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Rockey Clinical Research Lab

Don C. Rockey, M.D.Don C. Rockey, M.D.

Professor
Department of Medicine

Dr. Rockey’s ongoing clinical investigation program is focused on establishing management strategies for common gastrointestinal and liver diseases. There are two major areas of focus. The first is in the luminal gastrointestinal tract, and focuses on the appropriate management of gastrointestinal bleeding - particularly on the usage of endoscopy. Research has been focused on occult and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, portal hypertensive bleeding, acute upper GI bleeding, and lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Great attention has been placed on understanding best practices and approaches that lead to changes in clinical practice on a national level. Additionally, effort has been in understanding clinical outcomes in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding.

The second major area of clinical research is in the liver, with a major focus on chronic liver disease and complications of cirrhosis, particularly those due to portal hypertension. The group has been interested in understanding predictors of mortality in patients with cirrhosis, again with an intent to improve the practice of medicine by better understanding the natural history of disease and by developing methods and guidelines to improve quality of care. Recent interest has also been focused in the area of drug induced liver injury (DILI). In this domain, emphasis has been on the most appropriate methods of causality assessment, including assessments of the RUCAM instrument, as well as “Expert Opinion”, and others. An important goal is to help develop improved assessment instruments, including perhaps computerized versions.

The techniques used in the clinical research include retrospective and prospective cohort studies, case-control studies, and randomized controlled trials. 

Publications

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PubMed Collection

Senior Author Publications:

Senior Author PubMed Collection (senior author publications are most often associated with mentored projects)