Gastroplasty with Endoscopic Myotomy (GEM) for the Treatment of Obesity

Dr. Christopher Thompson, MD, MHES, Director of Endoscopy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital talks about his study on Gastroplasty With Endoscopic Myotomy (GEM): a viable treatment of obesity which was presented at the 2022 Digestive Disease Week (DDW) conference. 

Dr. Christopher C. Thompson is the Director of Endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.   He is also the Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship Program Director and clinical faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.   

Dr. Thompson’s clinical interests include endoscopic surgery applied to foregut conditions, with a focus on endoscopic treatment of obesity, GERD, Zenker’s diverticula, achalasia, gastroparesis,   postsurgical complications, and pancreatobiliary disease.   He spends the majority of his time performing these advanced endoscopic procedures and also cares for these patients in the ambulatory setting.   The remainder of his time is devoted to research in endoscopic surgery, with a focus on device development, clinical outcomes, and endoscopic education.

His research has resulted in numerous patents, development of new endoscopic procedures, and over 300 publications.   He was awarded the Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization Clinical Innovation Award in 2007 for developing and performing the first endoscopic suturing procedure to treat obesity.