ASGE HANDS Honors Program

Requirements (All Nominations)

• ASGE member in good standing at the time of nomination and recognition, currently practicing or training in gastroenterology or hepatology (including physicians, APPs, nurses, trainees, and students)
• Voluntary, charitable service benefiting underserved communities and not required by employment, training, credentialing, or other mandated obligations
• Submission includes a completed Beneficiary Verification Form from an eligible verifier and contains no patient identifiable information

Individual Nomination Criteria

• Clearly defined personal role (e.g., founder/leader, medical director, recurring volunteer, episodic volunteer)
• At least one measurable contribution metric (hours/days, patient encounters, procedures, sites served, training sessions delivered, or comparable output)

Group Nomination Criteria

• Group includes at least one ASGE member in good standing who has formal training in GI/hepatology and serves as the primary contact
• Group is a defined program, initiative, or partnership (not an ad hoc set of unrelated individuals)
• Submission lists key contributors and describes governance/leadership structure
• Submission provides program-level metrics (frequency, duration, reach) and a brief sustainability plan when relevant

• Charitable services performed to satisfy Certificate of Need requirements or any other mandatory institutional requirement (employment, privileging, contract)
• Activities that are primarily financial donations or fundraising without substantive volunteer service contribution by the nominee(s)
• Activities involving substantial compensation beyond reasonable expense reimbursement
• Submissions containing patient-identifiable information or that cannot be verified through an eligible beneficiary verifier
• Individuals or groups under active professional discipline that would create reputational risk for ASGE (as determined by ASGE governance policy and legal counsel where appropriate)

Service may include, but is not limited to:

• Direct charitable clinical care: donated professional services (endoscopy and/or consultative care) for uninsured or underinsured patients
• Domestic or international humanitarian missions conducted with appropriate local partnership and continuity planning
• Capacity-building: training, mentorship, protocol development, safety and quality improvement, and responsible equipment support paired with training and maintenance planning
• Public health-focused hepatology and digestive health: screening and linkage-to-care programs in resource-limited settings, targeted to underserved communities

• Each verified nomination is reviewed by two members of the Member Engagement Committee, with Honoree determinations based on eligibility and verification
• Distinguished Impact Award recipients are selected through a structured scoring rubric and committee deliberation, and may require one short peer endorsement (250–400 words)
• Decisions are final; however, nominations not selected due to missing documentation may be resubmitted in a future cycle with corrected materials

The primary window covers services performed in the prior calendar year (January 1 – December 31). A flexibility window of up to 18 months may be allowed for multi-month initiatives or mission cycles, at the Member Engagement Committee's discretion.