Empowering Gastroenterology with Artificial Intelligence

Colon cancer awareness remains limited in the Philippines. My recent conversations with patients at the clinic reflect this reality. The fear surrounding colon cancer is profound; many still perceive it as an incurable disease, and few realize that it is often preventable.

One patient even told me that my assurance about colon cancer being treatable was merely a ploy to lift her spirits. She was a woman with what appeared to be a still-benign tumor in her colon. She and her spouse had already concluded that her condition was hopeless, which led them to continue doctor-shopping and relying on traditional remedies instead of seeking timely medical intervention.

Another challenge lies within the healthcare system itself. For colonoscopy to effectively prevent cancer, gastroenterologists must achieve a high adenoma detection rate (ADR). Once this is met, the next critical step is the accurate endoscopic characterization of polyps, ideally with the use of image-enhanced endoscopy (IEE). These two components go hand in hand to make colon cancer prevention efficient.

Unfortunately, we lack comprehensive data—both on the ADR of Filipino gastroenterologists and on their proficiency in differentiating colonic polyp histology. I believe these two weaknesses can be addressed with artificial intelligence (AI). To improve ADR, an AI system with real-time polyp-detection capability should be readily accessible. To address the limited expertise in polyp histologic characterization, an AI-based classification model can assist in optical diagnosis after a polyp is detected.

However, commercially available AI systems remain expensive and are often inaccessible to most endoscopy units in the country. The mission of GastroInitiative is to make such models deployable in every endoscopy unit across the Philippines.

Lastly, it is the hope of this platform to demonstrate to the Filipino public—especially to my fellow gastroenterologists—the transformative power of AI in our resource-limited setting. I believe that by equipping ourselves with the best technologies, now made more attainable through AI, we can elevate the quality of care we provide and once again become competitive in the global medical community.

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