Programs and Activities
Center for Leadership, Ethics & Equity
The LE&E Center will bring together existing initiatives of The ACG Institute focused on leadership training and consolidate new programs and research funding along with transformational tools and experiences. The programs under the LE&E Center include:
- The ACG Emerging Leadership Program
- The ACG Early Career Leadership Program
- The ACG Advanced Leadership Program
- The ACG Clinical Research Leadership Program
- The ACG Leonidas Berry Health Equity Research Award
- The ACG Edgar Achkar Visiting Professorship with content related to ethical decision making, disparate health outcomes, and equitable care.
- Scholarships for High School Students through the Prescriptions for Success: Careers in Medicine High School Visit
ACG Emerging Leadership Program
The Emerging Leadership Program offers U.S.-based College members in their 3rd or 4th year of GI fellowship training an opportunity to grow and maintain their success as future leaders. Participants will develop the skills necessary to take on more leadership roles as they look ahead to their career post-fellowship. The course is limited in size to encourage networking and to facilitate an interactive learning environment. The program includes a mix of lectures, Q&A, and breakout and role-playing exercises, both online and in person.
ACG Early Career Leadership Program
The Early Career Leadership Program is an intensive program that provides a focused cohort of early career GI clinicians the opportunity to build foundational leadership and advocacy skill and to develop executive decision-making capabilities. Motivated early career physicians are brought together to exchange ideas as they work to enhance critical thinking and comprehend organizational behavior. The program combines online learning, participation in legislative advocacy, and live course work at the ACG Annual Meeting.
ACG Advanced Leadership Program
The Advanced Leadership Program aims to develop a cohesive group of peer leaders who will serve as problem-solving consultants for each other and the College. This program offers mid-career physicians (10-20 years post-fellowship completion) the opportunity to develop comprehensive leadership skills and provides advocacy training.
ACG Clinical Research Leadership Program
This new signature program of the ACG Institute’s Center for Leadership, Ethics & Equity will help train clinical investigators as scientific leaders, team managers, financial stewards of research dollars, and mentors. This unique interactive program will provide funded ACG clinician investigators with the skill set to start, grow, and successfully maintain an independent research program. The program aims to provide leadership training for early to mid-career clinical investigator/physicians (between 2-15 years out of fellowship training) with active or recent ACG or federal funding as a Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator.
Research Grants
Since the founding of the ACG Institute in 1994, funding has been provided to 764 investigators, totaling more than $34.2 million for research directly relating to the practice of clinical gastroenterology. Looking ahead, the ACG Institute’s continued investment in career development awards and funding for GI fellows-in-training will foster clinical innovations in gastroenterology and hepatology that will improve patient care and strengthen the capabilities of practitioners. The College is proud of the achievements of its funded investigators and plans to invest more fully in their leadership and success.
Edgar Achkar Visiting Professorships with Components of Equity, Diversity & Ethical Care
The ACG Edgar Achkar Visiting Professorships provide onsite lectures and ground rounds as a resource for fellows-in-training. This may include an added component of creating awareness around issues and challenges of delivering equitable care, respecting diversity, and instilling ethical decision making in addition to a disease state topic driven visit.
ACG Edgar Achkar Visiting Professorship Program
The goal of the ACG Edgar Achkar Visiting Professorship Program, which honors former ACG Institute Director, Edgar Achkar, MD, MACG, is to enable GI fellowship programs to have high-quality visiting professors to bolster the training program by providing lectures, small group discussions, and one-on-one visits with trainees and faculty. You choose the speaker, the Institute covers the travel costs and honorarium.
Disease State Specific One-Day Schools
The ACG Institute develops regional, single-day, disease state-specific clinical education programs. They are intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment of GI and hepatic illnesses. These programs are often held in conjunction with select ACG Regional Postgraduate Courses and are offered on a rotating schedule.
