Today is the first day of DDW — Digestive Disease Week — in Chicago. This international 4-day conference is the biggest combined gastroenterology/hepatology conference. DDW attracts thousands of gastroenterologists, hepatologists, endoscopists, surgeons, and researchers from across the world.

This will be my first attempt at live tweeting from a major conference.  As my particular interest is in esophageal diseases, I choose to attend primarily sessions that pertain to GERD, Barrett’s and dysphagia.  I imagine that many of the tweets will deal with GERD and other esophageal diseases, although some of the sessions will be dealing with other topics.

On a personal note, I am also excited to be able to present my own research.  My research received a Poster of Distinction, a personal first.  I recorded a video of the summary of the research; as of right now I am not sure exactly where this will be posted.  I am hopeful that I get some good traffic and comments so that I can anticipate any concerns of the reviewers prior to submitting the final paper.

Well, this should be an interesting journey into #hcsm.  I’m going to meet up with Doctor_V today to get his perspective on the intersection of #hcsm and gastroenterology, since the field has a generally minimal presence.  Keep tuned to the blog and Twitter for updates!