What Makes Us Different

The Orlando Health Digestive Health Institute is an international destination for care, offering a full range of services to diagnose and manage conditions affecting the digestive tract and digestive organs.  In addition to offering best-in-class clinical care, our world-renowned team is also committed to innovation, leading research and educational initiatives around the globe.

Here are some examples of what sets us apart:

Our Institute

  • One of only six healthcare facilities in Florida performing peroral endoscopic myotomy
  • One of just four locations in the United States with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) integrated within the endoscopy unit, enabling seamless implementation
  • Only facility in Florida to offer NaviCam technology to diagnose gastrointestinal tract conditions
  • Among very few programs in the world to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) with endoscopic ultrasound procedures to improve performance
  • Development of technology, together with industry partners, that integrates AI with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to reduce radiation exposure to patients and providers
  • Collaboration with professional and industry partners to integrate AI in endoscopic technology to detect early cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Our Team

  • Developed a new protocol for the management of necrotizing pancreatitis, known as the “Orlando Protocol”   
  • Pioneered several research findings that are incorporated in Gastrointestinal Professional Society guidelines for the management of pancreatitis
  • Former president of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Dr. Robert Hawes
  • Authored more than 2,000 articles published in peer-reviewed journals
  • Best-selling endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) textbook in the world, Endosonography, authored by Dr. Robert Hawes and Dr. Shyam Varadarajulu

Our Future

  • Develop an evidence-based protocol for the management of colon polyps utilizing leading-edge techniques and technologies
  • Establish a liver transplant program, with a target date of 2025
  • Become home to the most comprehensive motility unit in the southern United States
  • Build the most comprehensive IBD center of excellence in Central Florida
  • Create subspecialty fellowships in hepatology, motility and IBD, in addition to gastrointestinal and advanced endoscopy fellowships
  • Host the largest institution-sponsored endoscopy/EUS congress in the United States

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