Endoscopy School
ACG’s Endoscopy School provides a single-day clinical educational program intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment. Endoscopy School updates on new devices and endoscopic techniques. The program is designed to educate on the best endoscopic approaches and offers the opportunity to learn techniques in the form of hands-on workshops. This program allows those in practice an opportunity to upskill to the latest technology and techniques, no matter how long they have been out of formal training.
Esophagus School
ACG’s Esophagus School provides a single-day clinical educational program intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment. Esophagus School reviews diseases and disorders of the esophagus and provides a clinical update on new therapeutic and monitoring approaches. Topics include GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, achalasia, and EoE, as well as current and emerging treatments and therapies.
Hepatology School
ACG’s Hepatology School provides a single-day clinical educational program intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment. ACG’s Hepatology School provides immersion in hepatology and a clinical update on new therapeutic and monitoring approaches. The goal is for clinicians to be able to summarize the current management options for HCV and HBV and to recognize the challenges of treating patients with MASLD, PBC, PSC, upper GI bleeding, and more.
IBD School
ACG’s IBD School, first introduced in 2017, provides a single-day clinical educational program intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment. ACG’s IBD School provides immersion in IBD diagnosis and treatment, and the latest clinical and guideline updates on new therapeutic modalities and approaches. The course also highlights preventative care and management of IBD. The goal of this program is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients more efficiently.
Functional GI & Motility Disorders School
ACG’s Functional GI & Motility Disorders School provides a single-day clinical educational program intended for gastroenterologists, gastroenterology trainees, primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other members of the health care team interested in the latest information on diagnostic and state-of-the-art treatment. Functional GI & Motility Disorders School reviews current goals of therapy and management strategies for IBS, utilizing the ACG Clinical Guideline for the Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome as a primary resource. The program’s goal is to improve communication, diagnosis, and management of patients with IBS, CIC, and other functional GI diseases.
Evidence-Based Monographs and Reviews
ACG Monograph on Geriatrics and GI
The ACG Institute and LE&E Center are proud to share the Monograph on Geriatrics and GI, a supplement to The American Journal of Gastroenterology, serving as a practice update on the care of older adults with overlapping GI conditions, as well as providing gap areas in need of future research. The monograph highlights differences in clinical presentation and management of gastroenterological conditions that are unique to older adults, and features seven chapters of concise, clinically relevant summaries on the latest scientific insights. Adam S. Faye, MD, MS, Sunanda V. Kane, MD, MSPH, MACG, and Aasma Shaukat, MD, MPH, FACG are the editors for this new monograph.
ACG Monograph on Microbiome Therapeutics
The ACG Institute and LE&E Center is proud to share the Monograph on Microbiome Therapeutics, a supplement to The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Neil H. Stollman, MD, FACG, and Colleen R. Kelly, MD, FACG, serve as editors for this comprehensive update on the new developments and innovations related to the Microbiome in GI. Topics include the current state of biome science, non-prescription therapeutics, prescription therapeutics, the future of biome therapeutics, and the biome in liver disease.
ACG Monograph on GI Diseases and Endoscopy in Pregnancy and Postpartum Period
In partnership with the ACG Women in GI Committee, the ACG Institute is publishing a third monograph to address the current best approaches to treating GI diseases and endoscopy during pregnancy and postpartum. This comprehensive monograph was released in October 2022 and has an editorial team of gastroenterologists, OB/GYNs and a neonatal pharmacologist. Topics to be covered include liver disease during pregnancy, IBD during pregnancy, and advanced endoscopic procedures in pregnancy.
IBS Monograph
The Functional Bowel Disease Task Force was convened by the ACG Institute to review the meta-analysis of new RCT research and evaluate the analysis utilizing the GRADE system of evaluation. This criterion, which is a best practice means of evaluating data, was used in creating the updated recommendations for 2018.
IBD Monograph
The College and the ACG Institute published a new evidence-based systematic review on the management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease as a supplement to The American Journal of Gastroenterology (AJG) for April 2011. This clinical monograph, based on a comprehensive meta-analysis, offers new graded recommendations on medical management of IBD.