Since 2010, GIQuIC has set the standard in the collection and reporting of quality measures in the practice of gastrointestinal endoscopy. This robust dataset is an invaluable resource for practice benchmarking and further provides an excellent opportunity for those interested in gastroenterology research.
GIQuIC registry data are contributed from endoscopy units in various practice settings across the United States. Data enters the registry via two methods: direct data entry or, more commonly, upload from an endoscopic health writer (endowriter). For the purpose of research, GIQuIC registry data undergoes a de-identification process before it is transferred to the Research Data Warehouse. This separate database is stored on a different secure server from the registry data and can only be accessed by GIQuIC staff.
The Research Data Warehouse contains de-identified information on sites, providers, patients, and procedures that allows investigators to address complex and varied research questions. For an overview of data included in the registry, please refer to the colonoscopy and EGD data collection forms. These forms show the data currently collected in GIQuIC and may not reflect earlier versions of our data collection forms. Additionally, identifiers such as date of birth, procedure date, etc. will not be available for analysis in the de-identified dataset.
The GIQuIC research committee carefully reviews project proposals, evaluating the project’s feasibility, novelty, and potential impact. All analyses are completed by GIQuIC’s team of in-house data analysts, who work closely with principal investigators (PIs) in order to best address the research question. Most projects are hypothesis-driven with the expectation of an intention of publishing results in a peer-reviewed journal.
For all research inquiries, contact research@giquic.org.
GIQuIC Research Committee
Ashwin Ananthakrishnan, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF
Dr. Ashwin Ananthakrishnan is the director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Crohn’s and Colitis Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical school training at JIPMER in India and subsequently obtained his Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. After completing his gastroenterology fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Dr. Ananthakrishnan joined the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital where he is involved in clinical care, research, and teaching.
In addition to his clinical expertise in the management of patients with complex IBD, he has been involved in investigations using large prospective cohorts to define the role of environment on IBD. He is also conducting NIH-funded studies aiming to personalize IBD therapy by defining individual patient trajectories and to understand the appropriate treatment algorithms in vulnerable populations including the elderly. He has published over 250 manuscripts, has co-authored two textbooks on IBD, and has served on the editorial boards of multiple journals.
Linda Cummings, MD, MS, FACG, AGAF, FASGE
Dr. Linda Cummings is a gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. She is also an associate professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. After earning her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, Dr. Cummings completed medical school at Washington University and her internal medicine residency at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. She completed her gastroenterology fellowship at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, earning a master’s degree in clinical research.
Dr. Cummings’ clinical interests include cystic fibrosis, small bowel capsule endoscopy, and gastrointestinal cancers, particularly esophageal and colorectal cancer. She was awarded a Junior Faculty Development Grant from the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) to support her research using large databases to assess long-term outcomes in esophageal cancer patients. Dr. Cummings is currently involved in a multi-center clinical trial supported by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation which is assessing the sensitivity of stool-based testing in patients with cystic fibrosis undergoing screening colonoscopy, as well as a study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) evaluating a potential biomarker of Parkinson’s disease with dementia in the colon.
In 2020, Dr. Cummings received the Helen Evans Mid-Career Faculty Development Award from the Women Faculty of the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. She is a longstanding member of her hospital’s gastrointestinal endoscopy lab quality assurance committee and currently serves on the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) Quality Assurance in Endoscopy Committee.
Akwi W. Asombang, MD, MPH, FACG, FASGE
Dr Akwi Asombang is an interventional gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School and is the director of Global Health Programs in Gastroenterology. She completed her advanced endoscopy fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medicine Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri and a Fogarty International Clinical Research fellowship. Before her fellowships, she completed a combined internal medicine/pediatrics residency at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri and earned her Master of Public Health from Saint Louis University School of Public Health. She is a graduate of Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India. Her professional interests include endoscopy (ERCP/EUS), gastrointestinal cancers, medical education, and global health.
Dr. Asombang has extensive service with multiple national professional societies and extensive experience in global health including clinical care in Zambia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and India. Her research has been published and presented at national and international meetings. Inspired by her global travels, upbringing, and interaction with diverse populations, she formed the Pan-African Organization for Health, Education and Research (POHER), a non-governmental organization (NGO), focused on strengthening the health sector as a cornerstone for social and economic development in African countries.
Dr. Asombang is also the founder of the African Association of Future Gastroenterologists (AAFG), which provides mentorship, networking, and collaboration opportunities for medical students and doctors interested in gastroenterology and hepatology in Africa.
Jason Dominitz, MD, MHS, FACG, FASGE
Dr. Jason Dominitz is the national program director for gastroenterology for the U.S. Veterans Health Administration. He completed his undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland. He trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where he also studied health services research and earned a master’s degree in health sciences.
