Message from Dr. Andrew Wang, Division Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology is concluding another strong and busy year. Our faculty, fellows, and staff have continued our tradition of excellence in clinical patient care, education, and research. We are fortunate to be the premier academic Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Our Division is comprised of 24 faculty members (nine full professors, eight associate professors, five assistant professors, one clinical instructor, one visiting professor), six advanced practice providers, seven clinical research coordinators (CRC), a clinical research coordinator manager, twelve GI fellows, a Division Administrator, and four administrative staff who make up five sections (Luminal Gastroenterology, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Interventional Endoscopy, Hepatology/Liver Transplantation, and Education). Our team boasts outstanding clinicians, educators, caregivers, researchers, and professionals. We are regularly referred patients for GI and hepatology care from throughout Virginia and the surrounding states. Additionally, patients seek the Division’s subspecialty expertise, consultative care, and advanced endoscopy procedures from across the United States and internationally.
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Mohammad (Shadab) Siddiqui to our Section of Hepatology in July 2025. Dr. Siddiqui, a Professor of Medicine, joins us from the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, VA, where he has been a key clinician and researcher since 2012. Dr. Siddiqui is a transplant hepatologist with a research focus on metabolic liver disease, biomarker development, and liver transplantation. We are also excited to announce the arrival of Dr. Kenneth DeVault, who will be joining our Section of Luminal GI in August 2025. Dr. DeVault is a Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, where he has practiced since 1995. During his tenure at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. DeVault served as Chair of the Department of Medicine for ten years and the Chair of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology for six years. Dr. DeVault is an expert in esophageal diseases and upper GI tract motility, and he served as President of the American College of Gastroenterology from 2015-2016.
Our faculty have been recognized with numerous awards and honors this past year. Several have authored clinical guidelines and/or clinical practice updates for our major GI and hepatology societies, which have positively influenced patient care. We wish to congratulate Dr. Neeral Shah, who was honored with the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Member Award, conferred by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). A SCHEV award is the Commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. Dr. Shah also received a 2025 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, which underscores his passion and dedication to educating the next generation of leaders.
The Division is doing more clinical work than ever. We are on pace to provide 15,000 outpatient clinic consultations and perform over 16,000 endoscopic procedures in Fiscal Year 2025. Our annual inpatient consult volumes continue to rise incrementally each year, highlighting the increasing demand for our services. Due to the work of our division’s transplant hepatologists, we now staff outreach clinics in Northern Virginia (Arlington) and Southwest Virginia (Wytheville), caring for patients with liver disease and enabling those who require liver transplantation to have access to this life-saving procedure.
As we enter the latter half of 2025, our Division and the UVA Digestive Health Program still have work to do. To meet the demand for the exceptional clinical care we provide, we are actively recruiting outstanding clinicians, educators, and researchers to fill positions in transplant hepatology, inflammatory bowel disease, and general gastroenterology. We continue to partner with the leadership in UVA Community Health (CH) to build a community-based GI/Hepatology program in the Prince William/Manassas corridor. Dr. Rohit Shardra, UVA CH’s first GI hospitalist, has led several initiatives that have expanded GI care to patients in Northern Virginia. In the past year, we renovated our two existing interventional endoscopy fluoroscopy rooms and created a third state-of-the-art interventional endoscopy room to meet ever-increasing demands for our advanced endoscopy services. To better meet the huge demand for our general endoscopy services, we began offering outpatient endoscopy procedures at UVA Riverside/Monticello Surgery Center. Our outpatient clinics have expanded to Zion Crossroads, and we anticipate seeing patients in the near future at the UVA Multispecialty Clinic in Fishersville.
As always, our Division and our Physician-Medical Directors continue to work closely alongside our Digestive Health leaders (Rob Teaster, Jody Farmer, Cathy Bauer, Charlotte Lineberry, Susan Gayda, Heather Rojas, and Diane McCourt). Our physicians, advanced practice providers, and fellows would not be able to do what we do without our skilled and dedicated nurses, technicians, medical assistants, and access team members. High-quality patient care is a result of our entire team working together, and we are grateful for the outstanding team we have.
