiting Staff, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, China

Yen Chang Chu, MD, Gastroenterologic Medical Chief Attending Doctor in Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, China