Fernando Azpiroz, MD, PhD

Fernando Azpiroz, MD, PhD

Chief Department of Digestive Diseases and Professor of Medicine
University Hospital General Vall d’Hebron
Autonomous University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Azpiroz is Chief of the Section of Gastrointestinal Research at the Hospital General Vall d’Hebron, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, since the year 1987. He graduated from medical school at the University of Valladolid, Spain, in 1977, and after completing a residency program in general surgery at the San Carlos University Hospital of Madrid, he followed a three year fellowship in the Gastrointestinal Research Unit at the Mayo Clinic, where he received the Edward C. Kendall Award for Meritorious Research.

Dr. Azpiroz clinical practice develops in a large referral unit, and specifically focusses on functional gut disorders. His research program investigates the origin of gastrointestinal symptoms and involves both physiologic and pathophysiologic aspects about the control mechanisms of gut motility, visceral sensitivity, and more recently, intestinal gas dynamics. Dr. Azpiroz has been distinguished with the 1999 Janssen Award for Clinical Research in Digestive Diseases, the Fourth Research Award of the International Group for the Study of Gastrointestinal Motility, the 2003 Research Scientist Award of the Functional Brain Gut Research Group, and the Senior Investigator-Clinical Science Award of the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorder. At present Dr Azpiroz serves as councilor of the International Motility Group and as president of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility.