Author: Praveen Suthrum

ChronWell, a digital health and technology-enabled remote care management company, has announced it has entered into a partnership with the gastroenterology platform One GI. Through the partnership, One GI will deploy ChronWell’s LIVErHEALTHY™, Therapeutic Weight Management, and Digital Health products. The resulting wider availability of these products will result in improved outcomes, patient satisfaction, and greater economic efficiencies and growth. One GI, formed in Tennessee with GastroOne, the largest gastroenterology practice in the Memphis area, and backed by Webster Equity Partners, chose ChronWell from a field of several providers. Chrowell was ultimately selected due to a strategic focus on GI…

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Artificial intelligence has a growing presence in gastroenterology — from Medtronic’s first AI system for colonoscopies to Iterative Scopes securing $30 million in funding to develop its AI-powered gastroenterology technology. Many physicians are optimistic about the technology’s capacity to identify and characterize colon polyps. “It is clear, based on the early data, that there is an opportunity for practice improvement and evolution, but the tricky part is the implementation,” Samuel Giordano, MD, of Cooper University Health Care in Willingboro, N.J., told Becker’s.

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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. Welcome back to GI Common Concerns. Today I’d like to talk to you about endoscopic colonic tattooing. This topic recently came up in a conversation I had with one of my younger partners. I was complimenting him on his endoscopic tattooing technique whereby he lifted up the mucosa and then carefully injected the needle to ensure proper distribution of the India ink. To date, we’ve lacked expert guidelines or recommendations on the endoscopic tattooing…

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Here are five of the most interesting acquisitions in gastroenterology this year: In January, Pinnacle GI Partners teamed up with Michigan Gastroenterology Institute and Capitol Colorectal Surgery, a little more than a month after Pinnacle GI’s formation. Lansing, Mich.-based Michigan Gastroenterology Institute was formed in 1988. The practice’s team of gastroenterologists and advanced practice providers staff 12 facilities in Lansing. The partnership made Pinnacle GI Partners the largest provider of gastroenterology services in Michigan.Physician-owned, West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Gastro Group of the Palm Beaches joined Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital in January. The group rebranded as Tampa General Hospital Gastro Group…

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Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease who underwent endoscopic bariatric and metabolic therapies saw improvements in liver fibrosis and other outcomes, according to study results. Christopher C. Thompson, MD, MSc, from the division of gastroenterology, hepatology and endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote that even as relative new treatments, endoscopic bariatric and metabolic therapies (EBMT) have already shown benefits in terms of weight loss.

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The December issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology is the final issue published under the leadership of Co-Editors-in-Chief Brian E. Lacy, MD, PhD, FACG, and Brennan M.R. Spiegel, MD, MSHS, FACG. This issue includes articles on topics that include functional GI disorders, gender equity, IBD and reproductive health, cystic fibrosis, alcohol-related cirrhosis, endoscopy, and more. Several articles are highlighted below and access to any articles from this issue, or past issues, is available upon request. The College is also able to connect members of the press with study authors or outside experts who can comment on the articles.

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Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced results from the CONFIDE Study (Communicating Needs and Features of IBD Experiences) that show bowel urgency – defined as the sudden or immediate need for a bowel movement – is the second most commonly reported symptom suffered by study respondents living with moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis (UC), regardless of whether or not they were receiving an advanced therapy (biologic or novel oral therapy). In this study, only one in four healthcare providers perceived bowel urgency as one of the top three most reported symptoms by their patients. The CONFIDE Study examines the…

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Physician practices around the country took an unprecedented financial hit with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Recent research from the American Medical Association (AMA) reveals an estimated pandemic-related shortfall in Medicare physician fee spending of $13.9 billion, or a 14% reduction, across all states and all major specialties in 2020. While the report pointed to a “strong recovery” in May and June, that recovery stalled in the second half of 2020, and spending never returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.

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A recent study found TC-325, a bentonite hemostatic powder with alluminium phyllosilicate clay to be non-inferior to standard treatment for endoscopic control of bleeding from nonvaricial upper gastrointestinal causes. The study was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicines. TC-325 use is associated with a high initial rate of hemostasis and recurrent bleeding after….

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