So, this is a course, just a little history, that started in Cleveland maybe 15 or so years ago. It was the brainchild of Dr. Chock and Dr. John Vargo, sort of thinking it might be nice to just get the fourth-year fellows together. There are a lot of courses sort of throughout the country, as you guys know, but they tend to be a mishmash, and we would go to courses and teach how to put a stent in with a duodenoscope, and it was a second-year fellow who didn't know what an elevator was, so, you know, we thought it was a great idea to do something for just fourth-years. You guys have had a little hands-on with, you know, ERCP scopes and echoendoscopes, and so now you're sort of ready to, you know, try some things that maybe your attending is taking the scope from you and doesn't let you do the really fun part or the scary part, and so the thought was to have a hands-on for you guys so you can play with all of the toys and try things and ask questions maybe you haven't asked before, so the course sort of evolved. Initially, we started with some lectures, and then we would go and do hands-on, and as all evaluations ever say is, want more hands-on, like fellows always want more hands-on, so we sort of kept paring down lectures to the point where we actually got rid of the lectures because the fellows found that just reviewing cases where we would have a video rolling and faculty are asking questions and, you know, how would you do this, you know, there's no one way to skin a cat, and we all have different things that we do, and I think it was really valuable for the fellows to see, oh, there's like, you know, more than one way to do this or they don't do that this way at our institution, so I think the faculty learn a lot and the fellows found it very engaging, so we've sort of, you know, got to the point where now we just basically bring videos, and, you know, everybody's making videos now, a lot of us have video capability, and so just showing videos and we're going to roll videos, and as you have questions, you ask questions, we'll be pausing videos here and there, and we've really found it to be really great and very interactive, and I think, you know, I know the faculty, we always learn a lot, and I think you guys will too, so that's sort of, you know, our vision of this course, and then we'll have, you know, the whole afternoon is hands-on, and hopefully you can try some devices maybe you've never seen before, we always try to bring something in that's a little bit different than maybe your institution is doing, sometimes some newer devices that not too many people are using, I'm not sure, you know, that we quite have some of that this time, but hopefully you'll see some things you haven't seen. So the other part that was unique to our course was doing video editing, it used to be a little more of an extensive thing, and Schaefer Mock is a graduate and leader of this now, he was the sort of, under the tutelage of Dr. Raju, who would come in the evening, in the afternoon, and fellows would come in early, and they would stay up all night making videos, so you've been spared that, but it was kind of fun, I mean the faculty would go off to dinner, and the fellows would go in groups and make videos all night, and it was kind of a bonding experience, but apparently per Schaefer he thinks, maybe better. So things have changed a little bit, and you guys are all better at video editing, back when we started, people weren't really as facile at using video editing programs, and so actually a lot of the videos that ended up at DDW for the video forum were from these groups of fellows, and it was sort of part of us teaching them that they were supposed to submit their videos, so it was a little bit of a different time, I mean things have changed now, and you guys are all better, I mean my fellows do all my video editing for me, so, as you'll be able to tell, because my video's not so slick, but, so anyway, so that's sort of a little bit of the history, and so I hope you guys enjoy this, like I said, it's sort of years of sort of honing it down to what we think is sort of the things that you guys will like, and we have faculty from all over the country who will give different views. Okay, so here's our faculty, we're missing, I think Field Willingham, who's the editor of Video GIE, is going to be calling in next, Ajay is local, so he should be here, so is Raj, and Peter Dragunov. So this course is supported by Boston Scientific, Irby, Fujifilm, and Olympus, and so they're here, and you can express your appreciation to them for supporting this course, you know, money is getting tighter and tighter, and so we're glad that they still find this important to support, and then there's some exhibit support from Irby and Fujifilm as well, and then some of the devices that you're going to be using, all these companies have given devices for us to play with and blow through. So update your profile, if you haven't already, I know you all are ASGE members, and I think it will serve you well in the future, I've been a member since I was a fellow, and I've been involved with ASGE, and it's a great society to work for, you'll, all of you are seeing each other now, we'll see each other throughout your careers at DDW and other meetings and courses like this, so it's a lot of fun, it's a great community. So just a little bit about the Bioskills Lab, if you haven't been here before, you enter through the men or women's room and go straight through to the back, you can't bring food or drink in there, and there are lockers available if you want to use them, and put a gown over your clothes when you go in, there'll be explants and things like that, you don't want to get on your clothes. Okay, so there are microphones in front of you, when you press the button it'll go green, and we do have a virtual audience, so they'll want to hear what you're saying and asking, so please remember to turn on your mic. And I think that's it, anything else, Sharangi? No, welcome, and feel free to ask questions, all the faculty have flown in to share their tips and tricks and clinical pearls, which will help you in your cases, and even if you take one or two tips here and there back, even from the hands-on or during the cases, it will stay with you and help you when you're stuck in a situation for creative solutions. So have fun, ask questions, and we'll keep it informal throughout.

gastroenterology

hands-on experience

case reviews

video editing

equipment and funding