Burden of Digestive Diseases in the United States Part I: Overall and Upper Gastrointestinal Diseases

Introduction to SeriesDigestive, liver, and pancreatic diseases have a far-reaching medical, economic, social, and political impact on society in the United States and worldwide. We believe it is important to highlight salient features as well as key tables/figures from the Burden of Digestive Diseases in the United States report developed as part of the National Commission on Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The commission was created, in part, due to the advocacy efforts of the AGA.Divided into three segments, this series, spanning consecutive issues in Gastroenterology, will be informative and illuminating. The series will provide investigators, clinicians, and other readers with the necessary tools to generate new hypotheses, craft new directions of broad-based and integrated research, and make informed clinical conclusions.Hashem B. El-Serag, Associate EditorAnil K. Rustgi, Editor