FOCUS GI In Action

A Saturday training that changes how you practice on Monday is rare, and that’s exactly what FOCUS GI is designed to do. We recorded live from the event with Dr. Anish Patel, the nonprofit founder behind FOCUS GI, plus Dr. Richa Shukla (course director) and Dr. Kevin Pak (hepatologist) to talk about what happens when medical education is built for real clinic decisions, not ego or noise.

We get into why the program started in Central Texas, how it grew from a small local idea into a hybrid event serving GI fellows and advanced practice providers across states and even countries, and what “clinically oriented” really means in practice. You’ll hear how the team chooses speakers, updates topics, and protects hands-on learning, especially for first-year GI fellows facing a steep learning curve and nonstop consult questions. We also unpack how the APP and fellow track serves different needs while strengthening the same GI care team.

Then we go deeper into the human side of IBD care: hope and trust. Dr. Patel explains why “hope” is the point of provider education, while “trust” is the skill that makes treatment partnerships work, especially when patients have normalized symptoms for years. We also tackle misinformation head-on, including the growing role of social media influencers in shaping IBD myths. Along the way, Dr. Pak shares why accurate FibroScan interpretation matters and how misreads can send patients down the wrong clinical pathway, and Dr. Shukla reflects on patient education around medication risks and how to talk about scary side-effect lists with real numbers and context.

Subscribe for more live conversations from FOCUS GI, and if this helped you, please share it with a colleague or friend and leave a review so more patients and providers can find it.

Links: 

• FOCUS GI website
• Dr. Richa Shukla
• FOCUS GI's Facebook page

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Transcript

Live From Focus GI Setup

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Recently, Mum and Mai were invited to record live at Focus GMI. Focus GM is a training program for films and advanced practice providers on humphings GMI disorders. It's put on by the nonprofit organization Focus GMI, which was started by my friend, Dr. Anish Patum. We talked to him mumble about this program and what people can mumble in it and why he started it. We also talked to Dr. Richard Shooklum, who's an associate professor of GMI at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who serves as the course director, and we talked to Dr. Kevin Pennick, who's a hepatologist at the Burke Army Medical Center. So we talked to all three of them about this program and what the trainings are like for both APP's fellows and also the corresponding patient program that happened that was put on by the Crumbs and Clitus Foundation. This is one of multiple episodes that you'll hear from us recording live from this event. So we hope we enjoy them. Cheers.

Why Focus GI Exists

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Hi everybody. Welcome to Bell Moments. This is Robin.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Hello, everyone. This is Alicia, and we are so excited to be joined by our dear friend, Dr. Anish Patel. He laughed at that. He laughed, Robin.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

We consider you to be our dear friend, even if you think that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I know I guess we're not his dear friend, Robin. I mean.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I would say yes, you are dear friends. And sweet dear friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

We almost believed you. It was so good. It was so convincing. But we want to first of all say thank you so much for inviting us to come and join you at Focus GI, which is where we are now. But we're going to have you reintroduce yourself because it's been a while since you've been a singular guest on our show. So please reintroduce yourself and then tell us why you are here at Focus GI.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah. So again, I am Anish Patel. I am actually the IBD director for the military's IBD Center here in San Antonio, Texas. I did a lot of my training, was in Philadelphia, joined the military in around 2007. I think. Yes, 2007. Did my residency and fellowship here in San Antonio. Was able to go and do an IBD fellowship at Mount Sinai and then came back and, you know, really kind of run the big IBD platform for the military. Focus GI was something that my wife and I started as a nonprofit that we started a couple years ago, really kind of to focus on medical education. One of the big things we kind of learned in Central Texas is there's not much medical education here at all. Like from uh accredited programs where people can actually get education, there was none. Everyone had to travel out somewhere, so it became really difficult. So we took the onus and said, you know what, let's just do this. In our first year of 2020, we had 12 people. You know, today, you know, we're kind of rounding out the end of the day here in our seventh year for the first year of fellows and fourth year of APPs. And we're to the point where now we have 160 APPs in person, 40 additional virtual, spanning 13 states, three countries. We have fellows now up to 47 spanning three states inside there. So we we've exponentially grew. We're very happy for it, but I think part of and one of the main reasons we did focus GI was to offer free, you know, unfiltered, clinically oriented education to really anybody who's willing to take it. You actually answered my first two questions in them.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

So that's great. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Like you knew what we were gonna ask. Yeah, it is. So I'll go on. So you kind of alluded to this a little bit, but in addition to what you've already said, how has the courses have the courses changed over the years that you've done this?

