C. Prakash Gyawali, MD, HS ’99

C. Prakash Gyawali, MD, HS ’99, professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, is known internationally for his research on gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and esophageal motor disorders. This compassionate clinician is also an expert on gastrointestinal motility and disorders of bowel function.

In studies described in more than 140 journal articles, Gyawali has used sophisticated monitoring techniques to correlate patients’ outcomes with esophageal function and symptoms. He demonstrated the value of esophageal reflux monitoring by showing that the degree to which it confirms acid reflux predicts response to proton pump inhibitors.

Gyawali also found that tricyclic antidepressants can treat the chest pain associated with acid reflux and that anti-reflux therapies and surgery can be valuable for patients with reflux symptoms and esophageal lining injury assessed using novel techniques. His group is currently evaluating outcomes of laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery in patients with varying abnormalities of esophageal motility.

Throughout his career, Gyawali has been heavily invested in the gastroenterology fellowship training program, which he now directs. The fellows have named him Professor of the Year twice. Since 2001, Gyawali also has contributed to the continuing education of community internists and gastroenterologists by organizing and chairing a program called the Galaxy of Gastroenterology. In addition, he directs two motility laboratories where academic and community gastroenterologists and surgeons can have their patients’ esophageal or anorectal function tested. He has been named a Best Doctor in America since 2007.

At the national and international level, Gyawali chairs a task force that recently defined the curriculum for neurogastroenterology and motility training in North America and Europe, and seeks to bring uniformity of such training worldwide. He also co-chairs an international committee that is providing recommendations for GERD testing.

Gyawali received his undergraduate degree in 1985 and his medical degree in 1990 from Calicut Medical College, India. After an internship at Calicut, he became a junior consultant at Patan Hospital, Kathmandu, and then a senior house officer at several British hospitals. In 1994, he earned a postgraduate diploma from the Royal College of Physicians, London. He moved to Washington University in 1993 as a resident in internal medicine and became a fellow in gastroenterology in 1996. In 1999, he joined the faculty.

The Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association is pleased to present its Resident/Fellow Alumni Achievement Award to Dr. Gyawali.