Page 21 - Read Online

Bell et al. Mini-invasive Surg 2022;6:43 Mini-invasive Surgery
DOI: 10.20517/2574-1225.2022.30

Editorial Open Access

Technology’s role in the emergence of collaborative,

multidisciplinary foregut societies

Reginald Bell , Philip Woodworth, Katherine Freeman
Department of Surgery, Institute of Esophageal and Reflux Surgery, Lone Tree, CO 80124, USA.

Correspondence to: Dr. Reginald Bell, Department of Surgery, Institute of Esophageal and Reflux Surgery, 10099 Ridgegate
Parkway Suite 110, Lone Tree, CO 80124, USA. E-mail: reg@iersurgery.com

How to cite this article: Bell R, Woodworth P, Freeman K. Technology’s role in the emergence of collaborative, multidisciplinary
foregut societies. Mini-invasive Surg 2022;6:43. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1225.2022.30

Received: 1 Apr 2022 Accepted: 11 Apr 2022 Published: 21 Jul 2022

Academic Editor: Giulio Belli Copy Editor: Jia-Xin Zhang Production Editor: Jia-Xin Zhang

The American Foregut Society and the European Foregut Society are founded on the belief that only a
multidisciplinary approach will truly advance patient care. Procedural advances are blurring distinctions
between gastroenterologists and surgeons, producing foregut specialists, and in the process of transforming
historical enmity into a collaborative approach to patient care. None of this would be occurring without
technological innovation in foregut diagnostics and procedures. Unlike most foregut pharmaceuticals, many
of these innovations are disruptive, unique, do not have generic versions, and require specific if not
intensive training. The specificity of these innovations has, in fact, been an instigator for collaboration,
cross-fertilization, and the birth of these societies. Antireflux procedures such as LINX and EsophyX,
Endoluminal tissue manipulation devices such as the OverStitch TM (Apollo) and various tissue clips,
mucosal ablation technologies, and even tools to improve detection and prognosis of neoplasia including
CDx, CellVizio, TissueCypher, EsoGuard, and CytoSponge have found a commonality among GIs and
surgeons.

The historical impetus for the American Foregut Society was a group of foregut surgical specialists (The
rascals were F.P. “Tripp” Buckley M.D., Dan Lister M.D., John Lipham M.D., Reginald Bell M.D., Kate
Freeman N.P., and Blair Jobe M.D.) intimately involved in the development and training of LINX. Todd
Berg, CEO of Torax Medical, the device developer, should also be recognized for the company’s role in
developing a multispecialty training program and limiting early adoption to specialists in the disease. The
LINX device, a “bracelet” of 13-17 beads comprised of rare earth magnets inside 5.8 mm diameter titanium

© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

www.misjournal.net