Gut Check on Gastroenterology Archive

June 28th, 2013

Colonoscopy Preps: Patient Marketing vs. Patient Quality

There are innumerable bowel preps on the market as well as “home brewed” ones (e.g. Miralax™ and Gatorade™). In my community, many gastroenterology practices appear to choose their colonoscopy prep based on patient acceptability and/or taste preference. I find this choice of bowel prep based on “marketing” to patients troublesome. Although I absolutely understand the issues […]

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September 19th, 2011

Is it time to make a U-turn in the right colon during colonoscopy?

The right side of the colon seems to be the Achilles heel of colonoscopy because polyps there tend to be flat and harder to find, and we confer the least protection from later colon cancer in that zone. A recent article summary in Journal Watch Gastroenterology concludes that when we see a right-sided colon polyp, we may have […]

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January 23rd, 2009

Ambulatory Endoscopy Centers: No Seniors Allowed!

Ambulatory endoscopy centers (AECs) have proven so successful in providing convenient, efficient, low-cost, high-quality endoscopy services to outpatients that they are now ubiquitous around the country. Given this success, you might assume that payers would steer business their way. However, that’s not the case with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In fact, […]

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