Dear visitor,

The Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) is dedicated to providing outstanding clinical service, evidence-based teaching and training, and quality clinical and basic research.

The division faculty currently consists of nine members: three senior teachers, four junior clinicians/investigators, and two young clinical associates. Our senior clinicians who were instrumental in forming the division continue to provide expert care, opinion, and advice. The junior members are graduates of top-quality training programs in the United States of America and the United Kingdom and constitute the core of the division. They are responsible for the inpatient and ambulatory GI service at AUBMC, the bulk of medical student and housestaff teaching, fellowship training, and all divisional research output.

Our clinical research interests include IBS, IBD, Helicobacter pylori, viral hepatitis, and general endoscopy (sedation, colon preparation). Basic research interests include the physiology of small bowel absorption and secretion and inflammatory models of colitis and the enteric nervous system.

Our goal is to establish a free-standing multidisciplinary Digestive Disease Center, the first of its kind in Lebanon. Towards that end, we are hoping to establish collaborative networks with world-leading institutions, to strengthen and promote our academic program, to seek competitive sources of research funding, and to expand our faculty and resources.

This website is designed to provide an overview of our division and to improve patient and physician access to knowledge and cutting-edge science in the fields of gastroenterology and hepatology. We hope that you will find the information you are looking for easily, and we look forward to hearing your comments.

Ala Sharara, MD, FACG, AGAF
Professor of Medicine
Head, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
AUBMC