James H. Tabibian, MD, PhD, FASGE

“I am grateful to my colleagues who nominated me for this honor and to the ASGE for selecting me as a recipient. This is a significant highlight in my career, one that holds deep significance for me professionally and personally, as it reflects my dedication to teaching the art and science of advancing our field and the health of our patients through endoscopy. In this light, it has been tremendously rewarding to see my mentees become successful gastroenterologists, and I am indebted to the many individuals who have helped contribute to my mentees’ careers as well as my own.”

Dr. Tabibian is an interventional endoscopist and the medical director of the Advanced Gastroenterology Center at Adventist Health Glendale. Prior to joining Adventist Health in 2023, he was the director of endoscopy at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and a health sciences clinical professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Dr. Tabibian grew up in Central California and obtained his bachelor’s degree in international relations from UC Davis. He received his MD degree at UCLA, where he graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha honors. Dr. Tabibian completed his residency training at Johns Hopkins, thereafter becoming the first ABIM Subspecialty Research track fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic Rochester. During his gastroenterology fellowship, Dr. Tabibian completed a PhD through the Mayo Graduate School’s Center for Clinical and Translational Studies. Following his training at Mayo Clinic, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as an advanced endoscopy fellow, after which he recruited to join the faculty at UC Davis Medical Center as an assistant professor and director of fellow research. Family needs brought him back to Southern California in 2017.

Dr. Tabibian has more than 200 PubMed-indexed articles that have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, PLOS Medicine, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Gastroenterology, The American Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He was the inaugural editor of the textbook Diagnosis and Management of Cholangiocarcinoma: A Multidisciplinary Approach, and he recently wrote the book Digestive Problems Solved: A Patient’s Guide to Expert Insights and Solutions. Dr. Tabibian serves on the editorial board of several journals and national professional society committees. He is an expert medical reviewer in gastroenterology for the Medical Board of California and a consultant at the national and international levels in the health care and biotechnology sectors. Dr. Tabibian  remains active in teaching medical students and trainees at Adventist Health Glendale and in his community.