Please take a few minutes to read this issue of Medicine Matters. In these pages, you will learn about the clinical advances and research being pursued by each of our sections.
Finally, we would like to thank our grateful patients, GI fellowship alumni, and all who have made donations to the division to further our academic mission. Special thanks to the family and estate of Jack Chambers, who donated a generous endowed gift in honor of Dr. Steve Caldwell’s exemplary care, which we hope will foster outstanding hepatology care and research in our Division for years to come. The contributions of all our generous donors are crucial to everything we do.
Thank you for joining us!
Andrew Y. Wang, MD, AGAF, FACG, FJGES, FASGE
David D. Stone, MD, Professor of Medicine
Division Chief of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, UVA School of Medicine
Director of Interventional Endoscopy, UVA Medical Center
University of Virginia
Section of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
The Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Section has faced access challenges over the last year due to the departure of Drs. Esteban Figueroa and Brian Behm from the University in 2024. As a result, the section had to make the difficult decision to limit the number of new patients that can be seen to ensure access for already established IBD patients. Fortunately, in December, Julia Winegard PA-C, joined Anne Tuskey MD, and Krysti Homa NP. In other positive news, Dr. Preethi Venkat, one of our senior fellows, has accepted an offer to join the section upon her graduation in 2026. Dr. Venkat plans to start an adult IBD intestinal ultrasound program at UVA.
In addition to its busy clinical practice, the IBD section continues to be involved in clinical research. The section received funding from two NIH awards last year and currently participates in five industry-sponsored IBD clinical trials, as well as two upcoming IBD registry trials. Lastly, Dr. Tuskey continues to maintain a commitment to education and the academic mission of the Division. She is the co-lead for the six-week GI System for UVA SOM’s first-year students and was an invited speaker at regional and national meetings this past year.
Section of Hepatology
The Section of Hepatology has remained active and successful in its academic missions in FY25. The 2024-2025 period was exciting, as we had two significant additions to our team. Dr. Anya Mezina joined our group in September 2024 and has been working very successfully to advance her clinical and research endeavors while balancing her busy family life with two small children. Heather Camp FNP, is a highly experienced nurse practitioner who decided to focus her career path on clinical hepatology and joined our team in September 2024. We are thrilled to have both of these outstanding clinicians join our already strong and talented hepatology group.
Our section is poised for further growth. We are excited to be welcoming Dr. M. Shadab Siddiqui to our hepatology faculty on July 1, 2025, as Professor of Medicine. Dr. Siddiqui is an NIH-R01-funded clinical researcher who will bring a strong research element to our group. He will take over as Director of Transplant Research, bringing fourteen years of clinical, educational, and research leadership experience from VCU. Our entire Division is excited to have Shadab join our team.
The Hepatology Section is fortunate to have three highly experienced and talented APPs supporting our team’s general hepatology clinical mission. Colleen Green PA-C, Carolyn Driscoll FNP PhD, and Heather Camp FNP, provide outstanding care and bring a wealth of experience to the benefit of our patients with liver disease who come from all across Virginia. In 2024-2025, the group expanded and now conducts hepatology APP clinics at the UVA Specialty Clinic in Augusta and at Zion Crossroads. We all continue to be strongly supported by an exceptional nurse coordinator team, which includes Amy Brown, Katherine Craig, Marcia Haney, Stacy Harper, Faith Mawyer, Jivannie Nelson, and Jackie Van der Linde.
