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 Leaders Program
- The ACG Early Career Leadership Program
- The ACG Advanced Leadership Development Program
- The ACG Clinical Research Leadership Program
- The ACG Health Equity Research Award
- The ACG Visiting Scholar in Equity, Diversity and Ethical Care
- Scholarships for High School Students through the Prescriptions for Success: Careers in Medicine High School Visit
ACG Emerging Leaders Program
The Emerging Leaders Program offers 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 to 20 participants 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 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.
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 Development Program
The Advanced Leadership Development 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.
Research Grants
Since the founding of the ACG Institute in 1994, funding has been provided to 699 investigators, totaling more than $27 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.
ACG Visiting Scholars in Equity, Diversity, and Ethical Care
The ACG Visiting Scholars in Equity, Diversity, and Ethical Care helps institutions create awareness around the issues and challenges of delivering equitable care, respecting diversity, and instilling ethical decision-making. These visits provided an impactful learning opportunity for fellows, faculty, leadership, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) leadership, as physicians seek to improve care and communication for their diverse patient populations. These topics can be offered as stand-alone lectures or in conjunction with a disease state topic-driven visit (i.e., Endoscopic Considerations in Underserved Populations).
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.
IBD School
IBD School was first introduced in 2017 and is modelled after the highly successfully Hepatology School—a day-long educational program that combines an immersion in IBD management with a clinical update on new therapeutic and monitoring approaches. The goals of this course are to improve clinical judgment and to address the art and science of IBD management.
Hepatology School
With the diagnosis and treatment of liver disease undergoing dramatic change, new therapies have created the need for comprehensive educational opportunities. Initiated as Hepatitis School, the new Hepatology School encompasses treatment of frequently diagnosed liver disease states. The ACG’s Hepatology School is designed to better enable clinical gastroenterologists and primary care physicians to triage, treat, and refer patients more efficiently.
Functional GI Disorders School
Functional GI diseases are among the most commonly diagnosed in the United States. ACG’s Functional GI School addresses all aspects of treatment for a wide variety of conditions and seeks to empower attendees not only with new diagnostic knowledge, but also the ability to better communicate with their patients about diagnosis and treatment. Enrollment is open to all clinicians.
Endoscopy School
ACG’s Endoscopy School is a day-long educational program that highlights best practices and provides updates on new devices and techniques. The goal of the program is to both educate attendees on the best endoscopic approaches and offer the opportunity to learn techniques in the form of hands-on workshops. This program will also allow those in practice opportunity to upskill to the latest technology and techniques no matter how long they have been out of formal training.
Evidence-Based Monographs and Reviews
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.