Day one | Monday, 28 January 2019.

08:00 | Welcome coffee

09:20 | Opening remarks
Dr Maryam Al Khatry, President, Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society, Specialist and Head of Department – Gastroenterology, RAK Hospital, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Session 1: New interventions and advances in endoscopy – I
Moderators: Dr Maryam Al Khatry, President, Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society, Specialist and Head of Department – Gastroenterology, RAK Hospital, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Dr Aydamir Alrakawi, Director of Endoscopy, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

09:30 | Endoscopic Papillectomy
Dr Amer AlKhatib, Staff Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

10:00 | Advanced pancreaticobiliary disease management of large biliary stones
Dr Abdulrahman Alfadda, Chairman, GI and Hepatology Exam Board Committee. Endoscopy Director, Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopist, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, KSA 

10:30 | Coffee break

Session 2: Obesity management
Moderators: Dr Matthew Kroh, Chairman, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Associate Professor of Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dr Javed Ahmed Raza, Staff Physician, General Surgery, Digestive Disease Institute, Director, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

11:45 |  Bariatric surgery in NAFLD: indications and outcomes 

Dr Shaw Somers, Consultant Specialist: Upper GI and Bariatric Surgeon, BMI Clementine Churchill Hospital London and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK 

12:15 | Q&A

12:45 | Lunch break and visit exhibition

Session 3: Hepatology
Moderator: Dr Jose Such, Staff Physician, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Dr Shiva Kumar, Chair, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

14:45 | Living donor liver transplantation: state-of-the-art in 2019
Dr Antonio Pinna, Director, Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

15:15 | Viral Hepatitis C in the UAE
Dr Mohamed Al Zaabi, Consultant Transplant Hepatologist and Gastroenterologist, Zayed Military Hospital, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

15:45 | Updates on transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma
Dr Muhamad Zaman, Division Chief Transplantation and Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic Surgery, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Session 4: Colorectal diseases
Moderators: Dr Mazen Taha, Senior Consultant in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Chief of the Gastroenterology Department, Chairman of the Internal Medicine Department, Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, UAE  

Dr Shafik Sidani, Staff Physician, Colorectal Surgery, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

16:15 | Approach to large colorectal polyps: endoscopy vs. surgery
Prof Dr Oliver Pech, Professor of Medicine, Head of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy St. John of God Hospital, Regensburg, Germany

16:45 | Rehabilitation for colorectal cancer patients
Dr Ian Jenkins, Lead Consultant Colorectal Surgeon, BMI Healthcare, St Marks Hospital, London, UK

17:15 | Colorectal cancer screening in 2019: an evidence-based update
Dr Aydamir Alrakawi, Director of Endoscopy, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 17:45 Q&A

17:45 | Q&A

18:00 | End of day one

Day two | Tuesday, 29 January 2019.

08:00 | Welcome coffee

08:40 | Opening remarks
Dr Maryam Al Khatry, President, Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society, Specialist and Head of Department – Gastroenterology, RAK Hospital, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE 

Session 5: New interventions and advances in endoscopy – II
Moderators: Dr Khalid Bamakhrama, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Rashid Hospital, Dubai, UAE

Dr Amer AlKhatib, Staff Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

08:45 | Prevention of Post-ERCP Pancreatitis: lessons learnt in the past decade
Prof Dr Oliver Pech, Professor of Medicine, Head of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy St. John of God Hospital, Regensburg, Germany

09:15 | Interval colon cancer after a negative screening colonoscopy
Dr Aydamir Alrakawi, Director of Endoscopy, Cleveland
Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

09:45 | Common pitfalls in performance of ESD & EMR 
Prof Dr Oliver Pech, Professor of Medicine, Head of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy St. John of God Hospital, Regensburg, Germany

10:15 | Coffee break

Session 6: New interventions and advances in endoscopy – III 
Moderator:  Dr Amer AlKhatib, Staff Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE

11:00 | EUS guided bilio-pancrearic drainage
Dr Abed H AlLehibi, Chairman, Gastroenterology & Hepatology Department, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Assistant Professor of Medicine, KSU, Pancreatobiliary Interventional Endoscopy, Director, Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy Fellowship Program, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, KSA 

11:30 |  Advances in luminal endoscopy: POEM & Per-oral endoscopic Pyloromyotomy
Dr Matthew Kroh, Chairman, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Associate Professor of Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Abu Dhabi, UAE

12:00 | Q&A

Session 7: Obesity management – II
Moderators: Dr Amer AlKhatib, Staff Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Dr Ricard Corcelles, Consultant, Bariatric Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

12:30 | Special address: advances in endo-luminal interventions for obesity
Dr John Magaña Morton, Chief, Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery (Bariatric Endoscopy), Past-President, American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA 

13:00 | Future of bariatric surgery: what to expect in the next decade?
Dr Ali Tavakkoli, Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgeon, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship, Co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA  

13:30 | Q&A

14:00 | Lunch break and visit exhibition

Session 8: IBD
Moderator:  Dr Zaher Koutoubi, Consultant, Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Clinical Assistant, Professor of Medicine, Digestive Disease Institute, Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Dr Shafik Sidani, Staff Physician, Colorectal Surgery, Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

16:00 | IBS: what can we learn from the paediatric literature
Dr Carlo Di Lorenzo, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Colombus, Ohio, USA 

16:30 | Surgical management of ulcerative colitis in the era of biologics
Dr Nelya Melnitchouk, Instructor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Associate Surgeon, Division of General and GI Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Session 9: Updates in practtice
Moderator: Dr Maryam Al Khatry, President, Emirates Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society, Specialist and Head of Department – Gastroenterology, RAK Hospital, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Professor Mustafa Sabri, Professor of Medicine, Chair of Academic Department of Medicine, Dubai Medical College, Consultant
Gastroenterologist, Rashid Hospital, General Secretary, Emirates Gastroenterology Society, Dubai, UAE 

17:00 | Liver Transplant for Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma
Dr Maarouf A. Hoteit, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology, Penn Medicine, Philadelphia, USA 

17:30 | Update on Pancreatic Cysts: When to Resect, ignore or watch?

Dr Mohammad Al-Haddad, Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Director, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA 

18:00 | Closing remarks 

18:05 | End of conference