2026 Clinical Updates in Gastroenterology Symposium

June 13, 2026
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Symposium Objectives

Join us June 13 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto for the Canadian IBD Today 2026 Clinical Updates in Gastroenterology Symposium.

During the symposium, we will:

  • Foster in-depth discussion centered around diagnosis, management, and the latest therapeutic innovations
  • Deliver detailed case analysis and discussion of complex cases that enable clinicians to incorporate real-world learnings into their practice
  • Facilitate panel sessions that allow for the sharing of knowledge and practical clinical insights

Register Today: Spots Are Limited

Only 50 spots, including limited travel grants are available for this one-of-a-kind symposium, and we strongly encourage you to register early.

If you are able to join us, kindly RSVP by registering using the link below. Registration will close on April 1, 2026, or once capacity is reached. As space is limited, we encourage you to RSVP early to secure attendance at the symposium.

Register Now
Scientific Steering Committee
Dr. Waqqas Afif
MD, FRCPC
Biography

Dr. Brian Bressler

MD, MS, FRCPC

Biography

Dr. Vipul Jairath

MD, FRCPC

Biography
Faculty & Moderators

Dr. Anita Afzali

Biography

Dr. Julie Lovshin

Biography

Dr. Chris Ma

Biography

Dr. Joe Murray

Biography

Dr. Sanjay Murthy

Biography

Dr. Colleen Parker

Biography

Dr. Giada Sebastiani

Biography

Dr. Mimi Wang

Biography

Agenda

Our Sponsors
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Dr. Waqqas Afif is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and the Division of Clinical Epidemiology. He completed his medical school (2003), internal medicine and gastroenterology training at McGill University and completed an advanced fellowship in IBD at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He returned to McGill to complete a M. Sc. (Epidemiology). He is the current Montreal General Hospital GI Site Director and McGill IBD Center Research Director.

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Dr. Bressler is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Bressler is a Staff Gastroenterologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Bressler is the Director of the Advanced IBD training program at the University of British Columbia and is a recognized expert in inflammatory bowel disease.

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Dr. Jairath is a Professor of Medicine at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry and holder of the John and Susan McDonald Endowed Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Clinical Research at Western University. He is the Program Director for the Advanced IBD Fellowship at Western and Research Chair for the Department of Medicine. His research interests focus on clinical therapeutics for IBD, clinical trials, development and validation of clinical indices and patient reported outcome measures. His clinical practice is based at University Hospital and he is Principal Investigator for several clinical trials.

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Anita Afzali, MD, MPH, MHCM, FACG, AGAF is the James F. Heady Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, where she serves as Interim Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and as Physician Operations Executive for UC Health. She previously served as Executive Vice Chair of Medicine and Associate Chief Medical Officer, leading large-scale clinical, operational, and academic transformation across the health system. A board-certified gastroenterologist, Dr. Afzali is internationally recognized for her expertise in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and for advancing complex IBD care through clinical trials, outcomes research, and healthcare system redesign. She is a global principal investigator and scientific advisor on multiple pivotal phase II and III IBD trials and has authored extensively in leading peer-reviewed journals, helping shape contemporary, evidence-based approaches to IBD management.

Before joining UC, Dr. Afzali founded and directed the region’s first standalone multidisciplinary IBD Center at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, building the largest IBD program in Ohio and a national model for integrated clinical care, advanced therapeutics, and clinical research. Her leadership extends nationally and globally through prominent roles within the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO), where she currently serves as Secretary General. In recognition of her contributions to IBD patient care, research, and mentorship, she is a recipient of the Bing Hinton Legacy Award from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. A sought-after invited speaker and physician-executive, Dr. Afzali is known for translating cutting-edge science into practical, patient-centered strategies that improve outcomes, expand access, and advance the future of IBD care.

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Dr. Julie Lovshin is a Clinician Investigator and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, in the Temetry Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Clinically, Dr. Lovshin is a staff Endocrinologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada, who specializes in diabetes clinical care.

Dr. Lovshin’s research training includes a PhD at the University of Toronto in the Institute of Medical Science, supervised by Dr. Daniel Drucker on incretin hormones, including GLP-1 and GLP-2. She completed her undergraduate Medical School training, Internal Medicine Residency and Post-Graduate Clinical Fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Lovshin then went on to pursue clinical research investigation as an Eliot Phillipson Scholar in the Temetry Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto in a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship focused on investigating renal and hemodynamic functional pathways in Types 1 and 2 diabetes with Dr. David Cherney and Dr. Dan Drucker. During her fellowship, Dr. Lovshin also completed formal research methodology and epidemiology training at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

Dr. Lovshin directs the Diabetes Complications Clinical Research Laboratory at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Research Centre, Toronto, Canada. Dr. Lovshin has authored more than 70 academic publications in the area of diabetes, and has served as invited speaker at numerous international conferences, given her expertise in both the science and clinical use of GLP-1 receptor agonists.