Dr. Brian Wentworth had a highly productive year. He founded UVA’s first Cholestatic Liver Clinic, which cares for patients with typical cholestatic liver diseases (primary biliary cholangitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis), as well as patients with inherited conditions affecting bile acid transporters. Dr. Wentworth also sponsored visiting hepatologist Dr. Kwang-il Seo from Busan, South Korea. Dr. Wentworth is currently the principal investigator (PI) for five industry-sponsored clinical trials, ranging from cholestatic liver disease to MASH. Brian also had two first-author papers and was a key contributor to an extensive international inpatient study of AKI in cirrhosis patients.
Dr. Zachary Henry successfully spearheaded the addition of an Outreach Clinic in Wytheville, VA to the UVA Liver Transplant program while assuming the Medical Directorship for UVA Living Donor Liver Transplant and establishing UVA’s first-ever Transplant Oncology clinic in July 2024. He also served as the Division’s Quality Officer, providing mentorship to Dr. Rebecca Haug, who will fully assume this role in fiscal year 2026. Dr. Henry was named one of Virginia’s Top Doctors for Gastroenterology. Dr. Henry also co-authored two white papers for the American Society of Transplantation, focusing on obesity and liver transplantation. On a personal note, Zach also completed his first marathon!
Dr. Nicolas Intagliata continued to demonstrate exceptional leadership as Program Director of the Transplant Hepatology Fellowship program, as well as Medical Director of the UVA Transplant Clinic. He has also completed several visiting professorships following the publication of his international multicenter study on peri-procedural bleeding in patients with cirrhosis in the high-impact journal Gastroenterology. Nic will also be participating in the upcoming Baveno conference, the premier conference for discussing and creating international guidelines for portal hypertension management.
Dr. Neeral Shah has had a remarkable year, marked by significant clinical, educational, and leadership achievements. In addition to rotating on the inpatient hepatology service and seeing patients in the general hepatology clinic, he was honored by receiving both the 2025 SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virginia Department of Education and the 2025 Jefferson Scholars Teaching Award. Once again, Dr. Shah led the GI course for the medical school and taught the hepatology sections, continuing his commitment to medical education. Neeral served as the Director for UVA’s annual regional CME course, was appointed as an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Gastroenterology, and was elected Governor for Virginia for the American College of Gastroenterology.
Dr. Curtis Argo continues to serve as Head of the Hepatology Section in our Division. He is also the Medical Director of the UVA Liver Transplant Program. Dr. Argo will continue to serve as Co-Director of UVA’s Controversies in Liver Transplantation fall conference.
Dr. Stephen Caldwell continues as the Director of our Division’s Clinical Research Program, overseeing a team of seasoned CRCs and an annual research budget in the $1.2-1.4 million range.
Our section continues to provide strong support to UVA’s Liver Transplant program, which is anticipated to receive over 500 liver transplant referrals this academic year and to perform 80 deceased and living-donor liver transplants, with exceptional one- and three-year patient outcomes. Our team’s performance led to our program’s first-ever ranking of five out of five bars on the UNOS/SRTR 1-year post-transplant survival outcome metric. This ranks our program in the highest 20% of programs nationally for this metric. The living-donor liver transplant program continues to evaluate record numbers of donor candidates, and Dr. Henry and newly hired transplant surgeon Dr. Juan Francisco Guerra aim to expand the program from its current strong foundation.
Our hepatology team has refined our urgent outpatient clinic visit triage mechanism, which helps provide general and transplant consultative care on a time-sensitive basis according to the urgency of the request. This has been successful in helping to maintain a manageable wait time for accessing hepatology care at the clinic. Dr. Nicolas Intagliata, Dr. J. Andrew Legan (Addiction Psychiatry), and Bill Potts (Transplant Social Work) continue to lead our UVA Liver Transplant team’s approach to transplant candidacy for patients with alcohol-related liver disease, emphasizing an individualized, relapse-risk-based approach rather than an inflexible and arbitrary required abstinence period.
