Scoping out Gastroenterology Start-Ups

When it comes to technological innovation, the field of gastroenterology lags other clinical spaces. Gastroenterologists are said to be slow adopters of new technologies, and disruptive innovation seems to come along only every 30 years or so. The last major advance, say some, happened back in 1983 at DDW (Digestive Disease Week), the annual gastroenterology conference, when Olympus Corp. introduced the first CCD sensing camera on the end of an endoscope, enabling the electronic capture of images. Before that, the last major advance was the advent of fiberoptics in 1956. Those technologies advanced image quality, but the basic endoscopy procedure itself--which relies on snaking a semi-rigid hose at the end of which is a visualization tool through five to six feet of twists and turns in a soft organ--has not changed in 50 years. Start-ups are fond of pointing this out, because, with some rare exceptions, it’s been difficult for all but the largest companies—Olympus, Pentax Corp., Fuji Photo Film Co. Ltd.-- to succeed at capturing any part of the market with new technologies, and indeed, there are many start-up and product failures along the way.

The field is tantalizing because it offers one of the rare screening paradigms in medicine, and therefore, enormous markets. In the US, it’s recommended that everyone over the age of...