It’s a technology that’s available and immensely useful. And yet, there’s not much awareness about it in the country, especially in the government sector.
Endoscopic ultrasonography — which combines endoscopy with ultrasound, allows doctors to diagnose gastrointestinal cancers, find out what stage they are at and even take a sample for a biopsy — arrived in India around 2004, but a decade later, it remains unavailable to many.
“The problems here are lack of awareness about the technology, its expense and the fact that it requires a lot of training for doctors to be able to use it,” said Robert H. Hawes, medical director, Institute for Minimally Invasive Therapy, University of Central Florida College of Medicine. He was in the city for an international symposium on endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), hosted by Apollo Hospitals.
“It is essential for government hospitals, especially tertiary care centres, to acquire and use this technology and train doctors in using it so that it can reach more people,” said K. R. Palaniswamy, senior consultant gastroenterologist at Apollo.
Explaining the benefits of the technology, Dr. Hawes said it was far more accurate than conventional imaging techniques and biopsies such as those done with a CT scan or MRI.
Also, with EUS, a doctor can examine a patient, determine if there is a problem, do a biopsy and give the patient the results – all in one sitting.
“This saves the patient time and trouble from repeatedly coming to the hospital and waiting for results,” he said. In addition to this, the resolution of images available on the EUS is superior, he said. Another benefit is palliative care.
The learning curve for using this technology, however, is steep. “It can take up to six months of intensive training for a doctor to learn how to use this,” he said.
For it to really gain ground in the State though, the government has to take an interest in it, said Dr. Palaniswamy. Right now, the cost of the needle used on the endoscope is about Rs. 18,000, and the procedure totally costs about Rs. 30,000, making it at least Rs. 10,000 more expensive than conventional procedures.