Welcome to another episode of Talking Gut, and you have just been listening to the Fabulous Chalets, with the bass player being the one and only Dr Douglas Drossman, gastroenterologist and functional gut extraordinaire.

I am so super excited to have Dr Drossman as a guest here today. I have been wanting to interview him for over 1 year and here it is.`

A little background about Dr Drossman and I mean alittle, There is simply not enough time to go through his jaw dropping 124 page 10 font size single spacing CV. I simply cannot do his Bio justice here in the limited time we have, but Ill give it a go.

Okay, so Dr. Drossman was one of the first gastroenterologists to develop the field of brain-gut interactions and Neurogastroenterology in terms of research, patient care and education.

He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Psychiatry in Gastroenterology at the University Of North Carolina School of Medicine where he was on staff from 1977 through 2011.  He founded and co-directed of the UNC Center for Functional Gastrointestinal and Motility Disorders (1993-2011) in Chapel Hill North Carolina.

Dr. Drossman has published over 350 peer review articles and over 140 book chapters, has edited or written 20 books and acquired over $15 million in grants. He was Associate Editor of Gastroenterology (2001-2006), has served on six other editorial and advisory boards in Gastroenterology, psychosomatic medicine, behavioral medicine, and patient health and was the Gastroenterology Section Editor of the Merck Manual for 17 years. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Foundation for Functional GI Disorders (IFFGD) (www.iffgd.org). 

In 2012, Dr. Drossman founded the Drossman Center for the Education and Practice of Biopsychosocial Care (DrossmanCare -www.drossmancenter.com) to help train physicians in relationship centered biopsychosocial care with emphasis on communication skills and enhancing the patient doctor relationship.  An area unique to Dr. Drossman is his excellence in teaching not only on the functional GI disorders, but also in communication skills and patient centered care.  He has been a visiting professor at 143 academic programs and has given over 700 lectures.  He has written numerous articles and produced educational videotapes on the biobehavioral aspects of medical care, medical interviewing and the patient-doctor relationship and he received second prize at the 1997 AMA International Film Festival. 

A major contribution relates to Dr. Drossman being the organizing founder and President of the Rome Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of individuals with FGIDs.

With regard to treatment, he was principal investigator in a 5-year multi-center study that first demonstrated in 2003 the value of a cognitive behavioral therapy and also of a tricyclic antidepressants for treatment of functional bowel disorders. 

Dr. Drossman has received multiple research awards, including the American Psychosomatic Society President’s Award (2003), the AGA Mentors Research Scholar Award (2007), the American Journal of Gastroenterology Lectureship award (2011) to name afew.

And on top of these amazing achievements, he is person who is truly passionate about helping his patients and his colleagues.

Sooo what did we talk about, we talk about pretty much everything. His early beginnings, his band the fabulous chalets to his early days as a gastroenterologist and people that influenced him to take the path in functional gut disorders. We talked about the Rome foundation and ROME criteria, and his past and current work in helping to improve the doctor patients relationship, to the befit of the patients and the gastroenterologist. There is a lot to learn here, for the both patient and for the Doctor will benefit from this talk. I hope you get as much out of it as I did. Please enjoy.