What Makes The Meeting Different

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I mean, I mean, we obviously every every year you get reiterations and different feedback for from the fellow side, you know, we've grown just from a number standpoint, we grew almost like four times the size. So we had to kind of readjust the hands-on part, you know, getting them hands-on experience with the scopes. Clinically, we we kind of streamlined what we did clinically. APP one, you know, every year it changes. Our topics change based on what is really hot going on, what is what are the APPs kind of really looking for? That that does change intermittently every single year. So we try to keep it fresh, try to keep it updated. So those are really kind of the biggest, you know, changes that we make per year.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Is that Robin? Also, I just need to stop for a second because we didn't let our other guest introduce herself. So just what's your name?

unknown 4:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Karina. Karina, and why are you here? Anna.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

So everybody who's out there, this is my daughter, Karina Patel. She is seven years old and is hanging out with us.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Great. Back to the show. Back to the show. I you've already addressed like where the idea for Focus GI came in the gap that you were trying to fill. But what makes Focus GI different from other educational meetings? Why do you think that you've been able to grow outside of you were trying to serve a hyperlocal need, and now you have people joining you from other states, joining you virtually, joining you from other countries. So what makes this meeting different?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I I think the one bait that sets us apart is that it's heavy clinical, right? So we don't come in here, the speakers we choose, and the speakers that come in are not coming in to boast their egos. They're not coming in to put their research out there and say, this is what I do, only you all can do it, and that's it. So we we pick and choose, particularly for that reason. But secondly, we want to make it where if you come here on a Saturday, what you learn, you bring back to your clinic on Monday. That's what we want. We want very succinct, clinically relevant data and input to make management change, but also you know, affect patient care, as we want. We we we don't need to sit here and pontificate over, you know, 15 studies that were done. And this it's not clinically relevant. So we we we cut all that stuff out, cut the fluff out, and go straight to the meat where we want to help patients and get them to get better.

SPEAKER_03 5:50

I love that. You've talked a little bit about the history, and we're here day one, year seven, day one. When you look around today, what is something that you are especially proud of?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, so I think one of the biggest things is the growth. I I think that's where we didn't expect this. What my wife and I started was something small, grassroots, to stay local and say, hey, you know, if we get 25, 50 a year and they like it, you know, that that's a win for us. Looking at today, you're looking at over 200 in a hybrid program. That's just from the APP side. Then you throw in another close to 50 fellows, that doesn't include the staff that are here too. So you're looking at close to 250, 275 people on a Saturday, August 1st, just coming here wanting to educate. And so I think that's where for us it's very humbling. The second part is like we have people like you who support it, right? You you are willing to come in and do something like that's really not done at meetings is a podcast, right? We have great support where you've talked to Ronnie and Michelle, like you know, they're there to their great. I mean, this this is their passion, but they want to grow the passion too. So I think it's it's become like me watching it grow. It's also like watching your family grow up. It's like I remember 2022, we literally were in downtown San Antonio at a hotel with 12 fellows. That was it. We had like five sponsors. It went well. Now we're looking at a room full of sponsors who love it. They they budget to come to this meeting. APPs that literally have come like I met people from Dallas, from Louisiana, from Oklahoma that just love it. I mean, so I think I think it's the proud moment is like a daddy who sees like their kids grow up and and do great things. I think that's what we've seen. I think that for me it makes it more proud is the growth of it.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

I think it's been fun too because the people we've talked to have we've asked them kind of what courses have you listened to that you were surprised that you learned so much. And they like every single one of your speakers was talking about what they learned themselves by being here, and that was really fun to hear that it's not just the APPs or the fellows that are learning, but there's things being presented here that are helpful to other people's practice.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

I mean you all I mean you all had Smeeta on before, right? I mean you had Dr. Mehta on before. I mean, I mean every time she does a lecture, I learned something. I mean, like today, I mean she lou just did a phenomenal lecture, and I learned, you know, in that you know, 30 minutes she did. I I even I mean again, I'm not I'm not saying I'm the brightest person in the world, right? But I mean, but there's all you you could always you know, teaching all dog new tricks, right? I mean, so there is stuff there like Stacy was on, and Stacy had some great input. I mean, so there is. I mean, I think this is where it's a global thing that would that we do is not just a certain faction of folks that are getting education, it's the other ancillary part too, that they get the benefits out of it too. So I think that's what we've loved is is this is like a a whole global part of it's getting growth with it.

