AGA is highlighting Wade Diagnostics, a startup founded by gastroenterologist Ari Bar-Mashiah, MD, to address one of the most persistent challenges in colonoscopy: inadequate bowel preparation. The company is developing a medical device designed to improve at-home bowel preparation, with the potential to reduce repeat procedures, missed or delayed diagnoses, prolonged procedure times and unnecessary healthcare costs.
What makes the story particularly relevant is the physician-innovator pathway behind the startup. Bar-Mashiah developed the concept through AGA’s Innovation Fellows program, which connected him with physician innovators, entrepreneurs and industry leaders and provided training in areas including customer discovery, clinical evidence, intellectual property, regulatory strategy, engineering and commercialization. He credits the program—and AGA’s 2025 Tech Summit, including a keynote from Praveen Suthrum—with giving him the confidence and roadmap to turn a clinical problem he repeatedly encountered into a potential medical technology solution.