During my presidency, I have three main objectives: to attract more young physicians as well as encourage females to serve on WGO committees to have more impact in the global community, and increase efforts toward growing our membership in Africa as well as in all parts of the world.

MILWAUKEE (PRWEB)
October 18, 2019

Professor Naima Lahbabi-Amrani was elected as the 2019-2021 President of the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) by the General Assembly during the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Istanbul, Turkey on 23 September 2019. Professor Lahbabi-Amrani is the first woman to hold this position and also the first President from Africa and Middle East.

Professor Lahbabi-Amrani is a Professor of Medicine at the University Mohammed V and also faculty of medicine and pharmacy in Rabat, Morocco. She is also the Director of the WGO Rabat Training Center, one of WGO’s oldest Centers.

Professor Lahbabi-Amrani is an Honorary President of the Pan-Arab Association of Gastroenterology. She is a Governing Council member of AMAGE (African-Middle Eastern Association of Gastroenterology), a Governing Council member of the Pan-Arab Society of Gastroenterology, and a Governing Council member of the Moroccan Society of Gastroenterology. She is a Founding Member of the AAFFCHGE, called since November 2017, the SAHGE (Société Africaine d’Hépato-Gastro-entérologie et d’Endoscopie digestive). She is member of numerous gastroenterology societies and associations.

Professor Lahbabi-Amrani serves as hepatologist and gastroenterologist. She is graduated from Paris VII Medical University. She holds a master’s degree in Human Biology with a focus on Physiology and Functional Digestive Exploration from Claude Bernard University-Lyon, France.

She has served as the Head of the Hepato-Gastroenterology Department at CHU Ibn Sina-Rabat; the Associate Dean of Research and cooperation at the Rabat Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, President of the Moroccan Society of Gastroenterology (SMMAD), and President of the Pan-Arab Association of Gastroenterology. She was an Executive Member of ASNEMGE.

Prof. Lahbabi-Amrani has served on both the Governing Council and Executive Committee as Scientific Program Committee Chair (2009-2015); Secretary General (2015-2017); WGOF Chair (2017-2019) and President-elect (2017-2019). She has additionally, served on several WGO committees as Member of the Training Centers Committee (2001-present); Member of the Train the Trainers Committee (2013-2019); Member of the Finance Committee (2015-2019); Member of the Nominations Committee (2009-2013); and Member of the WDHD Committee (2012 and 2018-Present).

She is an honorary member for rendered services to AAFFCHGE (Association d’Afrique Francophone de Formation Continue en Hépato-Gastroentérologie).

She has received royal decoration from the throne to the order of the Knight.

“My aim is to follow the lead of those who have served in this position. I hope to continue their efforts. This can allow us to benefit from their experience and wisdom. During my presidency, I have three main objectives: to attract more young physicians as well as encourage females to serve on WGO committees to have more impact in the global community, and increase efforts toward growing our membership in Africa as well as in all parts of the world. This will help to raise our position as the global guardian of digestive health. However, this cannot be done without the commitment, support and confidence of all of you (the new Governing Council, our member societies and regional affiliate associations). We are a Big Family with only One Voice to reflect the mission of WGO,” said Prof. Lahbabi-Amrani.

ABOUT THE NEW GOVERNING COUNCIL

Ratified during the WGO General Assembly meeting on Monday, 23 September were the following leadership appointments, with the most notable being the handover of the WGO Presidency to Professor Naima Lahbabi-Amrani. Professor Cihan Yurdaydin (Turkey) is now Past President and Chair of Nominations; Professor Guilherme Macedo (Portugal) is now WGO President-Elect and Chair of the WGO Foundation; Professor Geoffrey Metz (Australia) continues as Secretary General; and Professor Mark Topazian (USA) will begin his first term as Treasurer for the 2019-2021 term.

