The Changing Face of GI Endoscopy

Diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract affect 60 to 70 million people in the U.S. and include patients with esophageal varices, inflammatory bowel diseases, colon cancer, Barrett’s esophagus, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), diverticular disease, and chronic liver disease, to name a few. The direct and indirect cost of diagnosing and treating these diseases is staggering. The most recent estimates from the National Institutes of Health put the annual cost of digestive diseases at more than $107 billion, much of which can be attributed to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures (Figure 1, p. 287).

The medical device market for gastrointestinal diseases is significant. One of the most common diagnostic procedures performed today is GI endoscopy. As the second largest segment of the worldwide endoscopy...