Since 1997, Dr. Dominitz has been a staff physician at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS) in Seattle, Washington and is also a professor of medicine at the University of Washington. He has a longstanding interest in colorectal cancer screening and is the co-chair of an 18-year, VA-funded, randomized, prospective trial comparing two leading colorectal cancer screening strategies in 50,000 average-risk veterans. This study, involving 46 VA medical centers across the country, is the first large-scale, prospective study in the U.S. comparing screening colonoscopy to a non-invasive fecal immunochemical test and assessing their impact on cancer mortality and incidence.
Dr. Dominitz has also received research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense. In 2011, he assumed the role of national program director for gastroenterology, focusing on improving the quality of gastroenterology care for veterans, especially with respect to the quality of colonoscopy. He is also involved in crafting policy related to other aspects of care, including cancer screening, liver disease, and other key healthcare issues.
Prasad Iyer, MD, FACG, FASGE
Dr. Prasad Iyer attended medical school at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He completed his residency at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and his GI fellowship at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, where he also earned a postdoctoral master’s degree in clinical research. Dr. Iyer is a consultant and professor in the Barrett’s Esophagus Unit in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he has been on staff since 2006. He is a member of the esophageal interest and advanced endoscopy groups.
Dr. Iyer serves as associate editor of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and chair of the International Committee of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). His clinical and research interests include early detection, risk stratification, and therapy for Barrett’s-related neoplasia, as well as endoscopic ultrasound. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters. He is also a reviewer for many journals, including the American Journal of Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
Vivek Kaul, MD, FACG, FASGE, AGAF, NYSGEF
Dr. Vivek Kaul is the Segal-Watson Professor of Medicine and former division chief in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division at the University of Rochester Medical Center. His clinical, research, and medical education efforts focus on therapeutic endoscopy, with specific expertise in complex interventional endoscopy, particularly in patients with gastrointestinal cancer. He is a principal investigator or co-investigator on several national and international trials in endoscopy, pancreatic disease, and esophageal disease.
Dr. Kaul serves on several national GI society committees. He is the current chair of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) Reimbursement Committee, alternate ASGE RUC advisor to the American Medical Association (AMA), and immediate past chair of the ASGE-EUS Special Interest Group. He is a past governor of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) for Northern New York and immediate past chair of the ACG Innovation and Technology Committee. He is also the immediate past chair of the World Gastroenterology Organization’s (WGO) Endoscopy Committee. Dr. Kaul is currently the secretary general of the WGO and a member of its governing council, executive committee, and finance committee. He also serves on various national and international task forces, including the ASGE Subspecialty Certification Task Force and WGO Climate Change-Green Endoscopy Task Force. He is part of the GIQuIC Research Subcommittee and GIQuIC EUS Quality Measures Subcommittee.
Dr. Kaul is a reviewer for several journals, including the Annals of Internal Medicine, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and Digestive Diseases & Sciences. He is an international advisor to the Journal of Digestive Endoscopy and has published extensively in interventional endoscopy and other aspects of gastroenterology, with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals. Dr. Kaul is a sought-after speaker who regularly lectures and shares his expertise in the U.S. and internationally.
Freddy Caldera, DO, MS FACG, AGAF
Dr. Freddy Caldera is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. He earned his medical degree at Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Kentucky. After completing his GI fellowship, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is involved in clinical care, research, and teaching and earned his master’s degree in clinical investigation. He is currently completing a Ph.D. at the university.
Dr. Caldera is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on evaluating the risk of vaccine-preventable illnesses in immunosuppressed patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He also studies vaccine responses in immunosuppressed patients with IBD and has conducted multiple clinical studies evaluating immune responses and infection risks in this population.
Seth Crockett, MD, MPH, FASGE
Dr. Seth Crockett is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland VA Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. After earning his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College, Dr. Crockett attended Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at Stanford University. He completed a gastroenterology fellowship at the University of North Carolina, where he also earned an MPH in epidemiology.
Dr. Crockett’s research interests include colorectal cancer screening and prevention, as well as colonoscopy quality. He participates in several multicenter research consortia and has received a number of intramural and extramural grants supporting his research. Dr. Crockett was a recipient of the Junior Faculty Development Award from the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) for his research on serrated polyps. He is an associate editor for the American Journal of Gastroenterology and a former member of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) Research Committee, as well as the Clinical Guidelines and Clinical Practice Updates Committees of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).
Sravanthi Parasa, MD, MPH, FASGE
Dr. Sravanthi Parasa is a practicing gastroenterologist and clinical researcher at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. Her research focuses on the intersection of epidemiology, biostatistics, and machine learning, with a strong interest in augmenting patient care through the meaningful applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies. She is an active member of GI society committees and serves on several Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) association computer science conference and program committees where she is a frequent speaker on the translation of digital and AI solutions to patient care.
Dr. Parasa partners with renowned institutes and has published extensively in areas such as high-fidelity risk prediction models, computer vision, and natural language processing applications in medicine. She has also contributed to the development of guidelines in these areas.