Section of Luminal Gastroenterology
Our Section of General or Luminal GI comprises a group of clinically focused faculty who provide a broad range of expert care to meet the clinical needs of patients from the UVA primary care base, as well as, in consultation, patients referred by gastroenterologists, surgeons, and other practices across Virginia. The luminal GI group also takes great pride in its educational endeavors within and outside UVA. This group includes Drs. Copland, Doran, Frye, Haug, Kumral, Powell, Worthington, and Yoshida, as well as our two advanced practice providers, Hallie Gunnoe, PA, and Julia Felty, FNP. Our group offers a full array of procedural support, including services that are limited across the Commonwealth for needs such as small bowel enteroscopy and GI motility services (esophageal manometry, gastroesophageal reflux/pH studies, anorectal manometry, smart pill endoscopy, and targeted breath testing). In particular, esophageal motility and reflux studies have played an essential role in supporting other programs, such as the UVA lung transplant program.
Dr. Jeanetta Frye directs Virginia’s most comprehensive gastrointestinal motility lab, performing high-resolution esophageal and anorectal manometry, as well as other gastrointestinal physiology studies. This year, Drs. Haug, Doran, and Copland assisted in creating and executing a fast-track program for esophageal screening at Albemarle Fire and Rescue, along with their Medical Director, Dr. Bill Brady. This program helps support their efforts to use Esoguard for noninvasive screening for firefighters who are at increased risk for esophageal cancer. Furthermore, the Luminal GI group offered key endoscopy services to the community, including high-quality colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening and an open-access diagnostic upper endoscopy and colonoscopy program for UVA patients.
The luminal group is growing, and we’re delighted to welcome Dr. Ken DeVault as a Professor of Medicine in August 2025. Dr. DeVault comes to UVA with experience from a storied career at the Mayo Clinic. We are excited about the expertise, mentorship, and clinical acumen that he will bring to the division. We were delighted to welcome Julia Felty, FNP, to our group as our newest nurse practitioner. She brings a wealth of experience to the group from her prior palliative care practice, and we’re excited to have her join the luminal GI programs.
Our general GI practices are primarily housed at the main hospital, with a smaller satellite clinic at the UVA Crozet Clinic. In addition to the general GI clinics, there are several subspecialty clinics, such as the Celiac Clinic, led by Dr. Dennis Kumral, which provides focused care for patients with celiac sprue in close partnership with our dietetics colleague, Mallory Foster. The Society for the Study of Celiac Disease has recognized our clinic at the University of Virginia as part of its Celiac Disease Unit Recognition Program.
Dr. Andrew Copland specializes in the care of small bowel diseases, providing expertise in cases that require video capsule endoscopy and small bowel enteroscopy. Dr. Copland also specializes in endoscopic resection of large gastrointestinal polyps. In 2024, Dr. Copland was the first author of the AGA Clinical Practice Update on Appropriate and Tailored Polypectomy, which was published in the leading journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. This year, his research interests have included the use of closure devices to reduce post-resection bleeding, which has been presented at national conferences alongside one of our GI fellows, Dr. Himesh Zaver. As Medical Director of Endoscopy, Dr. Copland oversees our busy Outpatient Endoscopy unit at Monroe Lane. His efforts to expand our endoscopy services have resulted in a new footprint for endoscopy at the UVA Health Surgical Care Unit at Riverside/Monticello Surgery Center.
Dr. Amy Doran serves as the Associate Program Director of our GI Fellowship program. She plays an active role in fellow education, curriculum development, and the GI fellows continuity clinic and is a member of the GME Curriculum Committee. Dr. Doran also served on the DOM’s P&T committee, which offers a key service to our Department’s faculty. Her efforts were recognized in part with her promotion to the rank of Associate Professor last year. Dr. Doran has partnered with Dr. Frye in research regarding small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, which has been presented at national conferences.