Growth Pride And The Future

SPEAKER_03 8:38

So another five years, another seven years, what do you hope people will say about focus GI and what do you hope for the future of it?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, you know, I first of all like I mentioned before, I I think it's like this growth, right? I mean, so even imagining even one year later, right? So even going to next year is like, I mean, I mean, how how do you cap off what you've done this year? And I think, you know, when we look at it five years, seven years, I mean, I I we're just hopeful for the growth, but also is maintaining who we are. I think it's not growing from what we offer and what we do is not, you know, our goal is not to compete. Like I am not sitting here to be a national, you know, organization or international organization. This is not what we want. We just want to be able, even in five years, seven years, ten years, whatever it may be, people look back and say, yes, we remember going to focus GI. We still go to focus GI because it gives us the education that we want that's important, and that's you know, really gonna make the lives of our patients better. That's that's what we want. I mean, I I have no in in interest in growing to be a multi-million dollar nonprofit. I mean, I just it's not in my interest because then you know, with that growth, you lose a lot and you lose your autonomy, you lose who you are, and that's not what we want. We never want to lose who we are.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

I have never known you to be able to describe something in one word in the years that I've known you, but I'm gonna ask you to try to do it. What's one word that describes

Hope As The Core Word

SPEAKER_03 10:03

focused GI?

SPEAKER_00 10:04

I think, honestly, it's hope. And the reason I use hope is that we give providers the knowledge to give the patients the hope to get them better. And I think that's where hope has always been a big one for me for patients with IBD, because you know that it's what you have, right? I mean, this isn't this are not curable diseases, but I think what we provide with Focus GI is hope. Hope for providers, hope for the patients that they're managing that they're getting a provider that is educated, that is up to date with stuff. So I do. I think that one word would be hope is a big one. But that was in oh, that was hard.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

That was I think that was a wow you did it though. I mean you did it. That was hard.

What New GI Fellows Need

SPEAKER_03 10:46

Because you have first year fellows here. What is the one thing every new GI provider should know?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah, I mean, for the first year fellows, this is a foundation course for them. So we we built this. So me and Dr. Shukala in like 2020 kind of got together and said, We remember being a first-year fellow. I remember getting the scope first time in my hand. I'm like, what do I do with this thing? Like, I know where to put it, but I don't know what to do with it, right? I mean, the knobs, the thing like that. So you deer in the headlights, and then you get your first patient comes in who's like, a sick IBD patient that's been on like multiple therapies. You're like, I remember in medicine that we just sent us to GI. Oh, wait a minute, I'm the GI doctor now. Well man. Again, you're talking to the guy, like again, this isn't my old, right? This is the way you put the old part is like I didn't have social media, I didn't have a phone that I can literally just really search real quick and say, what is IBD? What do I do? Right. So I think, you know, we understood that and we we want to make it where first year fellows, we don't expect to make them experts, right? This is a three-year fellowship, but at least go back to their programs and have comfort, have some foundation where they kind of know a little bit, they know where to get the resources, they kind of understand like, oh yeah, this is the scope, this is how I hold it. Oh, this makes sense when someone tells me we're doing this procedure or that's a disease state. At least have an idea of it. So that's where I think we we've we've been a big juggernaut for the first year. I mean, I I have, I mean, you you'll meet, you know, first year fellows that there are now staff that are coming back and supporting this meeting because what they got from their first year when they came over here. So I think that's been the humbling part for us is that they want to come back. They literally have asked us, like, hey, can I come back and teach? Can I come back and do stuff? So I think that's been the nice part with teaching the fellows is that it's not just that we get to see them the one year, we get to see them grow. I mean, I have many third years that are ready to graduate, they're texting us and calling us and saying, hey, you know, we loved your course. Is that can we get our other members in there? Okay, or you know, I'm looking for a job, like can we help? So I think that's where it's this is like a platform for them to understand, but also, you know, be able to see other fellows in their same position. I think that's what they don't get the chance to see because everybody's in the suck, not just them. Everybody's in there, so why not commiserate together in the suck with it?

SPEAKER_03 13:07

So just back back to GI care, IBD care.

IBD Myths And Social Media

SPEAKER_03 13:11

I've been asking a lot of people to this today. Um, so I'm gonna ask you this. What's one myth about IBD care that you'd love to see disappear?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Social media influencers. I mean, I think I think from from a care standpoint, it's I still can't understand what an influencer is, number one. Number two is gonna be is is it's too much. There's a lot of unfounded myths out there, like in general. So they are creating the myths. It's it's a compilation that's started by people that you know whether or not they have the disease or not, but I think it's just more to to benefit themselves. And I think that's where for me it's been the very struggle. It's like every time I looked at you know social media, that kind of stuff, you see these in quote unquote influencers and I mean either they're providers that just rehash a paper from somebody else, or they you know make like a little beautiful image of a paper and put it up there and say, This is great, right? I mean, but nothing of substance from it. And I think that's where that's the biggest myth that's extremely hard to break. I mean, and that that to me from a medical standpoint, like there's I mean, I I can go on a diatribe of it, but I think for me, I think the biggest one is social media influencers. I think breaking that habit.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Well, I mean, it is then it's the new word of mouth.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

It's a new norm. I mean, yeah, and I get it, it's a new norm.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

I know this person. There's this parasocial relationship. I I see this person on my phone every single day, so I trust them and I trust what they say. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So I I I I think breaking that, and I think that's where like people like you know software focused GI is going to start doing is trying to get out the real stuff. Right? Trying to do like, you know, ha having folks like you, right? I mean, both of you are done phenomenal, kind of break some of these myths by getting, you know, people in the field, right? You but you're not just taking the people, you're taking patients, you're taking multiple, multi, you know, domain people and bring them to something where you're dispelling a lot of these myths, dispelling the stupidity that's out there, but also not having the ego go along with it. I think that's where the social media influencing is an ego-driven thing. I mean, I mean, and I can I can rattle off people, but that's not where I'm at here. Uh we're not gonna do that. That's not with that one. But but uh yeah, I think that's the biggest one for me.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

That's a good one. We know that you have generously sat down to speak with us while there is a reception happening. So we want to get you back to that. But you know we always have a last question. Yes. So I kind of changed up the question for this conference.

Trust Between Patients And Providers

SPEAKER_03 15:40

And the last question we've been asking everyone is what's the one thing you wish every patient knew about the people and providers who care for them?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Trust. I think it's hard. I mean, I don't have IBD, right? So I I don't I don't even sit in front of my patient and try to understand what they go through. I think it's more having that trust that the patient's there to get help, but the provider trusting that they're honest with it, but trusting that they want to be on a therapy, trust to take it. I think that's where it's a big one. I think for me it's a trusting. I mean, it is hard. I mean, I mean, I mean, Robin, you know, I mean, you you've been through a lot. So I mean it's like trying to find once you find that person, that's like the key, right? But it's finding the person. It's also from my end as a provider, is providing that to a patient, right? How how do I sit there and make the patient trust me? Right. And someone who doesn't have the disease, right? How are you gonna come inside and say, well, you don't want to go through? Like, I I'm not you're not pooping 20 times a day, you're not having blood, you're not like strictured down where you can't eat like popcorn, you know, all the good stuff, right? Yeah, I get it. I get it. But my part is is I've been in this for 10 years. And so I understand the longevity of it. I understand, I don't have to have it to understand it, but I can trust enough in the partnership that you're gonna give me the truth, but I'm also spit back the truth. And I will be there any day of the week. I mean, I mean, you guys interview Rachel. I mean, my my you know, one of my you know, one of my patients who's an incredible person, I mean, from from her heart to who she is as a person, but I mean she's one, she's trusted me now for 10 years, and we she could have given it up a long time ago. And she had a lot of trust issues, and and it wasn't, it was just building that relationship. So I think it is. I think trust is the biggest thing, and that's what I try to teach my fellows is that you can scope all day, you can make the millions of dollars, it won't be hard, right? The problem's gonna be if you can't be a good doctor and you can't have that the ability to reach out to people and be that good doctor, then I don't know what you're doing. Why why are you even doing this anymore? So that's that's what becomes with me.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

And thank you for saying that because trust is hard, especially when you as the patient have been living with the disease a lot longer than the doctor has been practicing. And so your personal experiences and I don't know if this is to my benefit or and you're gonna live with it a lot longer than the other.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Yeah, probably I mean, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

