Let’s escape our busy day for a moment to imagine the future of gastroenterology and to ask ourselves: How can technology make us better clinicians? Explore that very question with Drs. Peter Buch and Brennan Spiegel as they discuss the latest advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality that are aiding both clinical practice and research efforts.
Author: Praveen Suthrum
Southlake, Texas-based GI Alliance is the largest gastroenterology ‘megagroup’ in the industry, with more than 660 physicians and 400 locations. The company is also the most geographically dispersed gastroenterology organization in the U.S., according to a report jointly published by consulting firm Fraser Healthcare and pharma research firm Spherix Global Insights. Despite its size, the company remains physician-led and majority physician-owned.
Having just moved back to San Antonio, the 30-something searched for a doctor to manage her Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that is successfully managed with medications and lifelong monitoring—including regular colonoscopies. Mariel booked an appointment and learned she would be on the hook for a $1,100 colonoscopy—about three times what she had paid for the same test in a different state. Almost three-quarters of the bill would be a “facility fee” for the in-office procedure at a colonoscopy clinic. (KHN agreed not to disclose Mariel’s last name because she is concerned speaking out might affect her doctor’s willingness…
Preventive colonoscopies, which are usually scheduled every 10 years starting at age 45, are supposed to be free for patients, according to the Affordable Care Act. Hospitals and providers are allowed to change to a more expensive billing code if a colonoscopy is considered diagnostic rather than preventive, but the distinction isn’t always clear. Removal of a polyp is sometimes the reason a provider changes the billing code from screening to diagnostic, Kaiser Health News reported May 31.
There is no significant association between metachronous cancer and biopsy of nontumor sites after biopsy of a primary colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a study published online May 26 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
TUESDAY, June 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) — There is a bidirectional association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and depression, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Bing Zhang, M.D., from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues used data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to investigate depression risk among 422 IBD patients, their 537 unaffected siblings, and 2,148 controls. In addition, the authors looked at IBD risk among 25,552 patients with depression, their 26,147 unaffected siblings, and 104,588 controls. Follow-up lasted 11 years.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) during screening colonoscopy could be a cost-savings strategy that also could boost the prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality, a researcher reported.
Background Guidelines on colorectal cancer (CRC) screening recommend screening of average-risk adults only. In addition, screening of individuals with active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) might result in too many false-positive cases. However, the organisers of CRC screening programmes are often uninformed of whom to exclude due to an elevated CRC risk or active IBD. It is therefore unknown how often high-risk individuals (i.e. individuals with a previous diagnosis of CRC or polyps associated with hereditary CRC syndromes and certain patient groups with a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or multiple polyps) and individuals with active IBD participate in CRC…
Litigation continues over the No Surprises Act (NSA) as the Biden administration issues new guidance regarding the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process, good faith estimates, and more. This article summarizes the status of at least eight lawsuits filed by health care providers over the NSA and recent guidance on implementation of the law. Federal officials have suggested that there will be a final IDR rule issued by early summer.
Southwell Gastroenterology-Lowndes cut the ribbon on its new office and ASC in Valdosta, Ga., Valdosta Daily Times reported June 5.