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Christopher Ma, MD MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary. He has published over 250 peer reviewed manuscripts, primarily focusing on clinical trial research methods in inflammatory GI diseases.
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I am a Professor of Medicine and a Consultant with a joint appointment in Immunology and Gastroenterology and Hepatology. My training in gastroenterology, population health, as well as my experience in mucosal immunology, makes me well suited for the project described here. My training as a gastroenterologist, particularly in small bowel diseases and my engagement in mucosal immunology is highly pertinent to the studies proposed and complementary to the Yale Team’s extensive expertise. I have particular experience studying the mucosal responses to luminal antigens, particularly food-derived antigens, but more recently, microbial antigens. I have been engaged in studies involving mucosal integrity, both in human disease and in these mouse models. I can bring this experience, derived from both bedside and bench, to bear on the design of studies and assist my colleagues in the experimental design, analysis, and interpretation of results. I have additional expertise in investigating the role of human commensals and probiotics in altering the immune responses to food antigens. I run a busy clinical practice and clinical trials devoted to celiac disease providing access to biospecimens suitable for this research.  I have published over 400 original articles primarily in the topics of celiac disease, malabsorption, esophageal disease, and esophageal physiology. My research has spread the gambit from basic work to clinical trials all the way through translational work through clinical trials.  I have also participated in guideline development and have been the senior author on guidelines related to celiac disease.  I have also been an active participate in the Clinical Practice Update Committee as well as co-authoring two of the clinical updates both of which were published in Gastroenterology.
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Dr. Murthy is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Gastroenterologist at the Ottawa Hospital IBD Centre and Scientist at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He completed his medical degree at the University of Ottawa, Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Manitoba and Gastroenterology Residency at the University of Toronto. He completed advanced clinical and research fellowships in inflammatory bowel diseases (Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto), clinical nutrition (Toronto General Hospital) and diagnostic endoscopy (University of Mainz, Germany) and an M.Sc. degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (University of Toronto). Dr. Murthy’sresearch program uses clinical and health administrative data to conduct epidemiological studies, pragmatic trials and clinical prediction models, which he applies to the study of inflammatory bowel diseases and gastrointestinalcancers. He is currently leading multiple national studies evaluating cancer epidemiology and prevention in IBD and is supported by a Faculty of Medicine Research Chair in IBD from the University of Ottawa.

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Dr. Colleen Parker received her MD degree and completed her internal medicine and gastroenterology residencies at the University of Toronto.  She completed advanced clinical and research training in the field of neurogastroenterology and motility at UCLA. She then completed a Master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the University of Toronto. She is currently a staff gastroenterologist at the University Health Network in Toronto and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. Her clinical and research interest is the psychosocial aspects of managing patients with disorders of gut brain interaction.

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Giada Sebastiani is a Tenured Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology of Hepatology at McGill University and Clinician Scientist at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre. She is the President Elect of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver (CASL) 2024-2026 and Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). She received a medical degree and specialized in internal medicine at the University of Padua, Italy. She had researchtraining at Harvard Medical School (US), University College of London (UK), University of Bordeaux (France). Her work focuses on steatotic liver disease (MASLD), liver fibrosis and non-invasive diagnostic tools in liver disease. She is author of 220 articles in peer-reviewed journals (includingNature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Lancet Regional Health, Lancet HIV, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Diabetes Care; h-index 56), 14 book chapters. Dr Sebastiani is co-founder of the Canadian MASLD Network, Co-Chair of the first MASLD chapter of Diabetes Canada guidelines and panelist of the first guidance on MASLD of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver. She is the sole North American representative in the guidelines of the European AIDS Clinical Society as primary reviewer of the Liver Group. Dr Sebastiani hold the prestigious Merite Clinical Research Salary Award from Fonds Recherche Sante Quebec. Her research program is funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research, the Fonds Recherche Sante Quebec, the CIHR, Crohn’s Colitis Canada, and the Montreal General Hospital Foundation.
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Dr. Yinghong (Mimi) Wang is a Professor on Tenure Track in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She also serves as Deputy Division Head (Research) in Division of Internal Medicine. With a robust academic background comprising an M.D., Ph.D., and M.Sc., she brings extensive clinical experience from prestigious medical programs such as Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic. Since joining MD Anderson in 2017, she has made significant contributions to the field of gastroenterology.

Dr. Wang’s expertise lies in areas including Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and cancer immunotherapy-induced gastrointestinal toxicities. At MD Anderson, she has garnered recognition for her adept management of cancer immunotherapy-induced GI toxicities, establishing an IBD clinic and FMT service.

Taking a leading role in managing immunotherapy-related GI toxicities, Dr. Wang has developed updated management algorithms at institutional, national and international levels. Serving as the chair of the institutional immunotherapy toxicity working group since 2019, she has spearheaded numerous milestones, earning international acclaim as a leader in this field.

Dr. Wang and her team have achieved breakthroughs in treating immunotherapy-induced colitis with fecal transplant for refractory cases since 2017. Their pioneering work has been published in high-impact journals such as Nature Medicine and Science Translational Medicine, showcasing consistent high efficacy rates of 80-85% up to the year 2024. Currently three clinical trials in treating colitis are still ongoing. Two of these trials offer FMT to a larger patient population, aiming to maximize benefits while minimizing morbidities related to immunosuppressant use (NCT03819296, NCT04038619, NCT04407247).

Externally, Dr. Wang has served as a guideline panel member for immunotherapy-induced GI toxicity in several prominent oncology and gastroenterology societies in the US (ASCO, SITC, NCCN, AGA, ACG) and Europe (ESMO). She has also published two books as the editor for “Managing Immunotherapy Related Organ Toxicities: A Practical Guide” in 10/2022, and “Challenging Cases in Immunotherapy Related Organ Toxicities” in 06/2025. In addition, she has published over 150 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and numerous national and international conference presentations.

Dr. Yinghong (Mimi) Wang’s relentless dedication to advancing gastroenterology and improving patient care has earned her widespread recognition and acclaim in the medical community.