Additional members of the Governing Council are as follows: Professor Desmond Leddin (Canada), Chair of the Clinical Research Committee; Professor Andrew Veitch (UK), Chair of the Endoscopy, Other Procedures and Outreach Interest Group; Professor David Armstrong (Canada), Chair of the Guidelines Committee; Professor Saeed Hamid (Pakistan), Chair of the Hepatology Interest Group; Professor Carolina Olano (Uruguay), Chair of the Scientific Programs Committee; Professor Finlay Macrae (Australia), Chair of the Training Centers Committee; and Professor Jean-Christophe Saurin (France), Chair of the Train the Trainers Committee. The Councilors at Large are Professor Alejandro Piscoya (Peru), Chair, Publications Committee, and Professor Kaichun Wu (China), Promotion of Education in Asia-Pacific Region. The four Regional Association Presidents/Representatives are: Professor Eduardo Gutierrez Galiana (Uruguay), Pan-American Gastroenterological Association (OPGE); Professor Daiming Fan (China), Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE); Professor Axel Dignass (Germany), representing the United European Gastroenterology (UEG); and Professor Reda Elwakil (Egypt) African Middle East Association of Gastroenterology (AMAGE).

ABOUT THE WORLD GASTROENTEROLOGY ORGANISATION

Formed in 1935 and incorporated in 1958, The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) is a federation of 115 member societies and 4 regional associations of gastroenterology representing more than 50,000 individual members worldwide, focusing on the improvement of standards in gastroenterology training and education on a global scale. WGO’s mission is to promote, to the general public and healthcare professional alike, an awareness of the worldwide prevalence and optimal care of gastrointestinal and liver disorders, and to improve care of these disorders, through the provision of high quality, accessible and independent education and training.

###

Share article on social media or email:

Cells under microscope

“It is one of the core values of our practice to constantly refine treatment protocols and understand treatment outcomes so that we can help more people achieve the goal of a successful pregnancy.”

WASHINGTON (PRWEB)
October 17, 2019

Physician-scientists from Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)—a premier fertility and IVF center—presented new information that helps to improve treatment outcomes for the one in eight couples who face infertility at this year’s premier education and research meeting for reproductive medicine. Held from October 12 to 16, 2019, in Philadelphia, PA, the theme of this year’s Scientific Congress of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine was “Celebrating 75 Years of History and Innovation.” The program featured scientific, postgraduate, and video presentations as well as plenary lectures addressing the most pressing clinical and basic-science issues in reproductive medicine. The meeting drew nearly 10,000 attendees from 94 countries to share their clinical research and study findings from the past year.

For the past 28 years, the physicians at SGF have placed a high value on conducting clinical research and remain a leader in the field. It is one of only a few private practice fertility centers in the country to employ a full-time dedicated research team who perform under the direction of Director of Research, Kate Devine, M.D., board certified reproductive endocrinologist who sees patients in SGF’s Washington, D.C., K Street location.

“This conference offers physicians in our field from around the world a unique opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other,” explained Dr. Devine. “With a common goal of improving treatment outcomes for patients across the globe, SGF is able to share its findings so that others can benefit. Learning from each another’s research stirs innovation and helps us sow seeds that turn into new ideas for next year’s research endeavors,” Devine added.

Among the findings SGF presented this year, two of the most notable included a new study that evaluated the optimal oral medication type (letrozole compared to clomiphene citrate, or clomid) and dose in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation/intrauterine insemination (COH / IUI) cycles to increase clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) while lowering risk of multiple gestation, i.e., twins or triplets.

The data suggested that in ovulatory women, a starting dose of 50mg of clomid provides a greater chance of a singleton gestation than a higher starting dose. Simply put, more medication doesn’t always mean better success rates, and a higher dose increases a woman’s risk of multiples.

The data also showed, in the overall population, clinical pregnancy rates were comparable between patients who received letrozole and women given clomid. However, in women who are anovulatory (do not ovulate) specifically, there was a lower chance of a multiple pregnancy when given letrozole compared to clomid. In women who are ovulatory, neither medication showed a higher risk of multiples or a higher clinical pregnancy rate than the other.