Thank you. Exactly. But I'm also the kind of person who've been who's been through enough stuff where I'm like, if the doctor does something where I'm like, oh, this this puts the trust in the in you know, it's in the balance there. And I'll start looking for another doctor because I have, like Alicia said, I'm this is my lifelong, yep, this is my lifelong struggle. And I have to be able to have a real conversation with my doctor about what's going, what I'm going through. And I have to know that she's gonna believe me. Exactly. And exactly so if there is a situation where because I've sat in situations too long, I've stayed there too long where I'm like, oh, this is the doctor, he knows what he's doing, he's a specialist, or she's a special whatever. And but then I end up going, what what am I doing? And somebody go the wrong way will come and say, Hey, I think you need to see a new doctor. So that happened twice. And then after that, I was like, nope, I don't stay too long.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but because you see the other side, right? So from a provider standpoint, what what I always get from a lot of like colleagues or wherever I go, kind of meet people, it's that they're it's a it's a pain in the butt, right? I mean, just painful. Literally, yeah, yeah, literally and predictively. Um but it's irritation, right? It's a pain they're they're like, oh, IPD patients, like they just demand, they just want this stuff. But it's like to a point, yeah. I mean, I mean, you have a right. We want to feel better. Yes, we do. Also, know your body, right? I mean, I don't know your body. I have no idea what's going on there. I mean, you run a New York marathon every day. Okay. So so how do I help it? Right. I mean, so I think that's where I try to teach my fellows is that the patient's your best historian, right? I mean, not the blood labs, not the CT scans. Like you can have 10 strictures, but if that patient's like, listen, I feel like a million bucks. Okay. Okay. Like it looks like a nuclear bomb went off in your belly, but okay, if you say so. But it but it's that part, right? The trust part is not just look at the CT scans, oh no, I gotta cut all that stuff out. But no, if they feel great, then all right, we'll keep writing it now. That one. So I think I think that's where it's harder, you know. Now it's way harder to kind of teach it and kind of impart that to the to the the fellows and kind of the newer ones that are coming out because it's a separate side, right? Because it's now unfortunately bit it's business. So people want to enhance the business and it's really become just that, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Okay, but here's my follow-up question then to that, because Dr. Delaney brought up the fact that patients normalize. And so, how do you say, like, I feel like a million bucks? Might be that they do actually feel significantly better than they did, but they felt like absolute garbage before. So, how do you sort of balance the like autonomy of you feel like a million bucks, you feel like everything's great, with like, but your scope looks like this, and I know you could be better.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah, yeah. Well, well, I think that's like the example I kind of gave from the pie in the sky kind of look. I mean, but it's gonna be part patient, right? I mean, it's gonna be like, Yeah, you feel like a million bucks, your scan looks like crap, but then delving in more questions. What what did you do, right? Did you eliminate stuff? Have you changed your lifestyle? So it get you get down to like you have the fourth or first order, right? You get their first order, and then you kind of delve down to second, third, fourth, fifth order, and you kind of add more and more questions to it, add more kind of piecing out the pie with them to kind of see that they really aren't. I mean, yeah, they are better than they were maybe six months ago, but they're still not great. And I think that's where it's like trying to get to that and that's me teaching like the fellows like, look, just because they tell you that and you look at their skin, there's a discrepancy somewhere. So then they now you gotta peel the layers away. It's like, okay, did you cut food out? Oh yeah. Like, I don't eat peanuts, I don't eat popcorn, like I don't eat. Okay, okay, why? Oh, you gotta download it. Okay, well, then let's peel that layer off. So it's like, how was that compared to last time? Well, it's way worse now. Oh well, then I have to peel another layer off. It's like, well, then it's getting worse. So then so so I think it's when the more layers you peel off, but that's gonna be from you start the first order and then you start peeling if there's discrepancies, that's what it is with it.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

And you're kind of teaching the patient too a little bit, which we especially people who've been living with it for a long time, we kind of need that paradigm shift or like mindset shift to say, like, oh, oh, oh.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Yeah, cause cause because a normal for an IBD patient is different than a normal. For w whatever we call a normal person, right? I mean, I don't know what a normal person is. Well that yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I never never been normal.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

There aren't any at this table.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah, so I figured I figured now there's table, that's for sure. Can't use that as a benchmark.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

