Message from the Director

2024 Year in Review

It has been an extraordinary first year serving as Division Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at MUSC. I am honored to lead such a talented and dedicated team committed to advancing patient care, education, and research in digestive and liver diseases. Our division is home to nationally recognized experts in, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), interventional endoscopy, general and transplant hepatology, GI motility, and functional bowel disease. Additionally, our clinical researchers and basic scientists are international leaders, working tirelessly to develop medical breakthroughs that improve patient care.

Over the past year, we have made significant strides in expanding access to care, growing our faculty, and enhancing our fellowship programs. Our clinical services experienced record growth, with a 19% increase in outpatient visits compared to FY23 and a substantial rise in colon cancer screenings. The Liver Transplant Program set new records with the highest number of transplants performed to date, while our advanced endoscopy team completed more procedures annually than ever before. The newly established IBD Medical Home has brought a patient-centered, multidisciplinary approach to IBD care, ensuring comprehensive and collaborative treatment for our patients.

On the research front, our division has secured major NIH funding and is home to the MUSC Digestive Disease Research Core Center (DDRCC), one of only 17 federally funded Silvio O. Conte Digestive Disease Research Core Centers in the nation. In combination with MUSC’s NIH funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Digestive and Liver Disease, this distinction fosters a dynamic, collaborative research environment that is unmatched globally. Our faculty also led groundbreaking studies, such as the SVI trial, and launched innovative projects in portal hypertension, circadian rhythms, gastroparesis, and chronotherapy on IBD therapy.

Education remains at the heart of our mission. This year, we launched new fellowship programs in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Transplant Hepatology, further strengthening our commitment to training the next generation of leaders in gastroenterology. Our faculty are dedicated mentors, guiding trainees in areas such as liver fibrosis, intestinal cell homeostasis, and the gut-brain-microbiota axis to help shape the future of academic medicine.

As we look to the future, I am excited to continue building on this momentum—advancing patient care, research, and education to make a lasting impact. Thank you to our outstanding faculty, staff, and trainees for making this year a resounding success, and we look forward to shaping the future of gastrointestinal health.

Sincerely,

Garth Swanson, M.D., MS, AGAF
Division Director, Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Medical University of South Carolina