“To maximize clinical pregnancy rates while minimizing the chance of multiples in oral ovulation induction/intrauterine insemination cycles, medication and dose should be chosen carefully. Our research sheds an important light on this popular treatment approach, making it safer for women by lowering their chances of high-risk, multiple gestation pregnancies while optimizing pregnancy rates,” said Devine.

This retrospective study evaluated 8,911 patients who underwent 15,453 oral ovulation induction-IUI (OI-IUI) cycles from 2004-2018 at SGF.

In the second, highly notable study, SGF’s physician scientists showed women with endometriosis achieve equal success rates when using euploid blastocysts during frozen embryo transfers compared to couples with other diagnoses—a significant finding as this challenges decades of fertility myth that suggested women with endometriosis don’t have the same success using fertility treatments.

Conducted in partnership with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), SGF’s research gives hope to the nearly 10% of women who have endometriosis.

“We wanted to understand whether endometriosis, which may decrease a couple’s chances of conceiving naturally, also decreases their chances of having a baby from IVF, as many believe. Furthermore, we wanted to understand ‘why’. Was it that these women didn’t have the same rate of genetically normal embryos? Or that they have impaired endometrial receptivity preventing them from achieving or keeping a pregnancy?” explained Dr. Devine.

This retrospective study looked at 472 frozen embryo transfers in SGF patients using chromosomally normal blastocysts (as shown by preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy [PGT-A]). Three subsets of patients were included: women with surgically proven endometriosis, patients with isolated male factor infertility, and non-infertile patients electing genetic testing for a single gene disorder. The male factor infertility and single gene groups of patients were selected for comparison, as they typically yield strong pregnancy and delivery rates using IVF and because neither egg nor uterine infertility factors were likely to be present.

The results from the study showed that women with endometriosis had statistically similar rates of pregnancy and live birth compared to the other groups. Further, when patients with endometriosis were compared to each control group, there was no difference in the number and frequency of chromosomally normal blastocysts with PGT-A.

“We are excited to see that even though women with endometriosis may have impaired fertility, their diagnosis is not limiting them in their success with IVF treatment,” explained Devine.

“Patients can be reassured that their chances of a live birth are good when a euploid blastocyst is available. I’m encouraged for women and what this means for how we treat endometriosis. Along with advancements that we continue to make across the board, this study should encourage women with endometriosis that it’s very possible to build their family with the right treatment and timely care,” added Devine.

To learn more about ongoing research being conducted at SGF, visit http://www.shadygrovefertility.com/research

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)

SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 85,000 babies born and counting. With 36 locations throughout FL, GA, MD, NY, PA, VA, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, we offer patients individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (PRWEB)
October 16, 2019

My Gene Counsel, a digital health company that provides personalized, easy-to-understand, web-based genetic counseling information, has published a new white paper that explores how frequently medical management guidelines have been updated over a five year period and provides guidance as to how patients and medical providers can be kept informed as changes are made.

Entitled “How Often Do Medical Management Guidelines Change for People with Germline Genetic Findings? A Solution for Keeping Patients and Providers Updated,” the paper is based on research conducted by My Gene Counsel using the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) SFv2.0 list of 59 genes as a proxy for medically actionable genetic conditions. Overall, My Gene Counsel found a total of 623 revisions, which is further broken down in the report by gene, disease category, and disease subcategory.

“Genetic testing can be lifesaving, but it must come with all the facts,” said Ellen Matloff, president and CEO of My Gene Counsel. “Most people who have genetic testing never see a genetics specialist. If they do, it’s once or twice and then never again. However, the field is changing all the time. For the average health care provider, the challenge of keeping up-to-date and informing patients is insurmountable.”

