Intermountain Healthcare using new AI to help detect colon cancer

Editor's Note

Intermountain Healthcare in Utah is the first health system in the state to use a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool distributed by Medtronic that helps doctors detect colorectal polyps in real time during a colonoscopy, a GlobeNewswire press release reports on November 11.

The new AI technology is called GI Genius and is being used at four Intermountain hospitals: Intermountain Heber Valley Hospital, Intermountain Fillmore Hospital, Intermountain Delta Community Hospital, and Intermountain Cedar City Hospital. “This advancement in our endoscopy services will significantly help us to detect pre-cancerous colorectal polyps earlier and help our patients in the Wasatch Back live healthier lives,” Holly Clark, MD, gastroenterologist at Intermountain Heber Valley Hospital and Intermountain Park City Hospital, said in the press release.

The GI Genius endoscopy module and training for the tool is being brought to rural communities in Utah as part of the Health Equity Assistance Program as part of a partnership among Medtronic, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and Amazon Web Services. The AI in the GI Genius module contains over 13 million images of polyps of all sizes; in clinical trials, physicians have increased detection of lesions by up to 46% when compared to standard colonoscopy procedures.

Certain types of colorectal cancer, when caught early, can have a survival rate of up to 91%. Some 300 people in the US are diagnosed with colon cancer and about 50,000 people die from colorectal cancer every year, noted the press release.