Pullman Regional Hospital has an exciting new technology, the GI Genius! This device uses artificial intelligence for pattern recognition during colonoscopies, which improves the performance of colon cancer screenings.
During a colonoscopy, the GI Genius highlights irregularities in the colon and polyps by showing them on the screen in lime green boxes; this helps the physician find and detect polyps since the colon is a cavernous, dynamic sleeve. Through a grant from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the hospital obtained two Medtronic GI Genius units.
"Colonoscopy is important to reduce colon cancer deaths," said Dr. Ben Adkins, a family medicine physician at Pullman Family Medicine. "But smaller polyps and flat polyps can escape detection. This system found that computer-aided monitoring increased polyp detection by 30% compared to the human eye alone."
According to the Medtronic website, the GI Genius is trained with a dataset of 13 million polyp images of various shapes and sizes. Studies have shown that GI Genius is 82% faster than the average endoscopist at detecting polyps and has a 14% absolute increase in adenoma detection rate (ADR). Meaning the study found that including Computer-Aided Detection (GI Genius) in real-time colonoscopy significantly increased the ADR and adenomas detected per colonoscopy.
"My experience in my past 100 cases using the system has been that it is a useful tool that adds a second pair of eyes to screen for colon cancer during a colonoscopy," Adkins added. "That helps us keep our patients healthy."
The American College of Gastroenterology recommends that everyone over the age of 45 years old have a colonoscopy screening every 10 years. Those with an above-average risk (such as having a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or personal history of inflammatory bowel disease) should have more regular screenings- consult with your primary care physician to determine the right screening plan for you.
A colonoscopy is an exam that looks for changes in the large intestine (colon) and rectum. Doctors typically look for changes such as swollen or irritated tissues, polyps, or cancer. A doctor may also remove polyps or any abnormal tissue or take other necessary tissue samples during a colonoscopy.
Talk to your primary care provider about scheduling your next colonoscopy, your risk for colorectal cancer, and the recommended frequency of colonoscopy screenings.
What to Expect with your colonoscopy…
Day of the procedure…