Physicians should encourage patients with inflammatory bowel disease to get the COVID-19 vaccination despite lack of studies on the cohort, according to a presentation at the Crohn’s and Colitis Congress. “For patients with IBD we would advocate, based on [International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD)], that patients get vaccinated, acknowledging that there is a lack of data specifically in IBD patients,” Ryan C. Ungaro, MD, MS, gastroenterologist with Mount Sinai Hospital’s Feinstein IBD Center, told Healio Gastroenterology. “But we think the benefits out weight the risks and based on prior experience with vaccinations in IBD patients.”
Author: Praveen Suthrum
Bradenton-based Florida Digestive Health Specialists plans to open its 26th location in Charlotte Harbor, Fla., Feb. 4. The practice will open part-time at first, and will be staffed by Ravi Kondapalli, MD. In June, Carl Colton, MD, will join the practice and hours will be expanded to operate Monday through Friday. “Patients have expressed their desire for more gastroenterology services in the area, and we’re honored to fill that role,” said Dr. Kondapalli.
Despite growing at a slower pace than other private equity-backed gastroenterology platforms, Atlanta-based United Digestive is focused on growing its infrastructure to capitalize on future investment. Mark Gilreath, CEO of United Digestive, and Neal C. Patel, MD, chief strategy officer of United Digestive, discussed the platform and its future prospects with Becker’s ASC Review. Note: Responses were edited for style and content.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released the agency’s first Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Action Plan. This action plan describes a multi-pronged approach to advance the Agency’s oversight of AI/ML-based medical software.
For several years, scientists worldwide have been investigating the extent to which microorganisms living in and on the human body influence central life processes and thus health and disease. Today they assume that there is a connection between the totality of the microbial colonization in the human body, called the microbiome, and the development of diseases. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease (CIBD) in particular is suspected to be closely linked to the composition and (im-)balance of the intestinal microbiome.
Young adult survivors of colorectal cancer exhibited low overall health-related quality of life scores, with longer-term survivors reporting worse social and functional well-being than those diagnosed more recently. These findings, presented at Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, indicate that appropriate counseling and other targeted interventions may help maintain health-related quality of life among this at-risk population, according to the researchers.
A recently approved injectable gel that aids in lifting and differentiating the mucosa from the muscularis propria in endoscopic and surgical resections produces artifacts in histologic sections, potentially confusing pathologists, according to a large case series (Gastrointest Endosc 2020 Jun 25. [Epub ahead of print]). The artifacts do not generally interfere with the detection of other abnormalities, but pathologists might pursue a different diagnosis if they are not aware that the gel can remain in the specimens, according to Andrea D. Olivas, MD, of the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
We performed a prospective, endoscopist-blinded study of 500 patients undergoing split-dose bowel preparation for CRC screening or surveillance colonoscopies at multiple centers in Germany, from November 2017 through January 2019. Participants (n = 500) were given oral and written instructions during their initial appointment and then randomly assigned (1:1) to groups that received reinforced education starting 3 days before the colonoscopy (APP group) or no further education (controls). The primary outcome was quality of bowel preparation according to the Boston bowel preparation scale. Secondary outcomes included polyp and adenoma detection rates, compliance with low-fiber diet, split-dose laxative intake, perceived discomfort…
The global pandemic has proved a catalyst for reshaping health care as venture capitalists reached deep into their pockets to deliver a record level of funding to medical-related startups in 2020. They sprinkled the money across sectors ranging from telemedicine to AI to medical devices in an effort to seize the moment and shake up an industry that has been notoriously resistant to reinvention.
It was one year ago — Jan. 20, 2020 — that the first case of SARS-CoV-2 infection was reported on U.S. soil. It was still called the “novel coronavirus” at the time; at least that’s how it was referenced in a CDC statement. By the time a final New England Journal of Medicine report on the case was published March 5, it had been dubbed 2019-nCoV as well as SARS-CoV-2.