The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has updated a safety communication on duodenoscopes and is recommending that hospitals and endoscopy facilities “complete transition to innovative duodenoscope designs” due to concerns about reprocessing and patient cross-contamination. The FDA previously said hospitals should consider using duodenoscopes with disposable components or adopt fully single-use models. The agency issued this new update in part because of new postmarket surveillance studies on fixed endcap design duodenoscopes that found 4.1 percent to 6.6 percent of samples tested positive with what the agency calls high-concern organisms.
Author: Praveen Suthrum
Below are five power players making waves in gastroenterology: Samir Shah, MD. President of the American College of Gastroenterology (Providence, R.I.). Dr. Shah came into his role as president of the ACG in October 2021. In addition to his most recent role, he has been a gastroenterologist at Gastroenterology Associates in Providence for over 25 years.John Inadomi, MD. President of the American Gastroenterological Association (Bethesda, Md.). Dr. Inadomi’s primary focuses are optimizing management of Barrett’s esophagus and improving screening to reduce colorectal cancer’s mortality. He has been an active member of the AGA for more than 25 years.
Many financial sponsors have entered the physician practice management arena space in such specialties as primary care, orthopedics, urology, dermatology, pediatrics, radiology, anesthesia, and women’s health, to name a few. The gastroenterology area has also attracted a significant amount of interest. We have chosen to highlight one of the most successful gastroenterology platforms — Allied Digestive Health (ADH), headquartered in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Las Vegas—A collaboration between gastroenterologists and pharmacists to establish a standardized protocol for use of biologics in inflammatory bowel disease has changed routine practice in a multicenter system and improved several quality-of-care benchmarks. “A pharmacist-gastroenterologist co-management program for use of biologics in IBD patients is superior to a traditional gastroenterologist-only model with regard to laboratory screening prior to treatment and monitoring after”.
Writing in GI & Hepatology News’ Practice Management toolbox, a group of GIs note that over the last several years, payer policies that dictate and restrict treatments for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) have proliferated. According to a recent survey of AGA members, an overwhelming majority reported that payer policies of prior authorization (PA), step therapy and non-medical switching have had a negative impact on patients’ access to clinically appropriate treatments. Reducing the burdens of these policies is a major priority for AGA advocacy.
Researchers have identified notable racial disparities in the quality of surgical care that patients with gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancers receive. Among more than 565,000 patients with GI tract cancer who underwent surgical resection, rates of negative margins, adequate lymphadenectomy, and standard adjuvant therapy were lower among Black patients than among White patients.
From declining reimbursements to increasing practice costs, the current healthcare landscape has made it difficult for many physicians to thrive, but some healthcare leaders say there are distinct opportunities for physicians to prosper in the next five years. Nine physicians joined Becker’s ASC Review to discuss some of the biggest opportunities for physicians.
AUGUSTA ( WJBF) — An artificial intelligence software is helping AU Health and the Georgia Cancer Center better find the polyps that can lead to colon cancer. “It will show a green box indicating hey look at that area there’s something not normal there,” Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology at AU Health Dr. John Erikson Yap said. AU Health is the first in the state to offer the technology that gives doctors a ” second set of eyes” and helps to pinpoint polyps that could be missed during a colonoscopy.
This transcript has been edited for clarity. Hello. I’m Dr David Johnson, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. Kudos to Dr Neena Abraham and her expert panel, who worked on recent guidelines published by the American College of Gastroenterology and the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology on the management of anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy during acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and the periendoscopic period.
This is episode 1 of 6 from our new program: Obesity in GI Care: Start the Conversation, Change the Narrative. Over the course of 6 podcast episodes and 3 webinars, you’ll learn a comprehensive approach to diagnosing and treating obesity, with a specific focus on patients with GI comorbidities. This series highlights key findings and strategies from AGA’s 2017 Practice guide on Obesity and Weight management, Education and Resources (POWER program).