During her 30-year career in medicine, Guadalupe Garcia-Tsao, MD, has become known as a world-renowned liver disease specialist as well as a champion of women in medicine.
Garcia-Tsao began studying liver disease as a medical student in her native Mexico. She came to the U.S. in 1985 after she was accepted into a liver research program at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, and another program at Northwestern University. Given the choice between those two programs, Garcia-Tsao chose coastal New Haven over the chilly Midwest, although her attempt to assuage her longing for Mexico’s sandy beaches with Long Island Sound’s rocky shore didn’t quite work out. But her choice of Yale worked very well, as Garcia-Tsao became a member of a liver disease research program that would come to be regarded as one of the best in the world. Mentored by the physicians and researchers who established a legacy of excellence at Yale School of Medicine and the VA, she soon became an expert in the study and treatment of liver disease, specifically portal hypertension, the main complication of liver cirrhosis.
Garcia-Tsao was hired as a Yale faculty member in 1990, in an era when medicine was a male-dominated profession. Although it was lonely at times, she blazed a trail for women in medicine during her 30 years of practice.
A professor of medicine (digestive diseases), and chief, digestive diseases at the VA-CT Healthcare System, Garcia-Tsao was recognized for her achievements with the 2021 Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the American Liver Foundation on November 19, 2021. Through her dual achievements in hepatology and as a champion of women in medicine, she has become an international icon, said Tamar Taddei, MD, who introduced Garcia-Tsao during the virtual ceremony.
When Garcia-Tsao speaks at conferences, “she needs no introduction and is known to all as Lupe,” said Taddei, associate professor of medicine (digestive diseases). “Like famous rock stars with no surnames, she draws a crowd, often standing-room only, and needs no introduction,” Taddei said. What’s more, Garcia-Tsao’s science, “has improved our understanding and in many instances changed our clinical practice,” added Taddei, the director of the Liver Cancer Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Saying, “I am proud of your company,” Garcia-Tsao dedicated the award to women in hepatology. “During my career, my colleagues have been mostly men. There were very few women I could connect with,” she said. “But times have changed, and I’m so pleased to be surrounded by many women.”
Chief among her mentors was Roberto J. Groszmann, MD, professor emeritus of medicine (digestive diseases) who passed away on January 16, 2021. Groszmann, who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was recognized as a pioneer in the field of portal hypertension. His example shaped her career, Garcia-Tsao said during an emotional moment in her acceptance speech.
Garcia-Tsao earned her medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City and completed her internal medicine residency and gastroenterology (GI) fellowship at the Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición in Mexico City. After she finished her GI fellowship in México, her mentor wrote to hepatologists in the U.S. for a customary leave of one to two years abroad for new doctors who would then return to Mexico to apply what they had learned. Harold O. Conn, MD, a world-renowned hepatologist, accepted her into his program at Yale, and introduced her to Groszmann. She studied with Gorszmann for about two years before returning to Mexico to her alma mater the Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición. After a short while, Jim Boyer, Ensign Professor of Medicine (digestive diseases) and emeritus director of the Yale Liver Center, recruited her back to Yale. She completed training in hepatology at Yale School of Medicine, joining its faculty in 1989.
In addition to her role at the VA-CT Healthcare System, Garcia-Tsao is director of the Clinical Core of the National Institutes of Health-funded Yale Liver Center. She is an associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and was president of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in 2012.
Garcia-Tsao is focused on the career development of her program’s trainees and junior faculty members, Taddei said during the awards ceremony, adding that Garcia-Tsao helped to maintain a pipeline of young investigators by developing the Emerging Liver Scholars Program as AASLD president.
“Lupe is a world-renowned teacher. She has won innumerable teaching awards at Yale and all over the world. She’s left an enduring legacy by establishing the Fundamentals of Liver Disease program also during her time as ASLD president. You will always learn from Lupe,” Taddei said.
In fact, teaching is what Garcia-Tsao is most proud of, she said, mentioning a fellows recognition award she recently received. “I give a million lectures, and I love lecturing, and I love teaching, and I love teaching the fellows,” she said. “So getting a recognition from the fellows was very significant for me.”
Watch the 2021 Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award ceremony at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31_GDNY83-Q
Since forming one of the nation’s first sections of hepatology and then gastroenterology over 50 years ago, Yale’s Section of Digestive Diseases has had an enduring impact on research and clinical care in gastrointestinal and liver disorders. To learn more about their work, visit Digestive Diseases.