Given the frequency of medical management updates found, the white paper examines the need for an automated, scalable method for keeping pace with the growing demand for the latest genomic information. My Gene Counsel presents a viable solution for collating, tracking, and delivering digital genetic updates to patients, providers, and health systems at scale in a timely and responsible manner.

“Health care consumers must have access to the newest management recommendations so they can achieve better health outcomes using fewer precious resources,” said Meagan Farmer, lead author and genetic counseling business manager for My Gene Counsel. “Forward-thinking health systems and insurers are looking for tools that leverage technology, such as My Gene Counsel, that will deliver these benefits to their provider and patient networks over time.”

My Gene Counsel’s white paper can be downloaded at http://www.mygenecounsel.com/how-often-do-medical-management-guidelines-change.

About My Gene Counsel:

My Gene Counsel is a digital health company that provides easy-to-understand, web-based genetic counseling reports to health care consumers directly or through enterprise partners. The company is the only genetics resource used in the market today that is designed for digital and mobile access, is available 24/7/365, and delivers comprehensive content created by medical experts and patient advocates. Their result-specific solution provides genetic guidance that updates as research and critical new information emerges. For more information, visit http://www.mygenecounsel.com.

Share article on social media or email:

HOUSTON (PRWEB)
October 15, 2019

Representatives with MyBioGate announced that they are now inviting event and media partners for China Focus@Europe Hamburg to be held November 10 in Hamburg, Germany.

“We could not build the best partnering platform without our partners. We look forward to building a mutually beneficial partnership with our partners. If you are interested in becoming a partner, please don’t hesitate to contact us,” said Miao Guo, Vice President of Operations and spokesperson for MyBioGate.

Guo went on to highlight that China Focus@Euorpe Hamburg will bring together investors, pharma leaders, and innovators from China and around the world for an exclusive partnering event designed to inspire, educate and foster cross-border investment and collaboration in leading biopharma innovations.

Guo noted that the event would feature keynote speech, panel discussions, Chinese companies showcase, 1-on-1 meetings, and company presentations (Pitch & Match).

MyBioGate had partnered with several companies for its events in the past, such as Bio Club, EBD Group, AZ Bio, Vienna BioCenter, BioHouston, and SinoHealth, etc.

“The pharma market in China grew to about Rmb1,558bn (US$226bn) in 2018, at a CAGR of 10% in 2013-18, becoming the 2nd largest pharma market in the world,” Guo highlighted, before adding, “as the youngest member of ICH (International Council for Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use), China joined with the least experience but holding the promise to bring domestic clinical trials to world standard and open its market. There will be new revenues for innovative therapeutics and more business development opportunities for global players. The current U.S.-China relationship and CFIUS regulations in the U.S. derived interest from some Chinese investors to the European market.”

The event will feature speakers such as Stephen Sunderland, Partner, L.E.K. Consulting;Sebastian Gensior, Founder, Sino-European Pharma Forum (SEPF); Managing Director, Global Health Access Solutions; James Huang, Managing Partner, KPCB China, and more to be announced soon.

Guo also highlighted that Forum Admissions at the event are available at €1184, and Group discounts are available for 3 or more attendees. Company presentations (Pitch & Match) also has a €500 off for the first 5 registrants. Send inquiry to info (at) mybiogate (dot) com for more details.

For more information, please visit https://events.mybiogate.com/europe/about-china-focus/ https://events.mybiogate.com/europe/

About China Focus

CHINA FOCUS is a one-of-a-kind partnering forum with a mission of connecting essential players and resources in the life science and healthcare ecosystem between China and the rest of the world. It brings together investors, pharma leaders, and innovators around the globe for an exclusive partnering event designed to inspire, inform, and foster cross-border investment and collaboration.

Since 2018, CHINA FOCUS has been successfully held in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, and Vienna, attracting more than 600 companies and 800 executives worldwide. It has become a name brand and the go-to event for cross-border partnership between China and the rest of the world.

