CHICAGO—On average, surgeons are much less likely than gastroenterologists to detect adenomas during routine screening colonoscopy, according to a VA data set.
Based on the lower relative adenoma detection rate (ADR), the disparity “highlights potential opportunities for quality improvement,” according to study investigator Andrew J. Gawron, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and an assistant professor at the University of Utah, also in Salt Lake City.
The study analyzed 669,434 colonoscopies performed by 1,095 unique providers between October 2018 and September 2022. Although gastroenterologists greatly outnumbered surgeons (906 vs. 189) and performed 88.8% of the procedures, more than 70,000 colonoscopies performed by surgeons were available for comparison.