Dr Matthew Banks

Matthew is a consultant gastroenterologist at UCLH, with an academic appointment as an honorary associate professor at the National Medical Laser Centre, University College London (UCL).

Main interests:

• Early gastric cancer and cancer detection
• Barrett’s oesophagus
• Acid reflux
• Achalasia and oesophageal motility disorders, including POEM (Per-oral endoscopy myotomy)
• Therapeutic endoscopy including ESD, RFA ablation, EMR and POEM

He was director of endoscopy at UCLH from November 2007 to April 2014, having formerly been director of endoscopy at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital from July 2005 to October 2007. He was the British Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy committee secretary to January 2020 and sat on the BSG Research and Clinical Services and Standards Committee. He remains on the BSG Endoscopy section research group.

Achievements of these positions include JAG accreditation for Chelsea & Westminster in 2007 and provisional accreditation at UCLH in 2014. His current appointments include:

• 2007 - Endoscopy training lead UCLH
• 2014 to 2020 - Secretary - British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Endoscopy Committee
• 2012 to current - BSG Endoscopy Research Committee
• 2010 to current - Endoscopy Section editor, Faculty of 1000 (F1000)
• 2005 - National endoscopy trainer faculty (St Georges Hospital)

He pioneered endoscopic cancer techniques in the UK including ESD in 2007 having trained in Japan and POEM in 2014 having trained in Belgium.

He has written chapters and reviews on endoscopy and edited the text book 'Endoscopy in the Cancer Patient'. He has also written numerous original papers and general reviews.

He has led a world renowned unit at UCLH, which is also the largest Barrett's centre in the UK undertaking ground breaking research. He has set up a ‘Pig-model laboratory’ for endotherapy training at UCLH Education Centre. He is faculty on the largest live endoscopy conference in the UK (London Live Endoscopy) and frequently facilitates endoscopy courses for consultants to refine their own skills as follows:

• London Live annually
• Hands on UCLH EUS course annually
• Barrett’s early neoplasia tri-annually
• EMR/ESD hands on course annually
• BEST Academia (RFA for Barretts) bi-annually

He was able to refine his techniques during an endoscopic fellowship in Sydney in 2004 and a sabbatical in Tokyo's prestigious National Cancer Centre in 2007 training in ESD, and undertook POEM training in Leuven. He is now one of a select few national endoscopy trainers with exemplary performance standards, in endoscopy and colonoscopy