About the contributor

• Stuart Jon Spechler

Stuart Jon Spechler

Stuart Jon Spechler is Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Dallas VA Medical Center, Professor of Medicine, and Holder of the Berta M. and Cecil O. Patterson Chair in Gastroenterology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1974, and spent the next 23 years working in Boston, both at Boston University, and at the Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he was the Director of the Center for Swallowing Disorders from 1990 to 1997. He has been in Dallas on the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 1997. Dr Spechler's research has focused primarily on disorders of the esophagus, especially gastroesophageal reflux disease and its complications. He chaired the VA Cooperative Study on gastroesophageal reflux disease, and he has published more than 200 scientific reports, editorials, review articles, and book chapters on esophageal disorders. He is perhaps best known for his work in the area of Barrett's esophagus. Dr Spechler has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including Gastroenterology, Gut, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Diseases of the Esophagus, and he has chaired the Gastroenterology Teaching Project of the American Gastroenterological Association. He is presently Vice-Chair of the Esophagogastroduodenal Section of the AGA Council.