Contact Details:

Feier ChenManager of Marketing

7707 Fannin Street

Ste. 200

Houston, TX 77054

United States

Phone: (832) 497-2220

Email: feier.chen (at) mybiogate (dot) com

Source: MyBioGate Inc. (event.mybiogate.com)

Share article on social media or email:

FREDERICK, Md. (PRWEB)
October 15, 2019

The scope of the quality system covers the “Manufacture of Prepared Media for the Microbiological Community”.

Microbiology International currently manufactures ready-to-use culture broth and buffers in its proprietary MediaBox™ format, bottles & test tubes. The company also offers pre-poured agar plates & liquid supplements.

This major step underpins the company’s philosophy of offering the highest quality equipment and consumables to Microbiology Laboratories across the United States and Canada.

Microbiology International was formed in 1997 to provide the best microbiology automation from around the world to the modern laboratory. Our equipment quickly automates tedious, manual lab processes and when combined with our ability to provide customized culture media products, and pathogen ID kits, we are able to make your laboratory as efficient as possible. In short, we offer our clients the total lab solution.

Share article on social media or email:

Pumerantz Lecture keynote speaker Leroy E. Hood, MD, PhD, (left) and Western University of Health Sciences President Daniel R. Wilson, MD, PhD. (Jeff Malet, WesternU)

POMONA, Calif. (PRWEB)
October 07, 2019

The future of medicine in the 21st century will focus on wellness, mapped and tracked down to the genetic level, resulting in people living longer, healthier lives. But it will be up to each individual to make healthy choices and maximize their extra time on earth.

Leroy E. Hood, MD, PhD, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of the Institute for Systems Biology and Senior Vice President and Chief Science Officer for Providence St. Joseph Health, served as the keynote speaker at Western University of Health Sciences’ 11th annual Dr. Philip Pumerantz Distinguished Lectureship Oct. 3, 2019 in Pomona, California.

Hood participated in seven paradigm changes in biology that set the foundation for modern molecular biology, including the development of the automated DNA sequencer. He played a significant role in the Human Genome Project, an international effort to map and understand all the genes of human beings. He co-founded the Institute for Systems Biology in 2000.

“Systems biology is this fascinating idea that when you look at biological complexity and study it, you can’t do it one gene or one protein at a time,” Hood said. “You have to think about it in terms of the systems that operate in the biological organism and how you can assess whole systems and not just whole genes.”

Hood and his collaborators pioneered techniques in systems approaches to biology and disease. He developed systems medicine as the fundamental tool for dealing with the complexity of pathology and the idea that health care should be predictive, personalized preventative and participatory (P4 medicine).

In the past 100 years, medicine underwent two big paradigm changes. The Flexner Report, published in 1910, reviewed medical education in the U.S. and Canada and found much of it to be abysmal. As a result, many medical schools closed and the profession turned to science to train physicians and treat patients, Hood said. The sciences in the 20th century created medicine that focused on identifying and fixing disease but ignored wellness, he said.

The next paradigm change is happening now, with a more global approach toward the complexity of disease. P4 medicine is strikingly different from contemporary medicine in almost every way, Hood said. It is proactive, not reactive, and is all about the individual.

“Everyone is going to be uniquely treated and uniquely assessed,” Hood said. “It’s really about understanding wellness, understanding disease, and understanding the transitions between the two so you can reverse them immediately.”

What systems biology gave systems medicine was two important intellectual concepts. One is dense phenotyping, where billions of measurements are taken on an individual to provide a key to understanding that person’s wellness and disease, and the transitions between the two. The second realization is that complex biological systems operate by virtue of biological networks that are interactions of proteins and other informational molecules that are the mediators of development, of physiological responses and of aging, and if they become disease-perturbed, they cause disease.

“If you can see how a disease-perturbed network differs from its normal counterpart, you get deep and fundamental insights into how to create biomarkers that can detect the disease or drug targets that might be able to cure the disease,” Hood said. “The networks can be derived from the dense phenotyping measurements that you make. So the two are beautifully interrelated.”