Dr. Jeanetta Frye continues to spearhead the UVA Luminal GI E-consult program in addition to her role as the Director of Motility. She has funded research activities evaluating a prebiotic supplement, ISOThrive, in GERD patients and has partnered with Dr. Doran in research on bacterial overgrowth. She is a stable presence in the Foundations of Clinical Medicine course for the medical school.
Dr. Rebecca Haug has thrived in her first year on the faculty following her graduation from our fellowship program. While growing her active general GI practice, she has taken on an essential role as the Quality Lead for the Division. She has had a productive year, giving many lectures to our residents and fellows. She is also contributing more globally to the School of Medicine by serving on the Clinical Competency Committee.
Dr. Mark Worthington has a busy general GI practice and shares his wealth of experience and enthusiasm with our fellows (and his partners!) daily. This year, he published a Clinical Practice Update on sclerosing mesenteritis for the American Gastroenterological Association. We appreciate his efforts as a member of the School of Medicine’s Promotion and Tenure Committee, which serves a critical academic mission. This past year, Dr. Worthington led our expansion in endoscopy services to the UVA Health Surgical Care Unit at Riverside/Monticello Surgery Center. Recently, Mark has taken on the GI role in the C. Difficile Colitis Clinic, guiding when fecal microbiota therapy may be helpful. He also oversees our consultative program for checkpoint-inhibitor colitis.
Dr. Cynthia Yoshida leads the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Colorectal Cancer screening program, which includes active outreach efforts at the UMA clinics, the Charlottesville Free Clinic, and the Haven. Dr. Yoshida continues to partner with Dr. Li Li and Dr. Jamie Zoellner on a project investigating genetic, lifestyle, and community factors that drive the significant racial disparities that exist for colorectal cancer. She is also a partner in a multicenter randomized PCORI study evaluating the effectiveness of colonoscopy vs. noninvasive testing for older patients with a history of low-risk polyps (the COOP trial). She has served as UVA’s Virginia CRC Round Table lead, and she remains passionate about educating patients and providers about colorectal cancer screening options and best practices.
Hallie Gunnoe PA, started offering GI consultations in a clinic embedded in the Department of Medicine’s University Medical Associates clinic. This collaboration between GI and general medicine has the potential to enable enhanced access to PCPs and their patients to GI care.
Julia Felty, FNP, has brought her knowledge and experience to begin a pilot program assisting our inpatient GI Luminal
Consult Service, which has helped UVA Medical Center and has been very well received by our Division.
Section of Interventional Endoscopy
Dr. Nicholas Koutlas, our current Advanced Endoscopy Fellow and Clinical Instructor, performed in an outstanding fashion during the year. He was a welcome addition to our Section and Division and left a lasting impression of excellence in patient care and education. Dr. Koutlas will be joining a practice in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and we are confident that he will be a highly sought-after clinician and advanced endoscopist in his region.
Dr. Vanessa M Shami, Section Chief of Interventional Endoscopy, continues in her role as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Endoscopy. Along with her hepatology colleague, Dr. Zachary Henry, she continues to grow the field of endo-hepatology at the University of Virginia. She has just completed mentoring another gastroenterologist in our region as part of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy’s Diagnostic EUS course, which she co-created with two other colleagues at Stanford and the Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
Dr. Bryan Sauer continues to co-direct the Adult Multidisciplinary Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) Program with Dr. Emily McGowan in the Division of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology. Together, they co-manage over 400 patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and have an active research program (NIH R01). Additionally, he contributed to the ACG Guideline on the Diagnosis and Management of Eosinophilic Esophagitis, published in January 2025 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
He continues to oversee a Global Health Program in Guatemala, where teams of gastroenterologists, nurses, endoscopy technicians, and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) volunteer to provide endoscopy and GI consultative care. In February 2025, he led a team from UVA to Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, where they performed over 45 procedures and conducted 25 clinic visits. This was the twelfth trip since 2019, during which we performed nearly 500 procedures for people in rural Guatemala who lacked access to endoscopy. To learn more, please visit the website of a small non-profit organization named Central America outReach and Endoscopy (CARE) at caendoscopy.org.
