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Dr. Anthony Starpoli: Complete Care for GERD Patients Dr. Anthony A. Starpoli is the Director of the Center for Reflux Disease at St. Vincents Hospital and Medical Center in New York City. He is a member of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American College of Gastroenterology. In this interview with Reflux1, Dr. Starpoli outlines the current options for GERD treatment and offers his thoughts as to how patients should best choose and approach their treatment. Reflux1: How did you decide to specialize in gastroenterology? Dr. Starpoli: I had several experiences as a trainee in internal medicine and found the combination of procedural technique and the cognitive aspect of medicine and gastroenterology interesting, so it was a nice merge of the two. Reflux1: Can you tell us more about your current focus in patient care or research? Dr. Starpoli: I would say probably three-quarters of my practice is in gastroesophageal reflux disease. I am the director of the Center for Reflux Disease at St. Vincents Hospital in Manhattan and have been actively involved in the endoscopic therapy of reflux disease since the year 2000. Reflux1: Can you tell us a little more about endoscopic therapy and the different types there are for patients? Dr. Starpoli: There are now several - four to be exact - endoscopic approaches to the treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease. In 2000, the first to be approved was the Bard EndocinchTM procedure, which is an endoscopic suturing technique. This allowed us to tighten up the valve area at the end of the esophagus where it meets the stomach where there is a natural muscle barrier to prevent the reflux. And reflux, again, is the backward movements of the stomach contents back up into the food tube or esophagus, which manifests itself in a variety of fashions, most commonly, heartburn, regurgitation and swallowing difficulty. So Endocinch came out from the Bard Corporation in 2000. At the same time, Curon Medical cam