Background

He is a consultant gastroenterologist and specialist endoscopist. He worked in London as a consultant gastroenterologist for 10 years at St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow before relocating. He has interests in several endoscopic procedures (including capsule endoscopy, double balloon enteroscopy, transnasal endoscopy, Stretta, the Elipse balloon and colonoscopy) and conditions (including acid reflux, obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, SIBO, food intolerances and functional GI disorders).

Training

He was a Consultant Gastroenterologist at St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow and The London Clinic and The Princess Grace Hospital in London for 10 years before relocating to Scotland in 2014. He was appointed consultant gastroenterologist at St Mark’s Hospital in 2004 following Dr Christopher Williams’ retirement. He qualified MB ChB from Edinburgh University in 1992 with post graduate training in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Manchester and London. He achieved MRCP (Edinburgh) in 1996, was awarded an MD (Manchester) in 2004 for studies of the neurophysiologic control of swallowing (supervisors: Professor Shaheen Hamdy and Professor David Thompson, Centre for GI Sciences, University of Manchester) and became FRCP (London) in 2009. He undertook the first Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at The Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy in St Mark’s Hospital in 2003 and was trained in therapeutic colonoscopy by Professor Brian Saunders. He was clinical lead for the accreditation of St Mark’s Hospital as one of the first national bowel cancer screening centres in the UK in 2006. He was one of the first nationally (England) accredited NHS bowel cancer screening colonoscopists. He continues to perform colonoscopy for the Scottish Bowel Cancer Screening Programme in Edinburgh. He received training in the Stretta endoscopic anti-reflux procedure from Dr Mark Noar, considered the world’s leading authority in the Stretta technique, in Towson in Maryland, USA. Training in double balloon enteroscopy was provided by Professors Hironori Yamamoto, Jichi, Japan and Andrea May, Wiesbaden, Germany.

Clinical interests and areas of expertise

His clinical interests are in acid reflux, obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and iron deficiency anaemia, bowel cancer  screening, prevention and surveillance, the gut polyposis syndromes (including Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome), functional gastro-intestinal disorders (dysphagia, burping, dyspepsia, bloating and gassiness, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, constipation and straining), food intolerance (FODMAPs) and allergy (Coeliac disease), small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, colonic dysbiosis, breath testing and obesity.

His endoscopic interests include diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy (gastroscopy, small bowel capsule endoscopy, balloon enteroscopy, advanced colonoscopy and laparoscopically assisted endoscopy), the Stretta endoscopic anti-reflux procedure and endoscopic weight loss treatment using the Elipse balloon, the world’s first procedureless intragastric balloon.

He was the clinical lead for the St Mark’s small bowel endoscopy and obscure gastro-intestinal bleeding service, which includes capsule endoscopy and double balloon enteroscopy for 8 years. Under his guidance, the small bowel service was the most active and advanced of its kind in the UK and St Mark’s was recognised as a Fujifilm national reference centre for endoscopy. He was the first clinician to introduce a number of endoscopic procedures and techniques into the UK: colon capsule endoscopy,  double balloon enteroscopy (including laparoscopic-assisted DBE), spiral enteroscoy, double balloon colonoscopy and the Stretta endoscopic anti-reflux procedure. He performed the first Stretta procedure in the UK in 2012 and the first Stretta procedure in Scotland in 2016.

Research interests

His research interests include minimally invasive endoscopic techniques, endoscopic-laparoscopic (hybrid) and NOTES based procedures, transnasal endoscopy, capsule endoscopy, double balloon enteroscopy, endoscopic antireflux and weight loss procedures and small bowel/obscure GI bleeding.

He is the first, senior or co-author for multiple peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and reviews since 2002, including the first prospective multi-centre trial of colon capsule endoscopy compared to conventional colonoscopy for the detection of colon polyps and cancers (New England Journal of Medicine, 2009). He has published extensively on capsule endoscopy and double balloon enteroscopy.