From new gastroenterology practices and specialty partnerships to workforce research, here are five gastroenterologists in recent Becker’s headlines:
1. Washington, D.C.-based Gazuntite, a specialist referral platform, added Anchorage, Alaska-based Pioneer GI Clinic to its network. In addition, Ajay Pabby, MD, managing partner of Pioneer GI Clinic, was named Gazuntite’s GI service line director.
2. Amy Oxentenko, MD, vice dean of practice and chief patient experience officer at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, convened a task force in 2025 to address GI workforce needs. Its report, published Sept. 22 in a supplement to the American Journal of Gastroenterology, examined three related pressures: the physician workforce, advanced practice providers and anesthesia.
3. WVU Medicine Weirton (W.Va.) Medical Center performed its first bariatric surgery Sept. 22, launching a new weight-loss surgery service for Ohio Valley patients. Dr. Mustapha Daouadi performed the first procedure.
4. A gastroenterologist in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., agreed to pay $300,000 to resolve Controlled Substances Act allegations that he unlawfully prescribed opioids. The Justice Department alleged that between June 15, 2023, and March 7, 2025, Twan Phanijphand, MD, unlawfully prescribed at least 127 controlled substance prescriptions and did not maintain any patient records.
5. Frankfort (Ky.) Regional Medical Center, an affiliate of HCA Healthcare, opened a gastroenterology practice. The clinic is led by Matthew Miller, MD, a gastroenterologist with more than three decades of experience.
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