Rao and Summers, both gastroenterologists at UI Hospitals and Clinics and professors of internal medicine at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, received the honors at an AGA meeting in Washington, D.C.

Rao, director of the UI Neurogastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Motility Section, received the AGA Distinguished Educator Award for his outstanding contributions to gastroenterology and teaching at both local and national levels.

Rao's longtime educational efforts include training and mentoring, including national and international research fellows, directing national and international symposia and postgraduate courses, publishing educational documents, and teaching seminars and classes.

A UI faculty member since 1992, Rao is a previous recipient of an AGA Masters Award in Gastroenterology in 2006 and an AGA Distinguished Clinician Award in 2003. He is the first recipient both at the UI and in the AGA ever to receive all three distinguished AGA academic awards. Rao, who also is a Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System researcher, studies biofeedback and constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and noncardiac chest pain.

Summers, the James A. Clifton Professor of Medicine in Internal Medicine and director of clinical programs for the UI Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology, received an AGA Mentors Research Scholar Award from the AGA Foundation for Digestive Health and Nutrition for his exemplary contributions to gastroenterology through mentoring.

An endowed Research Scholar Award will be established in his and this year's co-honorees' names and presented once every three years in perpetuity to an outstanding young digestive disease researcher.

A UI faculty member since 1970, Summers has trained medical students, residents and fellows in gastroenterology/hepatology throughout his career. He was recently presented with the Physician's Award by the Iowa Chapter of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America for his contributions to caring for people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Summer's clinical and research interest, in addition to IBD, include digestive motility disorders and colonic cancer.

Satish Rao, MD, PhD

Robert Summers, MD

For more information:

American Gastroenterology Association (AGA)

Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine

VA Health Care System