ATLANTA, March 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Kohlberg & Company (“Kohlberg”), a leading private equity firm headquartered in New York, today announced that it has partnered with United Digestive (“UD”), one of the largest gastroenterology physician practice management firms in the United States. United Digestive offers a unique, fully integrated management platform for gastroenterology practices and has over 200 providers across 80 locations in the Southeastern United States. UD was formed from a partnership between Atlanta Gastroenterology Associates and Frazier Healthcare Partners in December 2018. Read More
Author: Praveen Suthrum
SAN FRANCISCO – Gastroenterologists are uniquely positioned to treat obesity, according to a panel of experts convened by the American Gastroenterological Association. “We see this as a field that GI should own,” said Naresh T. Gunaratnam, MD, a gastroenterologist at Huron Gastro in Ypsilanti, Mich., who has made obesity treatment an important part of his practice. Gastroenterologists are uniquely qualified in endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty and in the placement of intragastric balloons and can also bring their internal medicine training to bear in patient education and medical prescription, Dr. Gunaratnam said in an interview. Read More
The increased demand for gastroenterology services combined with the limited number of gastroenterologists has caused trouble for the industry’s workforce. James Weber, MD, founder and CEO of GI Alliance, spoke with Becker’s to discuss the biggest obstacle the gastroenterology industry is facing today — physician workforce shortages. Read More
Among those who provide gastrointestinal (GI) care, electronic health records (EHRs) may be particularly burdensome for physicians who specialize in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or hepatology, as well as for nonphysician providers (NPPs), according to a new study. IBD and hepatology specialists spend more time per appointment using the EHR, including for clinical review and outside of regular hours, compared to other subspecialists, the study finds. Additionally, NPPs spend more time in EHRs than physicians. “Given the often-complicated medical histories of patients with IBD as well as the role of IBD specialists as de-facto primary care providers for many patients,…
The presence of private equity (PE) investment has exploded in recent years in all areas of the health care sector. PE in health care is a good thing when done right: It can pave the way for much needed innovation, efficiency, and nontraditional care delivery models. However, government regulators, media journalists, some health care practitioners, and private parties are watching PE investment with growing suspicion that profit-driven goals may conflict with the quality of care for patients. Indeed, PE firms often do not have the luxury of long time horizons for their investments and often have investors that expect relatively…
There has been a settlement in litigation stemming from a breach previously noted on DataBreaches. Without admitting guilt or wrongdoing, Illinois Gastroenterology Group has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle claims from an October 2021 data breach first disclosed in April 2022. The incident involved unnamed threat actors accessing and exfiltrating data on more than 227,000 patients. Top Class Actions reports that the flat sum settlement for individuals is as follows: Class members whose Social Security numbers or biometrics were compromised and all California subclass members can receive a cash payment of $150. Class members whose Social Security…
A new blood test could spare bowel cancer patients from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy every year. About 1,600 bowel cancer patients in the UK are set to take part in a study over four years, which could affect the way thousands of patients with the disease are treated. The TRACC study, which involves the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London, aims to predict relapse in colorectal cancer. While most stage 3 bowel cancer patients are offered post-operative chemotherapy, doctors say it may be unnecessary for many patients with the disease, and half of patients are treated by surgery alone. Read…
Guidelines on the diagnosis and management of biliary strictures were published in March 2023 by the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.[1] They provide guidance on the care of patients with extrahepatic and perihilar strictures. These guidelines are considered separate from the 2015 ACG guidelines related to primary sclerosing cholangitis. Strong recommendations and select conditional recommendations are outlined below. A definitive tissue diagnosis is necessary to guide oncologic and endoscopic care for most strictures that aren’t surgically resectable at the time of presentation. Biliary strictures in adults are more likely to be malignant than benign,…
Google is betting its future on health care, but the company’s journey so far has been a little bumpy. In 2021, three years after its creation, Google disbanded its health care division. The dissolution came after group leader David Feinberg left the company to become CEO of electronic health record company Cerner. Since then, Karen DeSalvo, a former Obama health official, has taken over and is managing staff distributed through various Google teams. Under her watch, Google has optimized search and YouTube to better answer common health questions, updated its consumer health wearables to function more like medical devices and…
An overview of treatment outcomes for patients with Crohn’s disease showed no discernable patterns in clinical remission and response has emerged in recent years.1 A team, led by Fernando Magro, Department of Gastroenterology, São João University Hospital Center, identified time trends in clinical response and clinical remission rates for patients with Crohn’s disease treated with biologics. Read More