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…
Author: Abhay Panchal
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.…
New biomechanical evidence suggests that increased stiffness of the colon—driven by chronic inflammation and tissue scarring—may play a central role in the development and progression of early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC), offering a potential explanation for the alarming rise in cases among patients under 50. The study, co-led by UT Southwestern Medical Center and UT Dallas researchers and published in Advanced Science, is the first to systematically link biomechanical forces in the colon to EOCRC pathogenesis. While incidence and mortality from average-onset colorectal cancer have steadily declined over the past three decades, EOCRC has risen sharply and now accounts for approximately…
Frustration with inefficient, inconsistent gastroenterology sign-off processes prompted clinicians at Northwestern Medicine to redesign how GI consult recommendations are communicated at discharge—resulting in measurable gains in provider satisfaction and workflow efficiency.By replacing ad hoc paging and variable consult notes with a standardized GI sign-off form, the team aimed to reduce ambiguity, minimize back-and-forth communication, and improve continuity of care as patients and providers transition. To determine what information mattered most, the GI team partnered closely with primary care colleagues, ensuring the final template emphasized clarity, actionability, and relevance. The resulting formal sign-off form consolidated key clinical details, recommendations, follow-up needs,…
Earlier and more widespread adoption of advanced therapies—including biologics and small molecules—has not meaningfully altered long-term outcomes in Crohn’s disease at a population level, according to 10-year data from the pan-European Epi-IBD cohort.Despite marked regional differences in treatment intensity and timing, patients in Western and Eastern Europe experienced nearly identical rates of surgery, disease progression, and hospitalization over a decade of follow-up.Published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the analysis draws on one of the most rigorous contemporary IBD datasets available. The Epi-IBD cohort prospectively followed unselected, newly diagnosed Crohn’s disease patients across 22 centers in Europe, using standardized data collection…
Earlier this year the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced the “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction” model, a series of prior authorization requirements designed to ensure timely and appropriate Medicare payment for select items and services in six states (New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington) that take effect Jan. 1. As part of the “WISeR” requirements, CMS selected tech vendors to implement enhanced technological models to scrutinize prior authorizations involving Medicare recipients. The program set out to save money by targeting “a specific subset of items and services that may have little to no clinical benefit for…
Medtronic’s diabetes business, MiniMed, has formally filed for an IPO, marking a major restructuring move that will create a standalone competitor in the increasingly crowded diabetes technology market—but not without near-term financial and operational headwinds.The filing reveals that MiniMed generated $2.72 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025, while posting a $198 million loss, underscoring the challenge of balancing scale, innovation, and profitability in diabetes devices.
An AI-enabled digital collaborative care model significantly improved symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), demonstrating how clinician-guided AI can scale guideline-recommended, multidisciplinary care without overwhelming specialty practices. In a study published in Neurogastroenterology & Motility, researchers evaluated Ayble Health, a digital collaborative care model (DCCM) that integrates personalized nutrition, brain-gut behavioral therapy (BGBT), and access to a multidisciplinary care team for patients with IBS. The analysis included 202 patients (median age 41.5 years, 78% women), nearly all of whom engaged with the nutrition pathway, while three-quarters utilized behavioral therapy and clinician support. Most patients selected multiple pathways, with…