GI Faculty members

Sections & Programs

Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition

Our Section Mission:

To ensure the best care, we will see your child promptly and collaborate with you to create an individualized treatment plan. Our multidisciplinary team—specializing in gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition—will partner with you to identify and confirm any underlying conditions, including complex and challenging cases.

Ritu Verma, MD

Ritu Verma, MD - Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Director, University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center

Section Chief, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition

We offer state of the art technologies including Colonoscopies, Endoscopies, Intestinal Ultrasound, FibroScan, EndoFlip, IB-STIM, Video Capsule Endoscopy, PH Probes, Magnetic Resonance Enterography (MRE), small bowel enteroscopy, and Magnetic Resonance Cholangio-Pancreatography (MRCP). Our team can facilitate breath tests for diagnosing small bowel bacterial overgrowth, lactose or sucrose maldigestion, fructose malabsorption and gastritis by H. pylori (a leading cause of peptic ulcers). We are also able to provide genetic testing for pancreatitis and cholestasis.

We collaborate with our Pediatric Subspecialists, Pediatric Surgery, Adult Gastroenterology, and Endocrinology colleagues to treat and manage a broad range of acute digestive diseases, as well as hepatic and pancreatic diseases. We collaborate with our surgeons to manage surgical liver diseases including liver transplants and bariatric surgery.

  • Multiple locations of care focusing on personalized care for a wide variety of gastrointestinal, nutritional, and liver disorders
  • Access to the only dedicated Celiac Disease Center in the Midwest
  • An internationally-renowned program for Celiac Disease and gluten related disorders
  • An internationally-renowned program for inflammatory bowel disease and treatment, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
  • Expert handling of patients with intestinal failure requiring carefully tailored interventions for intestinal rehabilitation
  • An internationally-renowned program for pediatric liver transplantation, committed to providing the best pre-, peri- and post-operative care
  • A team approach focusing on Eosinophilic Esophagitis and other manifestations of food allergy alongside a dietitian and an allergist 
  • A multi-disciplinary program focused on weight management and lifestyle
  • Access to multiple clinical trials that bring new treatment protocols from lab to patient care across multiple clinical disease centers
  • Comprehensive support programs for patients and families including nutrition counseling, family education, and psychological support
  • Achalasia
  • Aerodigestive Conditions
  • Anorectal Conditions
  • Barrett's Esophagus
  • Celiac Disease
  • Crohn's Disease
  • Esophageal Disease
  • Eosinophilic Esophagitis
  • Failure to Thrive
  • Disorders of Gut Brain Interaction (DGBI)
  • Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
  • Hepatobiliary Disease & Congenital Defects
  • Intestinal Failure in Children
  • Intestinal Infections
  • Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
  • Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
  • Food Allergies
  • Liver Disease and Liver Transplant
  • Long-term Total Parenteral (TPN) Therapy
  • Pancreatic Diseases
  • Short Bowel Syndrome 
  • Ulcerative Colitis
  • Weight Management
  • Weight Management (GI + Nutrition + Social Work + Psychology)
  • Allergy and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (Allergy, Eosinophilic, + Nutrition)
  • Cystic Fibrosis (GI + Pulm)
  • CHIRP (GI + Nutrition + Surgery)
  • Celiac (Celiac + Nutrition)
  • Celiac and Diabetes (Celiac + Nutrition + Endo)

About Our Section

Special Services

Our team of highly skilled experts are ready to tackle the most complex pediatric digestive diseases. We offer specialized care for patients with difficult-to-treat conditions, such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal failure, complex liver disorders, eosinophilic esophagitis and acid peptic disease, intestinal polyps, and nutritional disorders related to feeding problems, malabsorption and other complex diseases. In addition to managing complex care, our team also treats common gut conditions, such as abdominal pain, vomiting and constipation.

The mission of The University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center is to cure celiac disease. As we focus on research toward a cure, we also strive to raise awareness and diagnosis rates through education and advocacy. Our team is at the forefront of celiac disease research, sponsoring dozens of research projects in the last 10 years. In addition, our staff experts have authored or coauthored a more than 50 published celiac disease studies. Through our research, we’re striving to identify new treatments for celiac disease and to find a cure.

Learn more about the Celiac Disease Center

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic, complex inflammatory conditions that require expert, individualized care. At the University of Chicago Medicine, our pediatric IBD team at Comer Children’s Hospital combines decades of research excellence with access to the latest therapies to tailor treatment plans to each child’s unique needs. We also use intestinal ultrasound—a novel, noninvasive, and well-tolerated imaging tool—to monitor disease activity in real time, helping us make more informed and timely treatment decisions.

Learn more about our IBD research and clinical care

Intestinal failure encompasses patients with congenital or surgical short bowel syndrome, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, complicated Crohns disease and other intestinal or genetic, neurological, cancer therapy and systemic diseases that prevent children from tolerating enteral nutrition at the levels that support adequate growth. The age of affected children ranges from newborn infants to toddlers, school age children and adolescents. Our resources include parenteral nutrition (TPN), utilization of gastrostomy and jejunual feeding tubes and collaboration with Speech and Feeding therapists. We have a multidisciplinary Home TPN program and GI clinics that manage and closely monitor these children.  We also collaborate with several local and out of state home care agencies.

For children in need of liver transplantation, our Pediatric Liver Transplant Program provides expert surgical care, including both living donor procedures and cadaveric transplants using split or whole liver grafts.

Our multidisciplinary liver transplant team brings together specialists from Hepatology, Transplant Surgery, Pediatric Intensive Care, Pediatric Interventional Radiology, Liver Pathology, Transplant Pharmacology, Transplant Infectious Disease, and Transplant Immunology. This collaborative approach ensures comprehensive, high-quality care and support for our patients and families throughout every stage of the transplant journey—before, during, and after surgery.

Learn more about the pediatric liver transplant program here
  • Weight Management (GI + Nutrition + Social Work + Psychology)
  • Allergy and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (Allergy, Eosinophilic, + Nutrition)
  • Cystic Fibrosis (GI + Pulm)
  • CHIRP (GI + Nutrition + Surgery)
  • Celiac (Celiac + Nutrition)
  • Celiac and Diabetes (Celiac + Nutrition + Endo)
  • Endoscopy
  • Colonoscopy
  • Intestinal Ultrasound (IUS)
  • Endoflip
  • Vide Capsule Endoscopy (VCE)
  • IB-STIM
  • Fibroscan
  • pH probe
Dr. Ritu Verma and dietitian Macy Mears answer questions about celiac disease

At The Forefront Live: Understanding Celiac Disease

What does it take to find out if a child has celiac disease? We spoke with Dr. Ritu Verma, medical director of UChicago Medicine’s Celiac Disease Center, and dietitian Macy Mears to answer this question and more on this episode of At the Forefront Live.

Quick Links

KellarA_Ultrasound
Amelia Kellar, MD, MSc, conducts an ultrasound on a pediatric patient

Intestinal ultrasound is a game-changer for kids with inflammatory bowel disease

Amelia Kellar, MD, MSc, is one of a select few pediatric gastroenterologists in the country using intestinal ultrasound for noninvasive monitoring in children with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. 

Learn more about pediatric intestinal ultrasound and Dr. Kellar's work...