ASGE announces the appointment of Klaus Mergener, MD, PhD, MBA from Seattle, WA, to the position of ASGE President. Dr. Mergener assumed his presidential duties at the conclusion of the ASGE annual business meeting on May 2. His term will continue until May 2021.

Dr. Mergener became a member of ASGE in 1994 and a Fellow in 2007. He has served ASGE in many roles, including Vice Chair of the ASGE Foundation Board of Trustees, and as Councilor on the ASGE Governing Board. He was the Society’s Vice President from 2018 to 2019 and its President-Elect from 2019 to 2020.

Dr. Mergener attended medical school in Frankfurt and Heidelberg, Germany, and at Duke University and Harvard University in the U.S. He completed his MD/PhD-thesis in molecular virology summa cum laude with 2008 Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Harald zur Hausen at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, after obtaining a Diplôme en Virologie Générale from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. He returned to Duke for his residency and his fellowship training under the mentorship of the late John Baillie, MB, ChB. Dr. Mergener received his MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dr. Mergener is an Affiliate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, Washington. He is active in clinical practice, clinical research, teaching and administration.

During his presidential year, a top priority for Dr. Mergener will be to ensure that the ASGE educational portfolio continues to evolve to meet the needs of members, with high quality hands-on courses and networking events, but also a robust offering of custom-tailored educational products and virtual learning opportunities.

Dr. Mergener continues to lead ASGE’s COVID Response Management Team which produces guidance documents and educational events on a large number of critically important issues for members.

Dr. Mergener credits much of his own professional success to the selfless mentorship of the late John Baillie, MD, and he is intending to “pay it forward”. As such, a major focus for Dr. Mergener for the entire year, and a personal passion during his entire career, relates to trainee education and mentorship. Under his guidance, ASGE is completing work on a comprehensive educational curriculum for all stages of fellowship training.

Together with the entire ASGE team, Dr. Mergener will spend this year on many other important projects, to include convening a second ASGE summit on the use of artificial intelligence in GI practice, enhancing the focus on the needs of independent practitioners, promoting frequent and direct dialogue with ASGE members and their access to ASGE leadership, and continuing the society’s important alliances and cooperative projects.


About the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
Since its founding in 1941, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) has been dedicated to advancing patient care and digestive health by promoting excellence and innovation in gastrointestinal endoscopy. ASGE, with more than 14,000 members worldwide, promotes the highest standards for endoscopic training and practice, fosters endoscopic research, recognizes distinguished contributions to endoscopy, and is the foremost resource for endoscopic education.

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