Nationally, he also led the ACG Practice Parameters Committee, which is responsible for commissioning ACG clinical practice guidelines. This year, they have published over ten new practice guidelines on a broad range of subjects in gastroenterology and hepatology.
Dr. Ross Buerlein and Dr. Vanessa Shami initiated the EUS-directed chemotherapy ablation protocol for pancreatic cystic lesions at the University of Virginia (UVA), performing the first of these procedures in January 2025. Dr. Buerlein highlighted this exciting new technology on CBS 19 news in February. This procedure is designed to offer an alternative to surgery for managing non-malignant, high-risk pancreatic cysts in some patients, involving the endoscopic ultrasound-guided injection of chemotherapy into a pancreatic cyst. In addition to this work, Dr. Buerlein has launched his prospective study assessing plectin staining on biliary epithelial cells obtained via ERCP-directed biopsies and/or brushings as a novel diagnostic modality for cholangiocarcinoma in indeterminant biliary strictures. Dr. Buerlein has also started performing endoscopic submucosal dissection for the curative treatment of early cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.
Dr. Podboy’s sons Isaac and Alden
Dr. Alexander Podboy has been actively engaged in national advocacy as part of the ACG Legislative Fly-In, where he lobbied Congress on critical issues, including prior authorization reform, surveillance colonoscopy policy, and Medicare payment for gastroenterologists. He is a participant in the ACG Early Career Leadership Program and a recipient of multiple grants, including an iTHRIV grant from the University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA SOM) and Department of Medicine, that support studies on achalasia and post-ERCP pancreatitis. He was a mentor for the UVA SOM Medical Student Summer Research Program. He submitted a K23 application focused on immune phenotyping in achalasia and leads several clinical trials, including the first-in-world use of an endoscopic suturing platform for gastroparesis. His clinical research in bariatric and third-space endoscopy has resulted in seven manuscripts or publications. Most importantly, he and his family recently welcomed a new addition, Isaac, who loves peaches, snuggles, and being a little brother to Alden.
Dr. Strand (Course Director) and the rest of our division’s attendees at the ACG/VGS/MASGNA Regional Postgraduate Course in Williamsburg, VA, in September 2024.
Dr. Daniel Strand received UVA Patient Experience Awards for both Ambulatory Surgery (endoscopy) and Medical Practice (clinic). He was elected to the UVA School of Medicine Academy for Excellence in Education. Locally, he also represented the Division of GI on the DOM Compensation Committee.
Nationally, he received the designation of Fellow of the ACG (FACG) and was appointed to the Editorial Board of the ACG Education Universe (their online education portal). He developed and led the ACG/VGS/MASGNA Regional Postgraduate Course in Williamsburg, VA, in October 2024 and has been invited to teach at two additional societal conferences. He contributed to 5 published peer-reviewed articles (and is a co-author on the NIH-funded SHARP trial’s submitted publication). Dr. Strand had a book chapter published in Quality in Gastroenterology by Springer.
Dr. Andrew Wang completed his term as Chair of the AGA Clinical Practice Updates Committee. He continued his service as Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and as Medical Director of Interventional Endoscopy at the University of Virginia Medical Center. Dr. Wang was a co-author of 20 peer-reviewed publications during the past academic year, and he served as the site principal investigator (PI) for the NIH-funded (U01) SHARP trial, which was completed with data presented at Digestive Disease Week in May 2025. Dr. Wang has had the honor of serving as a visiting professor and/or course faculty member at several prestigious institutions in the past year, including Advent Health (Orlando, FL), Henry Ford Health (Detroit, MI), Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio), Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA), and the National University of Taiwan Hospital (Taipei, Taiwan).
