2026-27 CAG Visiting Clinical Professor

Robert Bechara, MD, FRCPC

QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY

 

Dr. Robert Bechara is an Associate Professor at Queen's University and an advanced therapeutic endoscopist at Kingston Health Sciences Centre in Kingston, Ontario. His clinical and academic work focuses on third-space endoscopy, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), magnifying endoscopy, optical diagnosis, and the minimally invasive management of gastrointestinal neoplasia, including Barrett's neoplasia.

Dr. Bechara completed his internal medicine and gastroenterology training at Queen's University, followed by fellowship training in advanced therapeutic endoscopy at St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto. He then completed a one-year third-space endoscopy fellowship under Professor Haruhiro Inoue at Showa University Digestive Disease Center Koto-Toyosu Hospital in Tokyo, becoming the first Canadian to complete this formal training program, with a curriculum spanning POEM, ESD, POET, anti-reflux mucosectomy, and advanced magnifying endoscopy.

Building on this foundation, Dr. Bechara has become one of Canada's leading experts in ESD and has played a key role in advancing ESD training, adoption, and capacity nationwide. He is also a recognized leader in optical diagnosis, with a particular interest in improving the quality, consistency, and confidence of optical diagnosis in North America. To support this work, he established the first formal optical diagnosis course in North America.

In 2025, Dr. Bechara undertook additional focused training at the Cancer Institute Hospital of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in Tokyo, with an emphasis on pharyngeal ESD. He subsequently introduced pharyngeal ESD to North America and has contributed to advancing awareness of its detection, technique, and potential role in Western endoscopic practice.

His current interests include ESD, POEM, full-thickness resection, magnifying endoscopy, optical diagnosis, and the development of educational programs for advanced endoscopic imaging and resection.

Potential Topics of Presentation:

• Optical Diagnosis: Hypopharyngeal and Esophageal Squamous Mucosa and Neoplasia
• Optical Diagnosis: Barrett’s Mucosa and Neoplasia
• Optical Diagnosis: Gastric Mucosa and Neoplasia
• Optical Diagnosis: Colonic Mucosa and Neoplasia
• Optical Diagnosis: Characterization of Upper and Lower GI Tract Lesions
• The Endoscopist’s Guide to Detection of Upper GI Neoplasia
• Optimizing Upper Endoscopy
• Optimizing Detection of Gastric Neoplasia
• The Endoscopist’s Guide to Pharyngeal Neoplasia: From Detection to Pharyngeal ESD
• ESD: Indications, Tips and Tricks
• Colonic EMR vs ESD: What to Use When
• Colorectal ESD: State of the Art
• Colorectal Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection for the Everyday Endoscopist
• Treatment of Neoplastic Lesions in the Stomach and Duodenum
• POEM for Complex Achalasia

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Selected Publications (trainees underlined):

• Coming soon

 

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