And we asked like three additional questions after I asked you the last question. So I'm okay with that. Thank you for inviting us. We've had fun today.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I love you guys came. Yeah, yeah. This is incredible that you guys came. I I I just threw the idea out. I was like, maybe they'll come. It's like stuck. I was like, done. This is great.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

I was like, I think we were told, I think you just told us we were coming. I don't remember being out. I don't remember. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

No, no, no. I offered. Oh yeah. I said, would you be interested? That's how I got it. I didn't say you coming. I said, would you be interested?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Okay, well, we just took it to being like, of course, we're showing up where you tell us to come. Oh, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

I mean, that's the assumption. I was trying to be nice, but the assumption really is like your butts are coming.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

That's exactly how I remember you asking me.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Yeah, quote unquote.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Well, you remember what you want to remember.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

You guys owe me, and thus you will come.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Yes, that's exactly how I remember it. Yes, that one.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

But thank you very much for inviting us. This has been a lot of fun. We're excited to be able to come back next year and do it again. So you guys are amazing.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

I appreciate everything you do. You're amazing.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Thank you for having us. Thank you everyone for listening and Cheers. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

Cheers.

New Guests Join Live At Focus GI

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Hi, everybody. Welcome to Bow Moments. This is Robin. Hey guys, this is Alicia, and we are so excited. Again, we are live at Focus GI and we have Dr. Kevin Pack and Dr. Richa Shukla just joined us as well. Look at that. Perfect timing. Welcome, guys. Welcome to the show. So we're gonna start out by having you guys just introduce yourselves. So tell us who you are, where you work, and why you're here.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

Yeah, thank you for having me. Um so my name is Kevin Pack, and I'm a hepatologist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Thank you so much for having me. Also, my name is Richard Shukla, and I am from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Fantastic, guys.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

So welcome to the show again. We're very excited to have you. Now tell us a little bit like what are you going to be doing here at Focus

FibroScan Interpretation And Practical Hepatology

SPEAKER_02 24:01

GI?

SPEAKER_04 24:01

Yeah, so at Focus GI, um I'll be giving a presentation to the APP course, and uh the topic is gonna be on interpretation of fibroscans.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

So I have been lucky to be involved with Focus since the inception, and I am one of the course directors, and so mainly making sure that things stay on track and are organized. But I also got to hop over to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation patient education event, and I just spoke there, and that was a really great experience also.

SPEAKER_03 24:27

So in the sessions that you're leading or have led, what is your hope for the takeaway? Like what do you want the people who are attending your session to take away from it?

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Oh yeah, so I basically be talking about why it's important to interpret fibro scans correctly. Um fibroscans are tests that are used ubiquitously. Most GI clinics, hepatology clinics use them. But um in my practice at least, I've noticed that sometimes the reports don't really add up uh clinically, and the results of these tests have pretty big implications, right, in terms of like the clinical pathway and and treatment implications. And so my goal today is to communicate and teach and coach people on how to appropriately, accurately, and consistently um interpret fibroscans correctly.

Fellow Confidence Hands On Training

SPEAKER_01 25:13

So I think as course director, I am really hoping the first year fellows feel just a little bit more empowered and confident as they return to their fellowships and feel like they can tackle some of the console questions that they get and that they feel a little bit more aware of the things that we're gonna bring up to them in the hands-on stations. I think first year of fellowship is a really turbulent time, at least these first few months where you you know everything's being thrown at you. So we we designed this course to try to ease some of that and and let them feel a little less rattled by by that transition.

Patient Education On Medication Risk

SPEAKER_01 25:43

But for the patient education conference, I really love things like that, you know, with IBD, which is a lifelong illness that can really affect patients in terms of their quality of life and overall disability. I think having these type of opportunities to interact with providers other than your own and to kind of get big picture type topics was great. So my topic was on talking about the risks of the medications that we use to treat IBD and how to manage those risks and how to talk to your doctor about that. So it already happened and I think it went really well. Like I got some great questions, great patient engagement, and I think people just felt a little bit reassured hearing that like while there's like a hundred side effects that are get listed on the commercial or on the product labeling that most of them are not things that should prohibit them from using a medication that can alter the course of their disease. So it went really well.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

It's it's funny you say that we did have okay, it's been a little bit. We had somebody on and we kind of asked about like how do you communicate that? Because you know, people hear the word cancer and they just kind of immediately are like, oh God, I don't want to do that. But when you actually look at the statistics, it's like it's very, very, very, very, very small chance that you're actually gonna get this. But like people are bad at math, myself included. I very much put myself in this category. And so, you know, you you say, oh, it's this percentage, but people still kind of can't get past that sometimes. So I think that's super important. I'm glad that you did that. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

My last question about the uh conference specifically is how is this different than a typical medical conference?

