Pediatric GI Conference News: Updates from NASPGHAN 2020 and AIBD 2020

2020 NASPGHAN Annual Meeting

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic foiled plans for an in-person meeting, the 2020 North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) annual meeting was still conducted through a virtual platform, allowing clinicians and researchers from across north American and beyond the opportunity to learn and present new findings from their areas of specialty. NASPGHAN 2020 was held November 1-7, 2020.

UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition faculty were well represented at the virtual event. Below is a summary of highlights from faculty who presented and contributed to scientific program.

Arvind Srinath, MD, associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the pediatric gastroenterology fellowship program at UPMC Children’s served as a co-director of the Teaching & Tomorrow residency recruitment and informational program for the 2020 NASPGHAN/APGNN annual meeting. Dr. Srinath also gave a lecture during the program during the first day’s programming on “How to Navigate Virtual NASPGHAN.”

Division Fellow, Vikram Raghu, MD, received a 2020 NASPHGAN Foundation Innovations in Clinical Care Grant.

Whitney Gray, CRNP, was elected to the APGNN leadership as Media Chair.

Division Fellow, Mary Ayers, MD, gave a poster presentation on “Understanding the Role of Beta-Catenin and FXR in Cholestatic Liver Disease with Therapeutic Opportunities in Murine Model.” Dr. Ayers also was selected to join the NASPGHAN Hepatology Committee.

Congratulations to former Division Chief Mark Lowe, MD, who was the 2020 Shwachman Awardee for his lifetime accomplishments in pediatric gastroenterology.

2020 AIBD Virtual Program

The 2020 Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases annual meeting was held virtually on December 9-12, 2020.

Sandra C. Kim, MD, director of the IBD Center at UPMC Children’s, was a co-chair of the pediatric sessions and a member of the steering committee for the conference. Additionally, Dr. Kim participated in numerous sessions during the conference. These included:

• Special Considerations in the Management of Young(er) Patients
• Q&A Panel Discussion: Illuminating the Circle of Life in IBD
• Q&A Panel Discussion: Advances in Pediatric IBD
• Multidisciplinary Case Discussion I: Acute Severe Indeterminate Colitis
• Multidisciplinary Case Discussion II: Multidisciplinary Management of Intra-Abdominal Abscess
• Multidisciplinary Case Discussion III: Complicated Pouch