RESEARCH
Clinical research in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology has been sustained for well over 36 years and continues to thrive. The current research portfolio encompasses industry-sponsored, state- and federally funded cutting-edge studies. Currently, there are 24 approved and active protocols led by nine Principal Investigators, with a research staff of six experienced Clinical Research Coordinators (Rebecca Hudnall, Cheree Denby, Holly McComb, Stephanie Mills, Lakin Underwood, and Caroline Rivers), who are overseen by CRC Supervisor Sharon Foster and Dr. Stephen Caldwell. The Division’s clinical research work has long been a self-sustained and productive enterprise that manages a substantial research budget. The Division also garnered a very generous gift from the Chambers Family in honor of Dr. Stephen Caldwell, which will support clinical work and research in hepatology for years to come.
Notably, recent developments include the work of Dr. Alex Podboy, who is leading an iTHRIV-supported investigation into immunotherapeutic targets in achalasia. Dr. Podboy is also leading a prospective multi-site study to detect pylorospasm noninvasively. He is conducting studies to predict post-ERCP pancreatitis and to develop further endoscopic bariatric procedures aimed at weight loss. The Division is also excited and poised to welcome Dr. Shadab Siddiqui, an experienced NIH-funded (R01) investigator, who will serve as the Director of Transplant Research and continue his successful work on post-transplant metabolic liver disease and the role of weight loss medications in patients with metabolic liver disease Dr. Siddiqui plans to develop a statewide cirrhosis registry to help target resources using claims/insurance/population data. Other new industry-sponsored studies include a potentially essential and novel investigation of NASH therapy based on specific genetic susceptibility variants, which is now enrolling under the leadership of Dr. Brian Wentworth.
Additional important recent studies include the investigation of fecal immunohistochemistry testing (FIT) versus colonoscopy for colon cancer screening, for which Dr. Cynthia Yoshida serves as our PCORI site principal investigator. Our Division is conducting therapeutic trials in patients with advanced liver disease, including portal hypertension and hepatorenal syndrome, under the leadership of Dr. Brian Wentworth. We are also involved in ongoing and active therapeutic trials in inflammatory bowel disease under Dr. Anne Tuskey, as well as NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) treatment trials under Dr. Caldwell, which contributed to the approval of resmetirom (Rezdiffra). Dr. Andrew Wang (with the aid of Drs. Daniel Strand, Ross Buerlein, Dushant Uppal, and Alex Podboy) enabled UVA to be the fourth leading site worldwide in the NIH-funded SHARP study—the results of this pivotal trial that randomized patients with idiopathic acute recurrent pancreatitis to minor papillotomy or sham were presented as a late-breaking oral presentation at DDW 2025. Other necessary new and ongoing trials include studies of PBC to prevent disease progression to more clinically advanced disease and one of the first trials of a GLP-1 agonist (efinopegdutide) under Dr. Caldwell to prevent the progression of NASH cirrhosis to a decompensated state.
In other news, the past year has also seen the retirement of Jaye Davis, RN, from the GI/Hepatology CRC team, marking 40 years at UVA, during which 20 years were spent with the GI/Hepatology Research group. Her work and contributions in the Division have been vital over this time and very well appreciated. She will be deeply missed, and we wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement. The year has also seen the hiring of a new CRC, Caroline Rivers, who joined the group in September 2024 and has already been instrumental in the success of Dr. Yoshida’s colon cancer screening trial, resulting in Caroline’s invitation to address a national audience at a sponsored meeting. We look forward to Caroline’s continuing contribution to the success of the clinical research work.
EDUCATION
The past academic year has been a remarkable one for our Division of Gastroenterology, marked by continued excellence in medical education, scholarship, and community engagement.
We began by welcoming our new fellows, who hit the ground running with their participation in the ASGE Endoscopy Simulation Course in the summer of 2024. Soon after, they attended the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Regional Conference in Williamsburg, VA. At that conference, senior fellow Dr. John Hickman impressed the audience with a dynamic and insightful case discussion.
