Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), comprising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated, relapsing-remitting conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with multidimensional and often negative effects on patients’ quality of life. The global burden of IBD is increasing and is forecast to affect 1% of the population in early industrialized nations over the next 10 years. Advances in our understanding of the causes and pathogenesis of IBD in the past three decades have translated into new treatments that modulate the immune inflammatory cascade. Modern goals of treatment are clinical remission through assessment of patient reported outcomes and deep remission…
Author: Abhay Panchal
Traditional Medicare is about to change in ways that closely resemble Medicare Advantage—and the shift is drawing sharp scrutiny. Beginning in January, a new pilot program will introduce AI-assisted prior authorization for select procedures across six states, expanding a tool long associated with private plans into traditional Medicare. Supporters frame the move as a way to curb low-value care and reduce waste, while critics warn it could delay treatment and quietly accelerate Medicare’s privatization. With millions of beneficiaries affected and political resistance mounting, the debate over where efficiency ends and access begins is just getting started, as outlined in the…
A new partnership is taking shape around one of colorectal cancer’s most persistent challenges: getting more people screened on time. The Global Healthy Living Foundation and Guardant Health have joined forces to focus on patient-centered education, aiming to reduce confusion, stigma, and access barriers that keep many eligible adults from screening. By elevating patient and clinician voices and pointing to a wider range of screening options, the collaboration hints at a different approach to closing the early-detection gap—one that may influence how and when people choose to get screened.
2025 marked a year of consolidation and momentum in gastroenterology, shaped less by single breakthroughs and more by how rapidly new evidence translated into practice. From a wave of FDA approvals in IBD to evolving guidelines that pushed earlier use of high-efficacy therapies, the field sharpened its focus on durability, flexibility, and patient-centered care. Progress also extended beyond IBD, with advances in pediatric IBS-C, gastroparesis, and colorectal cancer prevention. How these developments collectively reset clinical priorities is explored in this year-in-review from HCPLive.
CapsoVision has taken a key regulatory step toward expanding the role of AI in capsule endoscopy. The company announced the submission of an FDA 510(k) application for an AI-assisted reading module designed to enhance pathology detection and reduce clinician review time for its CapsoCam Plus system. Framed as part of a broader push toward cloud-based, AI-enabled GI diagnostics, the move highlights how capsule endoscopy platforms are evolving beyond image capture alone. Whether this approach meaningfully reshapes small-bowel workflows—and how it compares with existing solutions—becomes clearer in the full announcement from CapsoVision.
A new international study explores whether a simple blood test could help close a growing gap in colorectal cancer detection among younger adults. By analyzing a specific combination of circulating and exosome-bound microRNAs, researchers report strong diagnostic performance for identifying early-onset CRC—including in patients as young as 20–35 years and across early disease stages. The findings raise important questions about how noninvasive tools might complement existing screening strategies, especially for individuals reluctant to undergo colonoscopy. What the data ultimately suggest—and where the approach still falls short—is detailed in the full article.
Despite operating in an increasingly strained healthcare environment, many gastroenterologists report that technology—particularly ambient AI and workflow automation—is helping them absorb demand, manage patient volumes, and blunt the day-to-day impact of physician shortages. According to Medscape’s Gastroenterology Practice Issues Report 2025, the specialty appears more resilient than headlines about shortages and burnout alone might suggest—but that resilience is uneven and fragile. The survey, conducted between July and September 2025 among 131 practicing gastroenterologists, paints a nuanced picture. On the surface, most GI physicians say they are still able to function efficiently: 91% report they can add new patients without creating…
This editorial delivers a stark, first-person indictment of the modern U.S. health care system, arguing that physician shortages, corporate consolidation, and private equity have collectively eroded access, quality, and trust in medical care. Dr. John C. Hagan III contends that U.S. health care no longer functions as a coherent system at all. Despite consuming nearly $5 trillion annually, it routinely fails patients through long wait times, inaccessible physicians, excessive bureaucracy, and misaligned financial incentives. While once viewed as the world’s best, U.S. health care now excels primarily at generating profits for hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, administrators, trial lawyers, and fraudsters—rather than delivering…
In a wide-ranging discussion on the Medical Economics podcast, Grant outlines how mounting administrative burden, payer pressure, physician burnout, and shifting patient expectations are converging to make membership-based care an increasingly attractive—and viable—practice model.At the macro level, physicians are facing intensifying documentation demands, declining reimbursement, inflation-driven cost pressures, and persistent workforce shortages. At the same time, patients are becoming more willing to pay for personalized, accessible care, driven by broader consumer trends in health optimization, longevity, and service transparency. These parallel forces are pushing concierge medicine out of the margins and into the mainstream conversation across multiple specialties.
A new study in Nature Nanotechnology introduces a radically different approach to colorectal cancer immunotherapy: peptide-based nanorobots that simultaneously block immune checkpoint signaling and physically rupture cancer cell membranes—turning immunologically “cold” tumors into T-cell–inflamed targets. Colorectal cancer (CRC) has long been resistant to immunotherapy, largely because most tumors exhibit poor immune cell infiltration and limited responsiveness to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade outside of MSI-H/dMMR subtypes. To overcome this barrier, researchers from Chongqing Medical University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and international collaborators engineered a PD-L1–targeting nanorobot (NRb) designed to remain localized within tumors, disrupt cancer cells directly, and activate systemic antitumor immunity.…