Hi, good morning. Thank you, Eden, and, and welcome everybody to believe it or not the 44th offering of this quality course which is incredible when you think about it. I think it's fortuitous that this course is leading into a national healthcare quality week and the international infection prevention week both of which take place this month. And so perhaps at some point at the end of the day we'll have some time to share ideas for recognition activities. So, I'm not this eloquent but but Eden, you know, sort of has stated that quality and safety are horizontal threads that run through the tapestry of healthcare of all we do to take care of patients. And, you know, no true or words have never been spoken and that really is the goal of today, which is to provide you all the practical tools to be able to maximize quality and safety in your units. I was just now reviewing the registration for this course and it's really exciting to see a very nice mix of physicians endoscopist, nursing staff, and other sort of stakeholders and leaders within our endoscopy unit so I think it's going to be a really exciting day, and I'm hopeful that you'll have a really great experience and take away some practical knowledge that you'll be able to apply in real time toward improving performance in your unit. So thank you all for being here. Thank you to the outstanding faculty that we have. And before getting started just two quick thank yous one is to Olympus Corporation of the Americas for supporting this course through an educational grant and the second major thank you is to Eden Essex who is the heart and soul of the quality committee is the heart and soul of the endoscopy unit recognition program and certainly the driver of this outstanding course that's been offered now by the ASGE since 2008. So with that, I will turn the floor over to my co director Raj Kiswani. Take it away Raj.

healthcare

quality course

diverse participants

Olympus Corporation

endoscopy unit recognition program