Michelle Hughes, MD

Michelle L. Hughes, MD, FACG, is a gastroenterologist at Yale Medicine who specializes in caring for patients hospitalized with acute and complex digestive diseases. Her clinical expertise includes gastrointestinal bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease, nutritional disorders, foreign body ingestion, and the evaluation of suspected gastrointestinal cancers. She performs a range of endoscopic procedures, including upper endoscopy, colonoscopy, feeding tube placement and removal, and video capsule endoscopy.

Dr. Hughes is a nationally recognized leader in inpatient gastroenterology (GI hospitalist medicine) and a frequent invited speaker for regional and national gastroenterology organizations on GI hospitalist program development, inpatient care, and complex GI and endoscopic emergencies. She is also a leader in quality improvement, patient safety, and medical education. Her work focuses on improving gastrointestinal care, advancing the field of inpatient gastroenterology, and training physicians to improve healthcare systems. She serves as Medical Chief of Quality and Safety for Digestive Health at Yale New Haven Health and holds several educational leadership roles at Yale School of Medicine, including co-director of the first-year Energy and Metabolism course and co-director of graduate medical education programs in quality improvement, patient safety, and health equity.

Her research spans inpatient gastroenterology, healthcare quality and health equity, colorectal cancer prevention, and the relationship between nutrition, neighborhood food environments, and digestive health. A particular area of interest is understanding how limited access to healthy foods or high concentrations of unhealthy food options—sometimes called “food deserts” and “food swamps”—may contribute to gastrointestinal disease and health outcomes. Her recent research has examined the relationship between neighborhood food environments, social vulnerability, and early-onset colorectal cancer.

Dr. Hughes earned her medical degree with honors from Albany Medical College. She completed her internal medicine residency at Boston Medical Center and her fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Rochester Medical Center.