Through its policy and regulatory mechanisms, the federal government is in the driver’s seat to drive and effect changes in health care and health information technology. The most recent Unified Regulatory Agenda provides insight into what is likely to come in 2022 and beyond. The most notable rules continue to be focused on activities by agencies at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Here’s a sneak peak of expected 2022 priorities.
Author: Praveen Suthrum
A single-use gastroscope has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could be on the market in the next few months. The gastroscope — as well as a next-generation display unit — from Danish medical device company Ambu A/S is designed to be used once and discarded, protecting patients from possible device cross-contamination and addressing workflow challenges that arise when scopes are out of service being reprocessed or repaired.
Modern treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies requires more of a multidisciplinary approach than in previous years, according to Toufic Kachaamy, MD. More often in GI cancer care, gastroenterologists and interventional gastroenterologists are involved with the initial diagnoses and staging. “Traditionally, cancer care used to be mostly the oncologist, whether surgical oncologist, medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, but there’s a lot of other disciplines that not only have to add to the cancer care like gastroenterology, but also make cancer care better,” Kachaamy, Enterprise program leader, Interventional Programs and Medical Director of Gastroenterology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America Phoenix., told Targeted…
Gastroparesis can be tricky to diagnose and treat, in part because its symptoms can be difficult to distinguish from functional dyspepsia. A new clinical practice update from the American Gastroenterological Association aims to help physicians treat medically refractory gastroparesis with practical advice stemming from expert opinion and a literature review.
On a daily basis, AGA works to advance public policies that support you and your patients. To ensure we are focused on the issues that impact you most, we recently conducted a member survey to define our public policy priorities for 2022. The results were clear — administrative burdens have increased significantly the past five years and are negatively impacting your patients.
$517.8M: Series B for Live-Cell Super-Resolution Microscopy Eikon Therapeutics, Inc., a pioneer in the application of live-cell super-resolution microscopy to drug discovery, announced that it has closed a $517.8 million Series B financing. Since its founding two years ago, Eikon Therapeutics has raised more than $668 million to advance its mission of inventing new therapies that address grievous illness. New investors participating in the Series B financing include funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), EcoR1 Capital, UC Investments (Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the Regents of the…
Open-label placebo reduced pain and rescue medication use among pediatric and adolescent patients with functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome, according to research published in JAMA Pediatrics. “Although placebo responses probably play a role in virtually every clinical intervention, the use of deceptive placebos as stand-alone treatments has largely been discouraged because of ethical concerns about patient deception,” Samuel Nurko, MD, MPH, of the Center for Motility and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote.
Researchers have found a simple, low-cost way to get more adults to complete a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) to screen for colorectal cancer (CRC). In a randomized controlled trial, patients who received an electronic “primer” message through their patient portal before the test kit arrived in their mailbox were more apt to complete and return the test than peers who didn’t get the electronic message. “We were thrilled by the magnitude of the impact,” Gregory Goshgarian, MSc, MPH, and Daniel Croymans, MD, with the Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, said in a…
On a mission to increase early detection of esophageal cancer, University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center member Sachin Wani, MD, is leading a study to see if a novel diagnostic platform can help endoscopists better identify the disease in patients with a condition called Barrett’s esophagus. Barrett’s esophagus, a premalignant condition for esophageal adenocarcinoma, occurs when the flat lining of the esophagus becomes damaged by acid reflux. The condition is diagnosed in 7% to 10% of individuals with chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and is estimated to be present in 1% to 2% of the general adult population.
Anyone suffering from ongoing digestive issues such as SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) and IBS can use this pocket-size device at home to measure and monitor their digestion in real time to help better manage their digestive health. This analytical technology allows individuals to pinpoint foods contributing to excessively rapid fermentation in the gut, which can lead to a myriad of digestive health symptoms. This latest release from FoodMarble will also be used by healthcare professionals so they can better understand patients’ digestive disorders, including IBS and SIBO. Early data from an ongoing clinical trial from Johns Hopkins Medicine, led…