DDW^® attendees can hear key takeaways from AGA’s recent and upcoming guidelines during Monday’s symposium 2019 AGA Guideline Highlights: Probiotics, Iron-Deficiency Anemia, Ulcerative Colitis and More.

The much-anticipated and soon-to-be released guidelines on the use of probiotics for specific GI conditions will be discussed, as will the latest guidelines on appropriate diagnostic testing and treatment of iron-deficiency anemia and the updated guidelines for ulcerative colitis (UC), including recommendations for the management of acute severe UC in hospitalized patients.

“In the last few years, newer pharmacological agents have been added to the armamentarium of therapies for the management of ulcerative colitis,” said Shahnaz Sultan, MD, MHSc, AGAF, assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology hepatology and nutrition at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. “This upcoming guideline will provide guidance on the use of TNF-alpha antagonists as well as vedolizumab and tofacitinib in outpatients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.”

Dr. Sultan is chair-elect of the AGA Institute Clinical Guidelines Committee and will serve as co-moderator for the symposium alongside committee chair Yngve T. Falck-Ytter, MD, AGAF, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Louis Stokes VA Cleveland Medical Center, OH.

In addition to the guideline updates, symposium faculty will discuss the emerging use of rapid reviews and how the guideline development process can be altered to form evidence-based recommendations in less time.

“Clear, actionable and evidence-based recommendations serve a critical role in helping practitioners understand the evidence that supports clinical practice,” Dr. Sultan said. “Scientific knowledge is accumulating at an accelerated pace and AGA is committed to producing and disseminating high-quality, methodologically rigorous guidelines to help practitioners, patients and policymakers. I think guidelines on these topics are highly relevant and extremely timely.”

Please refer to the DDW Mobile App or the Program & Exhibits section in Monday’s issue for the time and location of this and other DDW events.

Clear, actionable and evidence-based recommendations serve a critical role in helping practitioners understand the evidence that supports clinical practice.

Shahnaz Sultan, MD, MHSc, AGAF