A bachelor’s degree in literature from Reed College preceded his MD in 1973 from Keck University of Southern California and internal medicine training at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. This was followed by GI fellowship training at UCLA and the Wadsworth VA Medical Center 1976-1978.

Dr Littenberg established a solo private practice in Pasadena, CA in 1978 which grew gradually to a group of 4, working out of Huntington Memorial Hospital where he was President of the Medical Staff and won Best Teaching awards from the Medical Housestaff.

Largely in pursuit of answers to practice management problems, he became involved in coding, billing , regulatory and political advocacy efforts in the 1980s, schooling himself in health policy and health administration. This led to long-standing involvement in the California Medical Association, California’s Internal Medicine Societies and the national counterparts, American Society of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians. After terms as president of the Calif. SIM and chair of the ASIM/ACP’s coding and reimbursement committee, and serving as ACP’s advisor to the AMA CPT Editorial Panel, he then served 8 years (1998-2006) as an Editorial Panel member.   He was then asked to join ASGE’s Practice Management Committee and chaired the PMC 2008-2015; he also serves as ASGE’s CPT Advisor and was a course director for 3 years for ASGE/AGA Gastroenterology Outlook (GO) national course.

He received much-appreciated recognition with distinguished service awards from the California Chapter of the ACP, a Crystal Service Award from the ASGE and was recognized as a Master of the ACP.

He was a founding board member of the Southern California Gastroenterology Associates (SCGA) medical group, as of its founding in 2012 consisting of 32 gastroenterologists originating in 12 separate practices that merged, now the largest GI group in California, which (as InSite Digestive HealthCare) projects to have 50 physicians by the end of 2015 and offices from San Francisco to Irvine in California.

In his (rare) time off, he pursues photography and travels widely in photography workshops in pursuit of the dramatic image. He continues activity in teaching, writes and speaks widely on issues of healthcare reform, physician reimbursement and GI practice administration. As of 2015 he will chair ASGE’s Reimbursement Committee and serves on the Excellence in Practice Taskforce. He is most pleased to return to the GI Roundtable as a speaker and to continue working with his predecessor/mentor in the ASGE Practice Management Committee, Dr Klaus Mergener.