Atlantic, Iowa-based Cass Health has partnered with Omaha, Neb.-based Midwest Gastrointestinal Associates to bring two GI specialists to Cass, according to a Jan. 25 report from Western Iowa Today. Beginning on Feb. 1, Benjamin Hall, MD, and Helen Fasanya-Uptagraft, MD, will travel to Cass monthly to care for patients experiencing ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, hepatitis C, diverticulitis and other GI issues. They will also perform colonoscopy and EGD procedures.
Author: Abhay Panchal
Faced with an opportunity to advocate for patients, Rajeev Jain, MD, AGAF, is never afraid to speak up. He recently spoke out publicly against a major payer’s new advance notification process for colonoscopy and endoscopy procedures, cautioning it was a glidepath toward far-reaching prior authorization requirements. UnitedHealthcare plans to collect a larger scope of data for this new policy, “which I fear will disrupt and deny patients’ access to lifesaving care,” Dr. Jain, a gastroenterologist with Texas Digestive Disease Consultants and a member of the American Gastroenterological Association’s (AGA) Prior Authorization Reform Task Force, wrote in an opinion piece in…
Measuring disease status in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients generally requires invasive blood draws or procedures, but a novel wearable device shows initial promise at providing similar information from perspiration. The device, in development by EnLiSense, can rapidly detect calprotectin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), using miniaturized versions of biochemical lab tests. Patient monitoring relies on identifying trends, whether biomarker levels are increasing or decreasing, according to Shalini Prasad, PhD, who presented the study during a poster session at the annual Crohn’s & Colitis Congress®, a partnership of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and the American Gastroenterological Association. “In…
A presenter at the Crohn’s & Colitis Congress outlined some of the newer therapies that have expanded the current “arsenal of tools” for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. “When we think about these therapies, we know that they have truly revolutionized our management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease,” David Choi, PharmD, clinical pharmacy specialist and associate director at the University of Chicago Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, said. “The landscape really has improved, and more and more therapies have come to market. … But I think sometimes we can be a little hesitant to use some of these newer…
A previously unknown type of replicating agent named “obelisks” has been found in genomic data from stool samples – but we know little about what these entities do. A previously unknown type of replicating agent, far smaller and simpler than a virus, has been found in the human gut. These entities have been called “obelisks” by their discoverers.
The US National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has issued guidelines stating that post-surgical circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is an emerging prognostic marker but does not recommend its use or the use of multigene assays to inform recurrence risk or adjuvant treatment for colon cancer patients. While ctDNA, multigene assays, and Immunoscore can provide additional recurrence risk information, the NCCN panel questions their value in predicting whether patients may benefit from additional chemotherapy. The panel suggests the need for additional clinical trials to gather more data. This decision aligns with the European Society for Medical Oncology’s guidelines from 2020, and it…
Delfi Diagnostics has put forward a new cancer monitoring test that searches the blood for broken pieces of tumor DNA, and it is kicking off the test’s launch with a collaboration with Immunocore to explore its use in multiple malignancies. The fragmentome-based liquid biopsy test is currently limited to research use only. Delfi describes it as a highly sensitive means of measuring tumor burden and gauging a cancer’s response or resistance to treatment. “The DELFI-TF assay delivers a genome-wide measure of the proportion of [cell-free DNA] derived from a tumor and it is highly correlated with the mutant allele fraction…
Systematic implementation of a digital risk assessment tool can identify patients with high-risk cancer susceptibility syndromes and other actionable variants, according to new research. Using this tool, the researchers found genetic variants of concern in nearly 16% of patients they tested. “Most of these individuals—and by extension their family members through cascade testing—may not have been diagnosed otherwise,” said Daniel J. Pambianco, MD, who presented the findings at the 2023 annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology. “The perception of hereditary cancer syndromes is that they are relatively rare, but this is not necessarily the case,” Dr. Pambianco noted.…
An initiative at the University of North Carolina health system successfully increased the use of biosimilars in rheumatology and gastroenterology clinics. Clinically stable patients were transitioned from Remicade to biosimilars, Renflexis or Avsola, in 2021. A retrospective review of electronic health records was conducted to compare clinical outcomes. Out of 180 patients, 47.2% were considered appropriate for the switch, and 63.5% successfully switched. Reasons for not switching included patient preference, inability to reach patients, insurance or cost issues, intolerance, and unknown reasons. Adverse effects were reported, with 9.4% attributed to biosimilars. Some patients reported worsened symptoms, but it was challenging…
Motus GI Holdings, Inc. has announced positive results from a study of its second-generation Pure-Vu System, a bowel cleansing system designed to improve endoscopic outcomes. The study, published in the United European Gastroenterology (UGE) journal, demonstrated that the Pure-Vu System can achieve adequate bowel cleansing in patients with a history of inadequate bowel preparation. This can reduce the need for repeat colonoscopies and clinical admissions. The study included 44 patients with previous poor bowel preparation, and the results showed a significant improvement in bowel preparation scores, with 88.6% of patients adequately prepared after using the Pure-Vu System. The system also…