Welcome to the web site for the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. We hope that this site will become a beacon of information about our division to both academicians and to the general public.

Over the past 12 years, we have experienced a tremendous amount of growth. During this period of time, outpatient encounters have gone from 600 per year to over 1200 per month. Research funding has grown from none in 1990 to approximately 1.5 to 1.7 million dollars per year over the last five years; these monies have come from numerous NIH grants and contracts, the Veterans Administration, and from several contracts from the pharmaceutical industry.

The faculty has grown from three members in 1990 to a high of 15 in 2002, with a major recruiting effort underway to currently add an additional 4-5 faculty. This expansive growth has come with an infusion of new resources provided by the Joint Coordinating Council of Saint Louis University and Tenet Health Systems, making available approximately 2.25 million dollars for program development over these next several years.

Also, we have received a SLU 2000 Center of Excellence Award for developing a Saint Louis University Liver Center. Our major recruiting at this time is to add luminal gastroenterologists and to enhance our research programs. Therefore, the goals of these development efforts will be to strengthen both clinical and research programs and to position the basic investigators within the division to acquire an NIH-sponsored liver center within the next several years.

The mission of our division is to be strong clinically, to provide expert patient care, to provide education for medical students, house staff, subspecialty residents, and community physicians, and to have expertise in clinical and basic research.