ASGE offers four days of hands-on workshops at Digestive Disease Week^® designed for endoscopists who want to expand their practical training.

“This is your opportunity to learn from the masters in very small groups,” said Robert E. Sedlack, MD, MHPE, FASGE, consultant in gastroenterology and hepatology and associate professor of medicine and medical education at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. “These workshops are a unique opportunity to practice with tools you are familiar with but don’t get to use routinely in your practice, or tools you have never had the opportunity to use but want to include in your repertoire.”

Dr. Sedlack is head of the ASGE Institute for Training & Technology (IT&T) Committee. The committee is responsible for the hands-on workshops at the society’s IT&T facility in Downers Grove, IL, as well as the ASGE hands-on courses offered at DDW each year. All of the workshops use a combination of interactive, small group seminars and endoscopic simulators.

The hands-on program at DDW begins on Friday, May 17, with Train the Endoscopic Trainer. The workshop will help attendees understand and apply the “preparation – training – wrap up” teaching model to improve their endoscopic teaching skills.

On Saturday, May 18, the Bariatric Therapies hands-on course will focus is how to select, place and remove gastric balloons used in bariatric weight loss procedures. The workshop’s expert endoscopists will emphasize solutions for bariatric adverse events.

Saturday’s Suturing and Closures course will explore the latest endoscopic tools used to close perforations, fistulas and other openings in the GI tract. Attendees will learn how to assemble and use endoscopic suturing devices and place full thickness sutures, and also how to use scope-mounted clips in the GI tract.

The hands-on program continues on Sunday, May 19, with the Customized Hands on Lab course. This workshop is limited to 20 attendees and will be tailored to meet attendees’ specific training requests.

“If there’s something in particular you want to learn that’s not covered in the other workshops, this is your opportunity to tell us,” Dr. Sedlack said. “We will do our best to match you with a master of that subject and set up a simulation model. Whatever it is, we will do our best to accommodate you.”

Advanced Polypectomy and Hemorrhoid Therapies also will be held Sunday. Attendees will practice basic endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) techniques for large, flat adenomas and learn techniques for hemorrhoid banding.

On Monday, May 20, the Fellows Hands-On: Beyond the Basics course will focus on hemostasis using injection and clipping, direct and indirect coagulation using thermal therapy and basic EMR techniques, including banding and resection.

Monday’s EMR course will focus on two techniques used for specific target lesions in various luminal organs. Attendees will receive skills training using various snares, cautery and injection/lifting techniques, and will also learn to identify the appropriate accessories for polyp retrieval.

The hands-on course schedule concludes on Tuesday, May 21, with ESD. Attendees will learn safer and more effective use of endoscopic submucosal dissection devices to remove larger polyps en bloc when there’s suspicion of cancer and EMR is not appropriate.

“Many of these devices are easy to learn, but some have a very steep learning curve,” Dr. Sedlack said. “If you’ve never had the opportunity to use some of these devices, this is your chance to find out if they are something that could fit into your practice. These hands-on workshops give you the guidance, the feedback and the experience with these tools that you just can’t get from a lecture.”