[AUDIO LOGO] My name is Andrew Ebanks, and I'm a pediatric gastroenterologist at Comer Children's Hospital. My sub focus is the upper GI tract. So normally you eat food. It goes down your food pipe, called your esophagus. Food is broken down in your stomach. And it goes into your small intestines, where it's absorbed. I focus on that area above the intestines, but I deal with a wide range of gastroenterology problems. I became a physician because I loved working with kids. Ultimately, I think as an adult, you've already established a lot of your habits. But by working with children, you're get to build strong fundamentals as it pertains to eating habits, physical activity, good mental health. And then in general, for gastroenterology, I'm focusing a lot more on helping kids with stomach problems, as well as building up a lot of the reasons I became a pediatrician to begin with. Comer feels like a family. This is a state of the art institution. They do a lot of research. And they're one of the best institutions for diseases like inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. I'm here to build up the program for something called eosinophilic esophagitis. So a food allergy of your food pipe, the esophagus. Here, I know I'm surrounded by great colleagues, a lot of support. And I get to work with a very diverse population who could benefit from my area of focus, and globally, our department in GI. I believe my philosophy of care is well-rounded. I want to understand the child, the patient. I want to understand the family. Ultimately, you could be the smartest person in the world. But if you don't understand where people are coming from, you can't really help and support them. So change involves both the physician, as well as the family. And so being able to understand each other, understand goals of care, we may not get to an answer on the first visit or the second visit, but building that rapport is really important to me. As a pediatric gastroenterologist, I can do upper endoscopies and lower endoscopies. These are procedures that I'm proficient in and can perform safely to evaluate the upper GI tract and the lower GI tract. I can take samples, take pictures, and better understand what's ailing your child to help guide our treatment. In addition to that, my sub focus is eosinophilic esophagitis. It's a food allergy inflammatory process of the food pipe. Not only can I assess that with my normal endoscopic skills, but I offer something called EndoFLIP and EsoFLIP. With these procedures, I'm able to assess, is there narrowing in the esophagus that's affecting your child's ability to swallow? And it's a bit more sensitive, better than the human eye. In addition to that, I'm able to dilate that area to help improve your child's ability to swallow, while we work together on a plan that works for them. Whether it's medication or food therapy, I can do a more well-rounded care by being able to do these procedures. When I was in medical school, I volunteered at the Department of Health in Brooklyn. So working on helping students with their mental health, helping schools develop grants and policies for physical activity and nutrition. In addition to that, I also worked at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, and had a little bit better of a top bird's eye view of understanding how these policies get into practice on a national scale. While a lot of my work at Comer is clinical, in the office I think this breadth of understanding about public health and global health is really important in thinking about how your child and your family fits into the bigger picture, and how we can help not only just individuals, but the community as well. [AUDIO LOGO]