This fall brought further academic milestones. Dr. Himesh Zaver, our incoming chief fellow, began the Master of Clinical Science Research program at the University of Virginia’s School of Public Health Sciences—meanwhile, Drs. Preethi Venkat and Anthony Rainho, our current chief fellow, led hands-on endoscopy simulation sessions at the annual UVA Mini-Medical School, providing community members from Charlottesville with a unique window into the field of gastroenterology.
Our fellows have also been active educators, presenting at noon conferences and leading journal clubs for the internal medicine residency program. Drs. Anthony Rainho, Gianna Stoleru, Sahil Khanna, and Neha Rajpal were among those who shared their expertise with residents through these sessions.
At our 20th Annual CME Conference in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, we were proud to welcome back two fellowship alumni—Dr. Maithili Chitnavas (Atrium/Carolinas Medical Center) and Dr. Justin Crocker (Duke University). The conference featured a robust lineup of faculty speakers, clinical case presentations by fellows, and a presentation by a chief resident of internal medicine. It drew over 160 attendees from five states, including more than thirty trainees from UVA and other regional residency programs.
Our Division also celebrated major successes in research and scholarship. Dr. Preethi Venkat earned recognition for her research on infusion reactions in IBD patients, winning a Best in AIBD Posters of 2024 award. Her work was completed in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey Wilson from the University of Virginia’s Division of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology. Dr. Himesh Zaver received two major honors—Outstanding Poster at the 2024 National ACG Conference (mentored by Dr. Zachary Henry) and an invitation to present his interventional endoscopy research at the prestigious North American Gastroenterology Fellows Research Conference in 2025.
Education remains at the heart of our mission. Drs. Neeral Shah and Anne Tuskey continue to lead the GI system in the pre-clerkship medical school curriculum. Dr. Shah received two significant honors this year: the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virginia Department of Education and the Jefferson Scholars Teaching Award. Dr. Tuskey completed her term as Chair of the ACG’s Training and Education Committee.
In contrast, Dr. Shah completed his term as Founding Director of the UVA Academy for Excellence in Education and continues to serve as Chair of its Membership Committee. He also represents UVA on the Provost’s University Teaching Awards Committee. He remains active on the Steering Committee for the AAMC’s National Academies Collaborative, where he recently concluded his term as Chair by leading a four-hour national workshop at the AAMC.
This year, we were also fortunate to host an outstanding lineup of visiting professors—both in person and virtually— including Dr. Sarah McGill (UNC), Dr. Kyoungwon Jung (South Korea), Dr. Rotonya Carr (University of Washington, Seattle), Dr. Nancy Reau (Rush University), and Dr. Amit Bhatt (Cleveland Clinic).
Finally, in recognition of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Cindy Yoshida and internal medicine resident Dr. Tala Mahmoud (an incoming GI fellow) led a creative and impactful awareness campaign. Their efforts included health system announcements, Instagram posts, and a live educational event featuring the “Giant Colon” display in the hospital cafeteria.
From education to research to community outreach, the past year has reflected the tremendous energy, collaboration,
and talent within our Division. We look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.
Graduating Fellows
Dr. John Hickman will be moving to Lynchburg, VA, to practice gastroenterology.
Dr. Sahil Khanna will be moving to Charlotte, NC, to practice gastroenterology.
Dr. Anthony Rainho completed a chief fellow year and will be staying at UVA for an additional year as a Clinical Instructor and Advanced Endoscopy Fellow.
Dr. Gianna Stoleru will be staying at UVA for an additional year as a Clinical Instructor and Advanced Endoscopy Fellow.
Incoming Fellows
Digestive Disease Week 2025 in San Diego, CA
View the full issue of the July edition of Medicine Matters
Filed Under: Basic Research, Clinical Research, DOM in the News, Education, In the Know, New Faces, New Places, News and Notes, Notable Achievements, Publications, Research, Top News
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