Digestive Diseases and Nutrition

The University of Kentucky College of Medicine Division of Digestive Disease and Nutrition is a US News and World Report "high performing"  (top 10 percent nationally) division within the department of medicine. Our faculty are committed to the clinical care of patients with complex GI disease and to researching the causes of GI disease and future treatments.   

Our mission is to deliver the best patient care supported by state-of-the-art research in gastrointestinal disorders. Our physicians and advanced practice providers care for patients with all aspects of GI disease: we have providers committed to the care of undifferentiated GI symptoms (general GI), inflammatory bowel disease, liver diseases including liver transplant, pancreatic diseases, motility disorders, disorders of the gut-brain axis, and advanced endoscopic interventions.  Our clinical research program focuses on the delivery of care to rural populations with attention to social and economic barriers to care.

We have robust outpatient endoscopy resources, including an ambulatory care center, that allows us to meet our patients' needs for screening, diagnostic, and therapeutic endoscopies. We have the resources to support the faculty needed to serve our patient population and to deliver outstanding clinical care in the outpatient and inpatient arenas at Chandler and Good Samaritan hospitals, as well as the Lexington VA Medical Center. 

We are committed to the education of future gastroenterologists and physician-scientists. Our training environment includes both clinical and research fellows. We match 4 gastroenterology fellows in each class, support a fourth-year advanced endoscopy fellowship, and a hepatology and transplant hepatology fellowship.  The research activities of the division include inflammatory bowel disease, viral hepatitis, and pancreaticobiliary disease and are funded through several national grants as well as pharmaceutical trial support. Future growth areas include inflammatory bowel disease, hepatology, and interventional gastroenterology. 

The future of the division will see an expansion in basic science research in inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, and Barrett’s esophagus. We have exciting new collaborations within the National Cancer Institute-recognized University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center to develop new therapies for colon cancer.

Deborah Flomenhoft, MD
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology
Interim Chief of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition
Senior Medical Director of Endoscopy