Naresh T. Gunaratnum, MD: Private Practice Gastroenterology

In this episode, I speak to Naresh T. Gunaratnum, MD, who completed his GI fellowship at Univ of Michigan and an advanced endoscopy fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He shares his perspective on transitioning from a large academic medical center to private practice in a community hospital. He also talks about balancing clinical practice with research, gives his thoughts on direct-to-consumer screening tools and presents pearls for gastroenterology fellows.    Intro :10 The interview :58 Cultural differences between academic and community centers 1:31 How did you create a path that allows you to publish research but maintain a busy clinical practice? 3:02 Research challenges in a community setting 4:24 What motivates you to spend time coordinating and conducting research? 6:00 Do you feel that community advanced endoscopists must defend their outcomes compared with large academic centers? 8:38 How do private practice centers afford expensive machines and technology that may or may not be covered by payors? 12:42 What are the challenges of creating a community weight loss program from the ground up? 15:15 What are your thoughts on direct-to-consumer tests like Cologuard? 22:10 Do you see an at-home, noninvasive test on the horizon that will be just as good as colonoscopy? 24:51 Do you have a routine to help you stay abreast of the literature? 27:00 You mentioned earlier that 80% of your time is spent gathering patient data, and that in the future that will be cut down to 20%. What do you mean by this and how will this happen? 28:30 Are you using midlevel providers such as NPs and PAs? What is your take on their role in the future? 30:55 If you had a magic wand and could change one thing regarding socioeconomics and social determinants of health, what would you change? 33:28 If you could go back to GI fellowship, what's one thing you could do differently? 35:44 Thank you, Dr. Gunaratnum 37:44 Naresh Gunaratnum, MD, is a gastroenterologist in private practice at Huron Gastro Center for Digestive Care in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and 2019 recipient of the American Gastroenterological Association's Distinguished Clinician Award. We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @HealioGastro @sameerkberry