Newswise — Las Vegas, NV, (October 22, 2012) – Ronald J. Vender, M.D., FACG was elected by the membership as the 2012-2013 President of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), a national medical specialty society representing more than 12,000 clinical gastroenterologists and other specialists in digestive diseases. Dr. Vender officially took his position as President during the College’s 77th Annual Scientific Meeting, held this week in Las Vegas, NV. As president, Dr. Vender will direct ACG’s programs which include continuing medical education in the clinical, scientific and patient-related skills of gastroenterology, policies involving national and state medical affairs, managed care issues and clinical investigation.
Dr. Vender received his B.A. from Harvard College and his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency training and gastroenterology fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Currently Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at Yale School of Medicine, since 2008, Dr. Vender also serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Yale Medical Group, one of the country’s largest academic group practices, providing specialty care in more than 100 medical areas. Prior to joining the Yale faculty, Dr. Vender was chief of gastroenterology at the Hospital of St. Raphael for seventeen years, associate director of the Yale GI Fellowship Program, and co-founder and managing partner of Gastroenterology Center of Connecticut. This year Dr. Vender delivered the Yale Dillard Lecture, entitled “The Effective Clinician” and has addressed other medical audiences on The Effective Consultant, Negotiating for your Academic Needs, and the Impact of Healthcare Reform on GI.
An active and dedicated contributor to the life of the College, Dr. Vender served as ACG Governor for the State of Connecticut from 1996 to 2002. He received the William D. Carey Award in 2003 for his distinguished service to the College as Governor. He chaired the ACG National Affairs Committee from 2001 to 2004 with primary responsibility for the College’s public policy initiatives and legislative agenda, and continues to serve on this committee.
Dr. Vender is a Fellow American Gastroenterological Association and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. The AGA honored Dr. Vender with the Distinguished Clinician Award in 2008, and Yale School of Medicine recognized his contributions as an outstanding teacher with the Vincent DeLuca Award in both 2002 and 2006.
Dr. Vender's service to the College and clinical practice experience gives him a uniqueperspective on the current landscape in gastroenterology. “My career experiences have served as wonderful preparation for leading an organization dedicated to meeting the needs of clinical gastroenterology. I joined a small private practice right out of fellowship training and spent the next 26 years as a private doctor with many roles: chief of GI at a 90-bed community hospital, chief of GI at a 512-bed community teaching hospital; program director of a GI fellowship training program; co-founder and managing partner of a 14-doctor and 7-PA GI group and cofounder of the first privately-owned ACS in Connecticut. The unusual part of the career was to go back into academics as the CMO of a 900-physician academic medical group,” said Dr.Vender.
For Dr. Vender, the lessons of the 90 -bed hospital and the 1,000-bed hospital underscore all that physicians have in common, regardless of practice setting, “We are all clinicians. We need continuing education to maintain and improve our skills. We need assistance with the management of our practices, with the economics of healthcare and with our political and regulatory systems. We depend on equipment and medications that improve over time, on national guidelines to help us assimilate this knowledge into our best practices, and we need tools to measure and monitor our performance. That is what the ACG is committed to,” he added.
The American College of Gastroenterology has as its core missions the following objectives: to support its members in providing high quality, science-based gastroenterology care; to support graduate medical education and continuing medical education, to promote clinical research in the field of gastroenterology; to advocate for patients with gastrointestinal and liver disorders; and to influence health care policy to optimize the ability of its members to provide appropriate patient care services.
A photo of Dr. Vender is available upon request. Contact Anne-Louise Oliphant, aoliphant[at]gi.org or 301-263-9000.
About the American College of GastroenterologyFounded in 1932, the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) is an organization with an international membership of more than 12,000 individuals from 80 countries. The College is committed to serving the clinically oriented digestive disease specialist through its emphasis on scholarly practice, teaching and research. The mission of the College is to serve the evolving needs of physicians in the delivery of high quality, scientifically sound, humanistic, ethical, and cost-effective health care to gastroenterology patients. www.acg.gi.org View releases on other research breaking at the ACG meeting at www.acg.gi.org/media/press.asp Follow ACG on Twitter# # #
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