Message from the Director
Welcome to the sub-division of Advanced Endoscopy at West Virginia University Medicine and Ruby Memorial Hospital. I was recruited to WVU in 2020 to serve as the Director of Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy. Our goal has been to provide cutting edge procedural services to the people of West Virginia and the surrounding region. Currently, there are three full-time advanced endoscopy staff who perform all procedures in the state-of-the-art Advanced Center for Endoscopy, located in Ruby Memorial Hospital, the quaternary hub for all of West Virginia. The advanced endoscopy staff consists of myself, Dr. Shailendra Singh, associate professor & Director, Bariatric Endoscopy, and Dr. Matthew Krafft, assistant professor, Advanced Endoscopy. Together, we perform over 3,000 interventional endoscopy procedures with more than 1,000 ERCP cases and 1,500 EUS cases, annually. We have also begun performing a variety of new procedural categories that have never before been offered in the state of West Virginia. Some of these procedures include bariatric endoscopy (ie., endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, transoral outlet reduction), anti-reflux endoscopy (ie., transoral incisionless fundoplication), 3rd space endoscopy, including per-oral endoscopic myotomy, and advanced polyp resection techniques (ie., full thickness endoscopic resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection).
In addition to growing our clinical-endoscopy program, the WVU sub-division of Advanced Endoscopy is committed to improving research and trainee education. The Advanced Endoscopy faculty routinely publish in high-impact medical journals and are actively engaged in a WVU-sponsored randomized clinical trial. Beginning summer 2022, we will start West Virginia’s first Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship (AEF). The WVU AEF is a 1-year program that will train a motivated gastroenterologist in advanced endoscopy.
This is an exciting time for the WVU sub-division of advanced endoscopy, as we continue to offer a growing array of advanced endoscopic procedures to the patients of West Virginia to treat their ailments. Additionally, we are investing in the future of the state by bolstering clinical research, innovation, and education. We look forward to growing the program and optimizing the outcomes for the patients and communities we serve.
Sincerely,
Shyam Thakkar, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director of Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy