Here are 12 updates on ASC companies and industry-relevant companies to note: Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates faces two charges of collusion after the company allegedly reached agreements with two competitors to not recruit each other’s senior-level employees, the Department of Justice announced Jan. 7. Read more. Towson, Md.-based SurgCenter Development is moving forward with a pair of new ASC developments: one in New Hampshire and one in Maryland. A surgery center slated to be built adjacent to UH Mayfield (Ohio) Village Health Center will be delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Author: Praveen Suthrum
An at-home test for colon cancer is as reliable as the traditional screening, health experts say, and more agreeable.
The gut microbiome may influence the severity of COVID-19 as well as the magnitude of the immune response to the infection, according to new research.
With the new calendar year, several CMS changes took effect, with more on the way. Here’s a roundup of changes CMS made or will make in 2021: 1. Removed 298 musculoskeletal-related services. By 2024, all 1,700 procedures on the inpatient-only list will be phased out, and will be allowed to be performed in the outpatient setting when clinically appropriate. 2. Made 11 additions to the list of procedures payable in the ASCs. Those are: CPT code 27130: Total hip arthroplasty 0266T: Implantation or replacement of carotid sinus baroreflex activation device; total system (includes generator placement, unilateral or bilateral lead placement, intra-operative interrogation, programming…
Children in Colorado had high rates of undiagnosed celiac disease, according to initial results from a mass screening program published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology. Researchers screened 9,973 children between the ages of 1 and 17. Children who tested positive were then asked to return for confirmatory testing. If the child tested two-times or higher than the upper limit of normal, they were referred to the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease; otherwise, they were directed to their primary care provider.
Use of linked color imaging for upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy improves the detection of neoplasms in comparison with conventional white-light imaging, according to results from a randomized trial involving more than 1500 patients. Linked color imaging (LCI) is an advanced illumination technique that combines white light with narrow-band short-wavelength light to enhance the contrast of red and white hues during endoscopy, making it easier to recognize subtle differences in mucosal color.
The number of physicians practicing in the U.S. is growing slowly compared to the population growth projections over the next decade-plus, according to a report from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The report, released last June, examines physician supply and demand, making projections about a potential physician shortages. Eight findings: 1. The association projects a shortage of 54,100 to 129,000 physicians by 2033. 2. The association projects a specialist shortage of 33,700 to 86,700 physicians by 2033, including a shortage of up to 28,700 physicians in surgical specialties.
Vermont has the highest COVID-19 reproduction rate, while Nebraska has the lowest according to rt.live. Rt.live is a website that calculates the rate at which the virus is spreading. Measured by the average number of people who become sick from an infectious person, the site tracks the effective reproduction rate (Rt) of COVID-19 infections. If the value is less than one, the spread of the disease is slowing. The higher the Rt number, the worse the spread.
Japanese multinational IT and electronics company NEC recently announced the development of its WISE VISION Endoscopy, an AI diagnosis-support medical device software for colonoscopies, which was just released in Japan and is expected to soon be available in Europe. The software connects with existing endoscopy equipment as part of using AI to automatically mark potential lesions from images taken during endoscopic procedures.
Antithrombotic agents can be lifesavers for cardiac patients, but they present a conundrum for gastroenterologists who, as the prevalence of cardiovascular disease continues to grow, are seeing ever-greater numbers of patients at risk for gastrointestinal bleeding. At the 2020 virtual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, Neena S. Abraham, MD, MSc, discussed an area of study that evolved from an unmet need to a clinically relevant field: cardiogastroenterology. “It seems fitting, in this year of change and unprecedented challenge, that we think beyond our usual clinical paradigms,” Abraham, a professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and…