AGA to Help Members Navigate Changing Health-Care Environment, According to New President
Chicago, IL (May 10, 2011) — C. Richard Boland, MD, AGAF, understands the many pending changes in the practice and science of gastroenterology that AGA members will encounter in the coming year during his presidency of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, which begins at the conclusion of Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2011.
“My aim is for AGA to try to help facilitate how our members negotiate the changes in health-care reform that will affect our patients and the practice of medicine over the next several years,” he says. Dr. Boland has a number of goals he would like to focus on as president, beginning with issues of looming importance to the gastroenterology practice, including accountable care organizations.
“While big practice groups will have facilitators to help make these changes, a fairly sizeable proportion of gastroenterologists are in private practice, either solo or in small groups of two or three. They will need some help because it will be cost-prohibitive for them to hire consultants, and perhaps difficult to try to figure out for themselves how health-care reform will most urgently affect them.”
Dr. Boland is convinced that many physicians will be looking to their professional organizations for assistance on a number of issues and demands, including helping them identify which of the new reforms must be initiated immediately “and which ones can be eased into over the next year or so . . . It will be more important than at any time in my professional career for our organization to help its people to adapt.”
Through AGA’s advocacy efforts and the AGA Think Tank on the Future of Practice, the organization aims to keep members up to date on the quickly changing health-care environment and the important issues and trends that will shape the GI practice of the future.
Dr. Boland notes that to answer the call for evidence-based decision making at all levels of health care, AGA launched the AGA Digestive Health Outcomes RegistryTM. He views this clinical registry as part of the organization’s commitment to advancing the science and practice of gastroenterology by taking the lead in collecting, aggregating and analyzing data on GI diseases and patient outcomes. “This easy and affordable registry will very much help our members come up with the metrics they will need to demonstrate to payors that they’re meeting certain quality measures. And at the same time, we hope it will be a source of revenue.”
Turning to another focus of his presidency, and as a professor of medicine and division chief of gastroenterology at Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, Dr. Boland says he hopes to elevate the consciousness of AGA members regarding their responsibilities, including supporting the entry of young trainees into the science of gastroenterology via career development awards. With the reduction in federal research money being allocated by the nation’s scientific research institutes, it is urgent that organizations, such as the AGA Research Foundation, continue to help support the growth of researchers. “In so doing, we can continue to draw on the benefits of scientific discovery,” he says.
Prior to his presidency, Dr. Boland had been intimately involved in the AGA throughout his career. He has chaired many AGA committees, including the AGA Research Committee and the AGA Ethics Committee, as well as the GI oncology section of the AGA Council. Dr. Boland has served as the course director for the AGA Fall Postgraduate Course and as an associate editor for Gastroenterology.
Dr. Boland is a professor of medicine and division chief of gastroenterology at Baylor University Medical Center. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame, IN, and received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. He subsequently served for two years as a general medical officer with the Indian Health Service in Gallup, NM, then completed his residency in internal medicine at the Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco, CA, and a fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California at San Francisco.
Dr. Boland has had an outstanding academic career, having continuously been supported by NIH funding since 1979, with a research focus on colorectal cancer (CRC). The majority of his more than 300 publications “are laboratory-based experiments that attempt to gain insights of a translational or clinical nature,” he says, adding that he has had an interest in familial forms of CRC since medical school. Boland has been lauded for his numerous contributions to the understanding of familial CRC, helping to define the Lynch syndrome, and identifying the unique gene mutation that allows CRC to occur in multiple family members.
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include 17,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. www.gastro.org.
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About DDW
DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the American Gastroenterological Association Institute, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, DDW takes place May 7–10, 2011, at McCormick Place, Chicago, IL. The meeting showcases approximately 5,000 abstracts and hundreds of lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine and technology. For more information, visit www.ddw.org.
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