Here are four recent developments and news to know on virtual and colonoscopies aided by artificial intelligence:
1. Radiologists at Lowville, N.Y.-based Lewis County General Hospital are using new virtual colonoscopy technology through using a CT scanner to produce a 3D image of a patient's colon. Patients don't have to be put under with anesthesia for the procedure. Radiologists inflate the colon with air with a flexible tube smaller than a scope. The procedure takes 30 minutes, and patient can go home sooner than traditional colonoscopies.
2. Jon LaPook, MD, gastroenterologist and chief medical correspondent for CBS News, underwent an AI-aided colonoscopy. Dr. LaPook is an early participant in a study determining whether AI can aid in detecting polyps during colonoscopy.
3. A machine-learning algorithm developed by Shanghai Wision AI can detect polyps during colonoscopies in real-time and with high sensitivity and specificity, according to a study in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The algorithm was developed using 5,545 images from the colonoscopy reports of 1,290 patients; 65.5 percent of the images contained polyps.
4. California physicians are using AI to increase colonoscopy accuracy. The AI technology analyzes 98 images a second, looking for polyps and tissue that has the potential to become a polyp.