Pocket Guide to IBD

Marla Dubinsky, MD received a medical degree from Queen's University in Canada and completed her clinical pediatric gastroenterology training at Sainte-Justine Hospital, University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Currently, Dr. Dubinsky is Director of the Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, Dr. Dubinsky is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, David Geffen School of Medicine.

Board certified in pediatrics and pediatric gastroenterology, Dr. Dubinsky holds positions of prominence with several advisory bodies, including Chair of the Western Regional Pediatric IBD Research Alliance. She is a member of several professional societies, including the American Gastroenterology Association, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Among her many awards, Dr. Dubinsky was a Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Medical Honoree in 2004 and recently received the Lenny and Corinne Sands Clinical Investigator Award.

Dr. Dubinsky's main research interests are health outcomes and the epidemiology and genetic influences of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children. Her objective is to study the influence of genetics and immune responses on the variability in clinical presentations of early-onset IBD. Additional interests include the study of pharmacogenetics to evaluate how heredity influences drug responses and optimizing and individualizing the management of IBD. Dr. Dubinsky's work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Gastroenterology, The Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, and the American Journal of Gastroenterology. In addition, she has authored book chapters for Trends in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Therapy and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Diagnosis and Therapeutics. Dr. Dubinsky has lectured widely both nationally and internationally.

Sonia Friedman, MD, FACG completed her undergraduate degree in biology at Stanford University in California and her medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her medical internship and residency at University of Pennsylvania and her gastroenterology fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She specialized in IBD during her fellowship and now has a large IBD practice in the gastroenterology division of Brigham and Women's Hospital. She has been at Brigham and Women's for the past 11 years and is Director of IBD Clinical Research.

Dr. Friedman's research interests include colon cancer in Crohn's disease, patient adherence to surveillance colonoscopy, and IBD and pregnancy. She is a section editor for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and a reviewer for Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Dr. Friedman has published mainly on colonoscopic surveillance in Crohn's colitis and IBD in pregnancy and also enjoys lecturing on these subjects.

Dr. Friedman is chair of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, New England Chapter Medical Advisory Committee. She has been elected as "Best up and Coming Gastroenterologist in Boston" in 2004 and also listed as "Best of Boston" in Boston Magazine in 2007. Both honors are based on peer review.