This P4 approach can change how clinical trials are performed, Hood said. The fundamental assumption made in all trials is each of the individual units (humans) are identical. But we are not identical. We are different genetically and environmentally, he said.

“We think that clinical trials in the future ought to be done as N-of-1 (single subject) experiments,” Hood said. “In a cancer trial we can use the individual data clouds to actually identify biomarkers that distinguish the responders from the non-responders. Then what we will do is a second trial of 50 patients with all responders. And if you get a 98 percent response rate, the FDA will approve your drug in the blink of an eye. You go from spending $1.5 billion on a clinical trial to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a clinical trial.”

Hood and his collaborators completed a study that used dynamic data clouds to improve wellness. “A wellness study of 108 individuals using personal, dense, dynamic data clouds,” published in Nature Biotechnology in 2017, involved collecting the complete genome sequences of 108 volunteers, including Hood. The subjects each gave blood draws every three months to measure 1,200 analytes of three classes: clinical chemistries, metabolites and proteins. They measured gut microbiome every three months and used Fitbit and other devices for digital health measurements.

“What these gave us for each individual was longitudinal data clouds that, when analyzed, led to actionable possibilities that if executed by the individual could either improve their wellness and/or let them ameliorate or avoid disease,” Hood said. “The big question in all of this is: How do you change social behavior? What we used were wellness coaches, trained in psychology and nutrition and nursing, who were magnificent. They would elicit from the individual exactly what they wanted in their health objectives, and this is not easy to do.”

Hood said he has a “gruesome family history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. Those are things you want to be aware of as you’re optimizing your wellness. I lost weight really easily by looking at my genetics and seeing how optimally I can eat to lose weight without really dieting.

“I changed my exercise regiment,” Hood added. “You can look at your genes and see how to optimize your energy output. You can use continuous glucose monitoring to experiment with different foods and what they do to your glucose level.”

His participation led to one realization.

“Wellness or health is all about you,” Hood said. “That participatory piece is really critical.”

Those who participate in scientific wellness and have data prior to the diagnosis of any disease can have that data used as a baseline, allowing health care practitioners to detect early transition points from analytes, disease-perturbed networks, and other factors, Hood said.

“I would say in a five-year period, we will have the diagnostic earliest markers for virtually all of the major chronic diseases, and we will be well on the way to using those markers to determine what therapeutic targets we can hit at that earliest transition point,” Hood said. “It’s going to be an extreme form of preventive medicine in the 21st century. This changes us to this new N-of-one approach to disease, where your wellness is specified by your early parameters. We will see your transitions and we will be able to see the increase in networks, and we will look for the therapies that can reverse the earliest kinds of transitions.”

In 2007, for the first time, half the children born can expect to live to be 100, Hood said. This generation will have to go through a series of job transitions as they age so they have enough money in their later years.

“I think what the 21st century will give you is the ability to age really well, and to be well,” Hood said. “Also, the ability to see early transitions to disease and reverse them. This is going to staggeringly reduce the cost of health care.

“Alzheimer’s costs us half a trillion dollars a year today,” Hood added. “Suppose in five years we’ve reduced it to 10 percent of what we have now. You’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in savings.”

Health care systems also will change.

“As we migrate to wellness, we’re going to migrate from big hospitals, with complicated buildings, to the home,” Hood said. “We are going to have a tricorder in 10 or 15 years that can prick your thumb and make 5,000 measurements on a drop of blood, send that information to an analytics center, and they will send it to your coach and to your physician.

You will get everything done at home easily, checking it once a month or two months.

“The really important point is you are going to have a chance, all of you, to live a lot longer,” Hood said. “Take advantage of it.”

The lectureship, in honor of WesternU Founding President Philip Pumerantz, PhD, is made possible by a gracious donation from the Sarkaria family of Orange, California.