Here are five colonoscopy updates Becker's has reported on since Nov. 1:
- Dayton VA Medical Center is using artificial intelligence to detect polyps during colonoscopies, which could help detect colon cancer in patients. The medical center is the first Veterans Affairs center in Ohio and fourth in the nation to use this technology.
- Inspira Health opened a new outpatient endoscopy center in its Vineland, N.J., campus's medical office building. Procedures that used to be performed in the hospital's colonoscopy suite, including outpatient upper endoscopies and colonoscopies, will now be performed at the outpatient setting.
- Cincinnati GI performed its first artificial intelligence-assisted colonoscopies using Medtronic's GI Genius module, making it the only endoscopy center in the greater Cincinnati area offering the technology.
- Adventist Health Sonora (Calif.) is fundraising to build a $14 million digestive health center to expand its current gastrointestinal services. Currently, average wait times for a colonoscopy in the area are around one year, with 20 percent of patients being referred to GI centers in other communities.
- CMS said Nov. 1 it is expanding Medicare coverage for certain colorectal cancer screening tests by reducing the minimum age payment and coverage limitation from 50 to 45. It is also expanding the regulatory definition of colorectal cancer screening tests to include a complete colorectal cancer screening, where a follow-up colonoscopy screening after a Medicare covered noninvasive stool-based colorectal cancer screening test comes back positive.