Douglas LaBrecque, MD, FACP, FAASLD, professor emeritus in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, has dedicated his career to advancing liver disease treatment and gastroenterology education worldwide. The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) recently recognized LaBrecque’s legacy by selecting him for the Master of the WGO Award—the highest honor bestowed by the organization.
WGO is a global nonprofit organization with a mission to improve standards of Gastroenterology and Hepatology training, education, and practice worldwide, with more than 60,000 members and more than 600 national and international societies. The 2025 Masters of WGO Award recognizes physicians who have made exceptional contributions to WGO and the gastroenterology field at large through exceptional research, teaching, and service. WGO announces Masters’ recipients in conjunction with the World Congress of Gastroenterology, an international conference that the organization hosts. In 1958, Washington, DC, hosted the first World Congress, which took place every four years before moving to a two-year schedule in 2017.
WGO will honor the 2025 Masters recipients in Melbourne, Australia. Although LaBrecque is unable to attend, the organization will formally recognize him at the Congress’s opening ceremony on Sunday, September 20, and again at the WGO general assembly the following day. WGO will recognize LaBrecque with an engraved plaque and the honorary title of “Master of the WGO.”
LaBrecque is a natural choice for the “Master of the WGO” distinction. He built and directed the UI Liver Consult Service and co-founded UI Health Care’s Liver Transplant Program both more than four decades ago—and this was just the start of his legacy. Over his career, LaBrecque has authored an extensive collection of high-impact research and mentored generations of medical students, residents, and fellows. He served as co-founder and medical director of the Iowa HCV Echo Program providing liver care to rural and less-fortunate patients throughout the state. He opened training centers and regularly visited to teach on all seven continents for WGO. He continues to serve on advisory and planning committees with both WGO as well as the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the latter of which he is also a named fellow. He has also been named a fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP).
Throughout his WGO membership, he has served in several leadership positions, including Chair of the Hepatology Interest Group. LaBrecque further expanded his international impact by co-founding the World Gastroenterology Organization Foundation, whose mission is to develop and sustain the WGO’s global training and education programs worldwide.
Achieving WGO Master distinction is a significant career capstone, and LaBrecque’s dedication to advancing gastroenterology and hepatology long precedes this recognition.