Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Our Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology has been ranked #1 in San Diego for the last three years by US News and World Report. Our highly trained team cares for conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, pancreas, and liver, and the Division has also ranked top 25 in the nation. Our clinicians have earned the respect of fellow providers around the nation for their expertise, including but not limited to groundbreaking work on hepatitis C. Our large team provides a broad range of evaluation and minimially invasive treatment services, and we have multiple advanced endoscopists on staff. From our medical training program, the first GI fellowship that existed in San Diego, to our extensive research, we aim to maintain our lead in patient treatment as well as intellectual contributions to our field.

Areas of particular interest and expertise are noted below:

Walter Coyle, MD (Division Head)

  • Pancreatic disease
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Advanced endoscopic procedures

Ahmed Deabes, MD

  • Short bowel syndrome
  • TPN

Caroline Diamant, MD

Catherine Frenette, MD

  • End-stage liver disease/cirrhosis
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma

Douglas Hunt, MD

  • Advanced endoscopy
  • ERCP
  • EUS
  • Luminal stenting
  • Small bowel enteroscopy (single-balloon enteroscopy).

Gordon Kim, MD

  • Interpretation of capsule endoscopy
  • Small bowel enteroscopy

Gauree G. Konijeti, MD, MPH

  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Crohn’s disease
  • Ulcerative colitis

J. Gus Kuldau, MD

  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Crohn’s disease
  • Ulcerative colitis
  • ERCP
  • EUS
  • Luminal stenting
  • Endoscopic drainage of pancreatic fluid collections.

Jill Lane, MD

John Lyons, MD

Bahar Madani, MD

  • End-stage liver disease/cirrhosis
  • Autoimmune hepatitis
  • Primary biliary cholangitis
  • Primary sclerosing cholangitis

Masood Mansour, MD

  • GI motility, including achalasia, esophageal spasm and gastroparesis
  • Ambulatory esophageal pH monitoring
  • Bravo probe placement
  • Anorectal manometry
  • Endoflip
  • Achalasia dilation

Rebecca Matro, MD

Fouad Moawad, MD

  • Ambulatory esophageal pH monitoring
  • Bravo probe placement
  • Anorectal manometry
  • Endoflip
  • Achalasia dilation

R. Craig Nodurft, MD

Paul Pockros, MD

  • Hepatitis C
  • Autoimmune hepatitis
  • Hemochromatosis
  • Primary biliary cholangitis

Emily Singh, MD

Matthew Skinner, MD

  • Minimally-invasive endoscopic surgery
  • Bariatric endoscopy

Franklin Tsai, MD

  • GERD
  • Barrett’s esophagus
  • Cryoablation and HALO for Barrett’s with dysplasia

 

Spencer Berman, NP
Melissa Ferrari, NP
Lori Saunders, NP
Maria Facun, NP
Yuki Rosenkoetter, PA

Featured Services

  • Advanced endoscopy

  • Luminal stenting

  • Minimally-invasive endoscopic surgery (POEM, endoscopic suturing, endoscopic submucosal dissection)

  • Endoscopic weight loss techniques (endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty),

  • GI Motility Lab

  • Endoscopic therapy

  • TIF (endoscopic fundoplication for reflux)

  • Care for cirrhosis (pre- and post-transplantation)

  • Inflammatory bowel disease

Recognitions & Awards

  • The Division of Gastroenterology was ranked #1 in San Diego three years in a row from 2016 to 2018.

  • For the last two years, our Division has been ranked in the top 20 GI programs in the nation, and is ranked #25 in the country by U.S. News & World Report

  • Multiple members have been voted as San Diego’s “Top Doctors” by San Diego magazine, many for years in a row

  • Dr. Pockros has won numerous awards for his groundbreaking research in hepatitis C, and has become a nationally-recognized expert on the topic

The Division of Gastroenterology has a fully-accredited fellowship training program. Our nationally-recognized Fellowship in Gastroenterology was founded in 1959 and was the first GI Fellowship program in San Diego. Today, we have three GI Fellows per year for the three-year program, training alongside our physicians who are prolific researchers and leaders in the national GI community. Throughout the year, we also have residents from the Scripps Clinic Internal Medicine Residency training program and medical students from around the country rotating in the Division.

For more information or to apply, please visit the Graduate Medical Education page.

  • Dr. Frenette does research in hepatocellular carcinoma
  • Our Division has authored several lead articles for the New England Journal of Medicine
  • The first published description of eosinophilic esophagitis came out of our Division and the Department of General Surgery by Drs. Strum (GI) and Takiff (Surgery)
  • Dr. Moawad is a nationally-recognized researcher in the field of eosinophilic esophagitis
  • Dr. Pockros has won numerous awards for his ground-breaking research in hepatitis C.
  • Dr. Konijeti is actively involved in various research projects about inflammatory bowel disease.
SEE ALL SCMG RESEARCH