Dr. Anne Peery is a gastroenterologist with a research focus on understudied and common gastrointestinal diseases that have a significant impact on quality of life and healthcare costs. She earned her medical degree at the UNC School of Medicine, where she also completed her internship, residency and fellowship training. During fellowship training, she also earned her master’s degree at the UNC School of Public Health. She joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina in 2013. For the last three years, she has been a scholar on the North Carolina Translational & Clinical Sciences Institute (KL2 TR001109) mentored scholars program.
Dr. Peery focuses on benign conditions of the colon, including diverticular disease and hemorrhoids. Despite the extremely common nature of these conditions, there is little scientifically-based evidence to guide the care of patients with these commonly-encountered conditions. Indeed, most of the algorithms of care f these diseases are governed by opinions and best guesses as to good practice rather than hard evidence. Dr. Peery’s research has challenged long-held beliefs about risk factors for uncomplicated diverticulosis and raised new questions about a long neglected disease. She recently served as a content expert and co-authored the guideline for the management of acute diverticulitis for the American Gastroenterological Association. She also co-authored a commentary that addressed a controversial recommendation generated by the guideline.
Dr. Peery and her colleagues here at the University of North Carolina have also collaborated to publish reports detailing the current state of gastrointestinal, liver and pancreatic morbidity, mortality, and cost in adults in the United States. They gathered data from several complementary national databases to achieve this objective and documented the many ways that gastrointestinal diseases are a source of substantial burden and cost in the United States. This work has been cited hundreds of times.
Dr. Peery has two young children and has written on work-life balance.