DAY 1: Outgoing ACG President Outlines Challenges and Opportunities in Gastroenterology

Dr. Chey described the many challenges facing gastroenterology, including the rising costs of care, stagnant or declining reimbursement, a shift from physician practice ownership to employment with an accompanying loss of autonomy, a mismatch between workforce supply and patient demand, growing burnout, and the double-edged sword of artificial intelligence. He also highlighted significant opportunities: new AI tools for documentation, polyp detection, and research; biomedical innovation in drugs, devices, imaging, home health monitoring, and wearables; precision medicine built on deep phenotyping, genotyping, and machine learning for data mining and predictive modeling; and multidisciplinary, integrative care models that combine medications, diet, behavioral therapy, and complementary approaches.

He described ACG’s advocacy work, the formation of new task forces in education and biomedical innovation, training initiatives, and recognition of the expertise and importance of advanced practice providers. At ACG’s Advocacy Day on April 16, more than 100 members from 46 states held 200 meetings with legislators on stepped therapy, prior authorization, reimbursement, and NIH funding. Dr. Chey also shared the recent changes at NIH affecting clinical researchers, including requirements that proposals align with administration policies and priorities, implementation of senior appointee reviews that can supersede scientific review, the cancellation of already-funded grants, and discouragement of international collaboration.

The Education Innovation Task Force is rethinking how education is delivered to younger learners through tools such as a “question of the week” and virtual training with interactive AI. The Biomedical Innovation Task Force aims to identify unmet needs and support the innovators and entrepreneurs who are working to meet those needs by providing grants, mentorship, a sandbox environment, and support for real-world implementation studies and adoption initiatives.