Chief Medical Officer at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital Dr. Kevin Most joins the Steve Cochran Show to discuss to explore the significance of children’s physical check-ups, effective methods for managing vertigo, and how artificial intelligence is helping detect colon polyps.
Dr. Kevin Most’s Steve Cochran Show Notes:
Kids going to college – Don’t forget about their health
- Do your kids take a prescription medicine, if yes do they have enough?
- If the meds are delivered by mail order, have you changed the address to the school address
- Understand that once your child is 18 they have rights to their health privacy, and doctors can’t share information with you without their permission.
- If you want to be able to have a doctor speak with you about their health, they must fill out a HIPPA form for the state the school is in
- Check to make sure your insurance is covered in the state they will be in, or be ready to pay out of network fees
- Are their immunizations up to date? In Illinois MMR, Tdap and meningitis are required. Consider influenza, Covid, hep A and B and HPV- college setting is classic for out breaks
Artificial Intelligence role in colon polyps detection:
- 20 million colonoscopies are done each year in the US
- Studies have shown that the rate of detection for early cancerous polyps decreases as the day goes on, fatigue?
- Estimates are that 8-10 % of early colon cancer are missed on initial colonoscopy, resulting in 13,500 colon cancers missed in the US
- These cancers in most cases are found at the next interval colonoscopy, majority still at a treatable stage.
- This past week the FDA approved an artificial intelligence assisted colonoscopy device- MAGENTIC-COLO
- This device uses the video captured in real time, analyzes the images and identifies areas that are concerning based on data collected
- It then highlights the areas on the video monitor that the Gastroenterologist is viewing, drawing attention to the area of concern.
- The study showed an increase of detection by 26%, which translated into a 21% decrease in colon cancer occurrence
- The equipment will be available in the US within the next few weeks
Many companies working on AI-based skin cancer apps that would be used with your iPhone:
- 6.3 billion smartphones – what health data will be collected and how will AI impact its use
- Researchers from Stanford are looking at developing an app that can identify skin cancer using AI generated data
- Their current data shows that their algorithm is on par with 21 board certified dermatologists
- FDA is a bit slower on approving devices such as these as it does not involve a physician for the determination
- Tele Derm is very popular now, with high quality, high resolution cameras, where a dermatologist is interpreting the image
- There are many companies developing the direct to consumer diagnostic testing/interpretation in the dermatology world
- Why is this taking so long? There is no data base of images collected in an organized way, as it is often the eye of the dermatologist who makes the decision.
- In April of this year the FDA made expectations clear as to how these devices would be regulated, initially they are looking at a device that would aid a physician, similar to the colon cancer device
- The FDA focus is on devices that make clinicians more accurate, not removing the clinician from the patient interaction
- This important step allows for education, advice, and transition of care if needed
- Currently there is a website Mole Mapper, built at Oregon Health University, that aids a patient in collecting information on specific moles on their body, tracks them with photos , looking for changes
- Not for diagnosis at this time, but more to gather information on moles that are changing and have a record of that to share with their physician
- Mole Mapper is hoping to continue to collect data so that at a date in the future it will be used to diagnose skin cancer at a much earlier time
