DoMore Diagnostics and Proscia have entered into a collaboration focused on colorectal cancer histopathology testing. The partnership aims to combine the technologies of both digital pathology firms to assist pathologists in predicting patient outcomes and integrating AI-supported decision-making processes. Thought-Provoking Questions & Insights:
Author: Abhay Panchal
Joanne Silberner discusses the increasing influence of private equity in the U.S. healthcare system. In his 2022 state of the union address, President Joe Biden highlighted the surge of private financing into nursing homes, which has led to compromised care quality and rising costs. Private equity refers to funds collected from high-level investors to purchase companies, enhance their profitability, and eventually sell them for a substantial profit. As of 2021, private equity firms owned 11% of nursing homes. Their influence isn’t limited to nursing homes; they have also acquired physicians’ practices, hospitals, clinics, and even veterinary clinics. Between 2010 and…
The trend of vertical integration, where physicians are directly employed by hospitals instead of operating in independent practices, has been increasingly adopted across U.S. healthcare systems. While the intention behind this move is to enhance patient outcomes, a new study set to be published in Management Science reveals that vertical integration is resulting in increased costs and deteriorating health outcomes due to misaligned financial incentives. The research, which focused on Medicare patients treated by gastroenterologists, found that post-procedure complications rose significantly after vertical integration. The primary reason for this change in physician behavior is the financial incentive structure of integrated…
In an exclusive video for Healio, Dr. David M. Poppers, MD, PhD, emphasizes the paramount importance of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in the present times. He highlights the reluctance of both patients and some physicians to discuss topics related to the lower abdomen. Overcoming this stigma is vital, according to Poppers, who is a professor of medicine and director of GI quality and strategic initiatives at NYU Langone Health. He underscores the significance of screening, especially since CRC, when detected early, generally has a favorable prognosis. Poppers also mentions the variety of comfortable and effective options available for pre-colonoscopy bowel…
A novel machine-learning tool has been developed that can accurately forecast the onset of esophageal and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma using electronic health record data. This development was reported in the journal Gastroenterology. The tool, named Kettles Esophageal and Cardia Adenocarcinoma prediction tool (K-ECAN), was created in response to the lack of familiarity among most providers with guidelines for esophageal adenocarcinoma screening. Using data from over 10 million U.S. veterans, K-ECAN demonstrated superior accuracy compared to earlier models. Joel H. Rubenstein, MD, MSc, emphasized the potential of K-ECAN to be integrated into electronic health records, providing real-time cancer risk estimates to…
Gastrointestinal stents originally were developed to treat obstructing cancer in the GI tract, specifically esophageal cancer. The first developed stent was a gum-like, rubber tube used for esophageal dilation or passage via the mouth or nose across a tumor, thus acting as a feeding tube.1,2 Today, self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) and self-expanding plastic stents (SEPS) are the most widely used endoluminal stents.3 SEPs are composed of plastic polymers and are placed using a guide wire and fluoroscopy. Due to SEPs high migration rate and the development of more efficacious SEMs, SEPs are no longer preferred for management of malignant esophageal…
United Digestive (UD), a prominent provider of gastroenterology (GI) services in the U.S., has partnered with Provation, a top software and SaaS provider for clinical productivity and workflow automation, to standardize documentation across UD facilities using the Provation Apex platform. Mark Gilreath, CEO of UD, highlighted the platform’s ability to unify procedure documentation across their organization, aligning with their cloud-first strategy. Provation Apex offers a comprehensive solution for recording patient and GI procedure details, images, and coding. Ankush Kaul, President of Provation, expressed excitement about the partnership, emphasizing UD’s commitment to advanced diagnostic and treatment services.
Artificial intelligence (AI) driven computer-assisted colonoscopy can enhance the detection of small polyps, but it doesn’t significantly improve the detection of colorectal neoplasias or advanced adenomas, according to two new reports. A randomized controlled trial in Spain found that AI use didn’t lead to better detection of advanced neoplasias in patients with a positive fecal immunochemical test (FIT). This was surprising given prior studies that showed AI’s benefits in detecting small polyps. Another systematic review and meta-analysis found that while AI increased the detection of adenomas, it didn’t detect advanced adenomas and led to higher rates of unnecessary removal of…
Fatty liver disease is getting a name change. After years of discussion and review, an international working group including members of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and other hepatology societies has come to a consensus, announcing recently that they will refer to fatty liver disease as steatotic liver disease. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease will now be called metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis will now be called metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis. The group also has created a new subcategory, MetALD (pronounced met A-L-D), which is MASLD in the setting of moderate alcohol consumption…
ProPublica’s investigation reveals that Cigna, one of the largest insurers in the U.S., has implemented a system allowing its doctors to instantly reject insurance claims on medical grounds without reviewing the patient’s file. This has resulted in unexpected bills for many patients. Over two months in the previous year, Cigna doctors denied over 300,000 payment requests using this method, averaging 1.2 seconds per case. The company’s system, known as PXDX, uses an algorithm to flag mismatches between diagnoses and what the company deems acceptable tests and procedures. Medical directors then sign off on these denials in batches, without seeing any…