Computer-assisted AI diagnosis aims to reduce colorectal cancer at Hoag

"One of the tools to improve healthcare overall is technology," said Dr. Paul Lee, chief of service for the GI lab at Hoag. Colonoscopies help to prevent colon cancer by identifying precancerous polyps and removing them during the procedure. Health technology vendor GI Genius proposed to Hoag to improve upon the latter. "From a different perspective, a surrogate marker for the quality of the physician performing the colonoscopy is the adenoma detection rate (ADR)," Lee explained. "By using this technology, it was supposed to decrease the miss rate or increase the ADR," Lee noted. "Obviously, patients are admitted for specific reasons and colonoscopies for these instances are not the screening procedures for which the technology was originally intended," Lee explained. "However, I have found in these instances, GI Genius has been useful to identify pre-cancerous polyps and aid the physician to accomplish goals outside of the screening colonoscopy indication." However, anecdotally, Lee said the technology has been well received and used by many of the physicians who come to the hospital GI lab.