This award is an enormous honor to me. It belongs to my team and the 150 plus Global experts and their clinical research associates alongside whom we worked in the area of GI endoscopy for over 20 years. My research career started in academia, then moved to start-up, and later to larger companies. In my opinion large manufacturers of medical devices (and drugs) have an opportunity and should feel it a responsibility to contribute to research, not only about the devices they bring to market, but also about the procedures in which these devices are used. More specifically, helping to coordinate multi-national prospective trials and publishing these independently of what study findings are, is a privilege. Single arm trials in more novel procedures or randomized trials to comparatively assess medical merit and risk of two (or more) treatment options, are needed to inform practice guidelines. Manufacturers are guided by and benefit from practice guidelines by the ASGE and other prestigious medical societies. Hence, contributing to medical evidence needed to develop such guidelines, I see as an honor and a duty. I am hopeful this 2023 ASGE President’s Award may serve as encouragement to all manufacturers of devices used in the clinical world of the ASGE to contribute to high quality trials that bring quantitative translation of medically relevant questions and bring answers that are meaningful to patients. It is an honor to be calling GI endoscopy my professional home that I love. Thank you ASGE and thank you President Dr Bret Petersen for the tremendous honor of receiving this award.
Twenty plus years of partnering with Global experts in gastrointestinal endoscopy in multi-national prospective trials coordinated by Joy and her team have led to multiple clearances and approvals of new devices and expanded indication for use for already marketed devices in interventional endoscopy. Over 30 associated publications of these trials, co-authored by Joy and team or not, include cited evidence towards guidelines, particularly in ERCP and interventional EUS. Trials in interventional pulmonology have also led to a handful of publications. During her 23-year career at Boston Scientific, Joy served as a member of the management board of the Endoscopy division since 2000, as VP of Global Clinical Programs since 2012, and for a few years also serving on the management boards for the Urology and Oncology divisions. Prior to that, she worked in start-ups and small companies in diagnostic and therapeutic cardiology and ophthalmology (Oculon Corp, Cambridge Heart Inc, Summit Technology Inc), holding leadership roles in pre-clinical and clinical research. She received a PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and did postdoctoral research there and at the Max Planck Institute. Her research focused on laser-based methods for studying phase transitions in macromolecular systems. Her undergraduate in physics was at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels. She holds dual citizenship of Belgium and the USA. Joy is married to Seth (physicist) and is the proud mother of son Max (physician) and daughter Clara (urban planner).