Corey Ketchem, MD, was awarded the Bondurant-Ehringhaus Award, which recognizes a current second year internal medicine resident or a second or third med-peds resident, and provides a stipend to support the conduct and presentation of ongoing research. The majority of Ketchem’s research has been conducted with Evan Dellon, MD, MPH, professor medicine in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology, on eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and other esophageal diseases. A variety of projects have resulted in academic output and presentations at Digestive Diseases Week (DDW).
An early project explored the impact of a pharmacy-formulated fluticasone suspension on the clinical, histologic, and endoscopic outcomes in EoE using a retrospective cohort model. The study revealed that a fluticasone suspension provided a significant improvement in symptomatic and endoscopic findings, with one-third of patients achieving histologic remission. A first author manuscript was published in Diseases of the Esophagus.
Another project focused on a newly defined eating disorder known as avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), recently described in children with EoE. Ketchem and Dellon identified and characterized ARFID in an adult EoE population, showing that they have high burden of stricture and psychiatric comorbidities. A first author research correspondence is currently in review.
More recently, Ketchem was involved with a study evaluating elderly patients (>65) with EoE and their response to topical corticosteroids (tCS). The peak prevalence of EoE is in the fourth decade of life, which often leads to older EoE patients being excluded from studies or clinical trials. An abstract for the study was presented at DDW 2021. Ketchem is currently in the process of drafting a first author manuscript for submission.
Ketchem received a Bachelor of Science from University of Kentucky and Medical Doctorate from the University of Louisville. He also received a master of science from the University of Louisville’s Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
The Bondurant-Ehringhaus Award is given to residents by the late Stuart Bondurant, MD, dean emeritus of the UNC School of Medicine, and his wife Susan Ehringhaus. Bondurant served as Dean from 1979-1994.