Access to McMaster’s national endoscopy training centre provides expertise and exposure to outstanding clinical and training facilities.

Our Pediatric Gastroenterology Fellowship Program offers a breadth of exposure to gastroenterology, hepatology, transplant, motility, and nutrition. Residents have an opportunity to learn integrated teamwork skills and work with an enthusiastic group of people dedicated to providing quality health-care to infants, children, and adolescents.

Serving a region of 2.5 million, pediatric gastroenterology is among the busiest services at McMaster Children’s Hospital. The centre for child and youth digestive health hosts clinics and the 3Y surgical/gastrointestinal (GI) medicine unit houses in-patients. Co-sited with McMaster’s adult digestive disease program, the division has unique opportunities for collaboration while facilitating seamless transition of care.

We are a member of the Canadian Pediatric IBD Network and home to the pediatric celiac disease centre of excellence. Subspecialty clinics focus on hepatology, nutrition and intestinal failure, eosinophilic esophagitis, feeding and swallowing, complex motility, and cyclic vomiting syndrome. The division’s kids dig health program supports patient and family education and trainee research.

Clinical consultation includes multidisciplinary assessment and ongoing treatment for chronic GI conditions. A full range of specialized pediatric GI investigation is available including endoscopy done under general anesthetic. Although physician-to-physician consultation is provided, most patients will be first reviewed in the general GI consultation clinic by virtual or in-person assessment. Patients may be followed as appropriate in one of the 10 subspecialty clinics.

Urgent referrals should be discussed with the pediatric GI physician on call through the hospital page operator by calling 905-521-5030. Referrals are triaged so that sick patients will be seen quickly. As wait lists are long, referrals for patients with non-urgent problems may be redirected to consulting pediatricians in our region.

Divisional faculty are members of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute that supports cutting-edge bench to bedside research. Our areas of research excellence include the brain-gut axis and host-microbiome interactions and provide unique access to a state-of-the-art gnotobiotic facility. Our researchers contribute to networks related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, hepatology, and cyclic vomiting syndrome, thus expanding the impact of clinical investigation.

Division members engage in areas of innovation and research including fecal transplant for IBD, investigative modalities of gastrointestinal (GI) disease and function, and use of simulation-based teaching.