Good morning, I think we'll get going. So I would like to welcome you to the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy postgraduate course. On behalf of myself and my course co-director, Dr. Joah Munzer, we would like to thank you all for joining us at this hybrid course. We are so excited after 18 months of COVID to be able to meet again in person, it really is a great pleasure to be here. We would like to especially thank our esteemed faculty in helping us put together the content of the postgraduate course. We have a superb group of experts joining us today, and I am really excited about hearing their advice on the management of common clinical problems that each of us face as practicing gastroenterologists. This course is supported in part by educational grants from Cook Medical, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, and Pentex Medical. We'll pause on this slide for a second. Good morning, everybody, and welcome. As Anne-Marie mentioned, my name is Joah Munzer. I'm from the Medical University of South Carolina. It is a huge honor for me to be co-director of this year's course. I'd like to first start by thanking Marilyn Amador, who is from the ASGE and the course coordinator, as usual, has done a tremendous job and has made our life very, very easy. And I want to echo Anne-Marie's comments that we're extremely excited and delighted that we have the chance to be here in person, that this course is at least partly in person. It's been a long road, as mentioned, and it really is such a blessing to be able to reconnect with old friends and to hopefully make some new ones. So thank you all for being part of that. One comment I'd like to make specifically is that Anne-Marie and I are extremely proud of the diversity that's exemplified in the outstanding speakers for this course. And this diversity of background, of experiences, of perspectives is going to add great value as it'll be reflected in the educational content. But even more importantly, it's going to create an environment of connectedness and belonging that will enrich the educational experience of everyone in this diverse audience and hopefully will help us all become better doctors for our diverse patients. And so we feel very fortunate that we have this platform and that we're able to use it to further the critical mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we humbly encourage you to do the same, all of us to do the same, no matter what our platform is, in the very least, at the very least, in the way that we lead our teams, that we lead our endoscopy rooms, that we teach students and other learners, and certainly in the way that we care for our diverse patients. So this is a mission for all of us, and now is certainly the time. And so with that said, a couple of housekeeping items before we officially get started. So this course will be using something called Poll Everywhere, which is an audience response system for the questions and answers after every session. So we encourage you to make this as interactive as possible and to submit your questions using your mobile device or web browser device. You can either do that by scanning the QR code here or by texting ASGE2021 to 22333. And this is how you'll be able to ask your questions. Please keep in mind that this program is being recorded, and it's going to be posted on GILeap, which is ASGE's educational platform. And all the content from this course will be available to you for the future as a result of your registration. But with that in mind, please silence your devices for the recording. And then at the end of the course, obviously, we want to make it better year after year, so we would really appreciate your feedback. And so please complete the course evaluation that's also present on the GILeap platform. And just FYI, this course is approved for 8.25 CME credits and 8.25 mock points. So with that said, thank you very much for being here. Again, it's a real privilege and honor to be with you in person. And to our audience that's virtual as well, welcome, and please enjoy the course.

American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

postgraduate course

COVID

diversity in healthcare

interactive Q&A sessions