Why This Conference Feels Different

SPEAKER_01 27:04

I think that we're targeting like a really specific and unique time for the fellows. You know, we're trying to really get them ready for this first year of fellowship rather than like learn GI everything altogether. We we've emphasized it multiple times. We're not gonna teach you everything about hepatology, everything about GI bleeding or whatever the topic is. We just want you to have some familiarity with these high-level points that are gonna be the common things that you encounter so you aren't like surprised when you hear something. So I think it's just it's nice to have such a narrow focus and really allows us to to uh optimize what the speakers are doing and and what the fellows are getting out of it. And then I think the hands-on session is probably what everyone looks most forward to because endoscopy is such a a big learning curve for people. And so I think that is probably the nicest thing that we can offer. It's hands-on with so many different types of stations. We've got great sponsorship here, so that everyone's brought all these different materials. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Yeah, so I think the clue is in the name, right? GI Focus, and I totally understand why this conference was named that way. It's you know, it's a short conference, but it's very high impact, dense, like, you know, like what you need to know to have a good start off to your you know, the rest of your training. And I think that's what, you know, yeah, sets this apart. And I've heard great things about the hands-on, hands-on portion as well.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

I have one question that's off the cuff

APPs And Fellows Learning Together

SPEAKER_02 28:19

here. Um, so here we're doing fellows, but we also have advanced practice providers that are both getting trained. How do those two function together? Because I think you have a lot of speakers that are kind of going back and forth. How does the does the content change depending on the audience?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

I think so. I mean, I think sometimes we distribute acuity of patients differently. And uh for our advanced practice providers, they're like our boots on the ground, and we need them to see a larger population of our patients. We want them to feel empowered to maybe handle bread and butter a lot better and then know when to escalate something to their attending. And for the fellows, they don't have that luxury necessarily in three years, they're not gonna have the luxury to escalate to someone. So we want them to feel maybe even empowered to troubleshoot things that are unusual or what resources to seek out. So I think there's like slightly different focuses. But that being said, like I think we're all on the same team trying to train for the same types of problems. So there is a lot of overlap too.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

I mean, hepatology world, I think APPs are in the front lines. And so yeah, I think it's important to empower them with you know knowledge, not so much, you know, like the like the weeds and the details of like, you know, clinical trials and whatnot, but more for the practical like the practical aspects.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

I think that makes sense a lot because you know you want those folks are a lot of times sometimes going to be the first people seeing them. Like you said, they need to know when to go. Hang on a second, we need Dr. Prack to come in and and do a little bit more. So that's great.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

One of the things that we do on every show is we ask all of our guests, what is the one thing that you want the IBD community to know? But we've kind of changed it up for this conference. So what is the one thing that you want every patient to know about the people and providers that care

Provider Teamwork And Closing Ask

SPEAKER_03 29:53

for them?

SPEAKER_04 29:53

It's definitely a team effort. There's uh when we see patients, you know, it's often like only just one-on-one, right? You have the provider and you have the patient. But really, yeah, it's a whole team behind that interaction, like from like days out to even uh the day of when we like review charts, we speak to nurses, we speak to coordinators and all that. So it's really a team effort behind every encounter.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

I mean, I think some efforts like this are just an example of the commitment to always improving the quality of care for the ultimate beneficiary, which is the patient. And so it I you know, I hope patients know that we're out there trying to like do our best to be better doctors for them.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

I like that in particular because I do think that patients don't necessarily understand how much time goes into doing additional training to make sure that you're really being top of your game, that you're abreast of all the latest things and research and stuff like that. So I I don't know that they probably realize how many conference hours you put in to make sure you're you're up to date. So I think that's that's a good one. Great.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Thank you both so much.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Thank you guys so much in. I have to compliment your your logo. I really love this a lot. I built that myself.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

I really love this. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. Thanks, guys. If you like this episode, please rate, review, subscribe, and even better, share it with your friends. Cheers.