Loyola offers multidisciplinary digestive health program

Loyola University Health System (LUHS) now offers a multidisciplinary digestive health program to treat digestive tract and related medical conditions. Bipan Chand, MD, FACS, FASGE, FASMBS, and Neil Gupta, MD, MPH, are co-directors of the new program.

"At Loyola, we offer patients with digestive tract conditions the deep clinical expertise of gastroenterology, gastroenterologic surgery, bariatric medicine, hepatology, oncology and otolaryngology," said Chand, who also serves as director of Loyola's Center for Metabolic Surgery & Bariatric Care. "We are able to effectively and efficiently treat routine and complex conditions through a total academic medicine team approach."

According to the National Institutes of Health, 60 to 70 million people suffer from digestive health diseases.

"Loyola offers state of the art digestive disease testing and treatments unavailable at many other medical centers, including gastrointestinal motility testing, endoscopic submucosal dissection, hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy and advanced minimally invasive surgical techniques," said Gupta, who also serves at LUHS as director of interventional endoscopy. "The digestive health program also focuses on population based health care and personalized preventive care to preserve overall wellness."

The following 12 specialty groups work together in the new Loyola digestive health program to provide patients with exceptional care:

• Functional bowel disease program
• Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer clinic
• GI cancer screening and prevention service
• Inflammatory bowel disease program
• Interventional and developmental endoscopy program
• Liver program
• Nutrition and celiac disease program
• Obesity center
• Pancreatic and biliary health service
• Pelvic floor and benign anorectal disorders
• Primary digestive health service
• Swallowing center