DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000265626.76829.d0
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Issn Print: 0276-2234
Publication Date: 2007/01/10
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Excerpt
The principal investigator, Piet C. de Groen, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, presented his findings during the President's Plenary Session at the Annual Scientific Meeting.
The software in question enables physicians and technicians to digitally capture, store, and analyze a complete video stream file created during a colonoscopy.
“This software has the potential to provide large-scale, continuous quality control for colonoscopy in the day-to-day medical practice setting,” said Dr. de Groen. “Our method may also be useful to assess progress during colonoscopy training, or as part of an endoscopic skills assessment evaluation.”
The Chairwoman of the ACG Educational Affairs Committee, Carol A. Burke, MD, Director of the Center for Colon Polyp and Cancer Prevention at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, explained that Dr. de Groen's paper was chosen because it was one of the most highly rated in its organ system—“The committee felt Dr. de Groen's paper had significant merit.”
The Educational Affairs Committee reviewed all approximately 1,480 abstracts submitted for presentation at the meeting, and the Governor's Award is given to the one judged to be the best paper.
“We know that the quality of colonoscopy is variable across the nation and that enhancing the quality of colonoscopy, and thus the detection of colorectal neoplasia, will save lives,” she said. “In fact, continuous quality improvement of colonoscopy is earmarked as a national initiative for our College and other GI societies.”
Dr. de Groen noted that a significant number of large polyps and cancers are not detected during routine colonoscopy screenings, and that furthermore, no technology currently exists that can objectively assess a physician's performance while conducting a colonoscopy.
“I don't think anything exists right now that actually looks over the shoulder of a physician and scores his or her performance during the procedure,” Dr. de Groen said. “A lot of the assessments are done retrospectively and depend on notes the physician took down during the colonoscopy.”
Currently, it is the physician conducting the colonoscopy who assesses the quality and efficacy of the screening.
“When you get a colonoscopy, the surgeon or endoscopist writes a report,” Dr. de Groen continued. “You just have to believe the report. There's no objective data that actually verify what was done.”
Thus, Dr. de Groen set out to improve the quality of colonoscopies by creating technology that would aid a physician's performance. To do so, he partnered with three computer scientists: Wallapak Tavanapong, PhD, and Johnny Wong, PhD, from Iowa State University; and JungHwan Oh, PhD, from the University of Texas at Arlington. Their collaboration for the study began in 2002 and was funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant for research into new methods of automated image analysis in endoscopy.
“A lot of credit for the success of this study goes to my three wonderful collaborators,” Dr. de Groen said. “They are superb computer scientists.
