Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Gastroenterology was launched in 1985. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of gastroenterology is divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Don C. RockeyDon C. RockeyDr Don C. Rockey completed internship, residency, chief residency and fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. He is currently Chairman of the Department of Medicine, the Medical University, Charleston, USA. He has active basic and clinical research interests in liver disease. He has worked on areas ranging from clinical management problems in liver diseases such as portal hypertension, hepatic blood flow, drug induced liver injury and complications of chronic liver disease to basic liver cell and molecular biology. The central theme of his laboratory research revolves around understanding the cell and molecular basis of fibrosis and portal hypertension. His laboratory initially demonstrated that a key player, the hepatic stellate cell, exhibits a contractile phenotype. Further, following liver injury, stellate cells exhibit exaggerated contractility, constrict liver sinusoids, and contribute to increased intrahepatic vascular resistance typical of portal hypertension. He and his laboratory have gone on to explore a number of molecular events important in this disease. Dr Rockey has had highly active clinical interests in multiple aspects of chronic liver disease as well as drug induced liver injury. Dr Rockey and his colleagues have published over 200 peer reviewed scientific papers related to his research and over 100 editorials, reviews, and book chapters. He has served in a number of capacities on behalf of major US Gastroenterology and Liver societies including for the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD). Among many responsibilities, he has served as Chair of The AGA Research Policy Committee, Chair of the AASLD Training and Workforce committee. He has also been active in the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) having served as President for the Association of Subspecialty Professors (ASP). He has had a number of editorial responsibilities, including as Associate Editor for Hepatology, Associate Editor for Liver International and has served on various NIH and other study sections, and editorial boards. Reena SidhuReena SidhuDr Reena Sidhu is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and an Honorary Senior Clinical lecturer with the University of Sheffield, UK. Her main area of interest is the small bowel and she completed a clinical MD with the University of Sheffield on modern modalities of investigation of the small bowel. She is currently the lead for the tertiary double balloon enteroscopy service at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and co-runs one of the biggest Capsule Endoscopy services in Europe. Both of these services are established regional services which have won national awards. She runs an international capsule endoscopy course for doctors and also directs a biannual national advanced nurse course on capsule endoscopy. She carries out clinical research related to the small bowel and continues to publish actively in this field. She has research fellows under her banner. She is regularly invited to speak at national and international meetings. As part of her work with the United Kingdom Small bowel Users group, she is setting up training standards for device assisted enteroscopy. She is also leading a curriculum for device Assisted Enteroscopy as part of her role in the ESGE curricula group. She has also been involved in formalising accreditation for capsule endoscopy in the UK. She was awarded the Hopkins Endoscopy Prize by the BSG in 2012, the first female gastroenterologist to have ever won this. She is the first author of the British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on capsule endoscopy and enteroscopy, published in 2008 and is also a co-author on the 2015 ESGE guidelines on small bowel endoscopy. She has a young family and enjoys listening to music, cinema and collecting modern art.