The Fort Meade VA Medical Center now offers patients receiving a colonoscopy an enhanced screening with the aid of GI GeniusTM intelligent endoscopy module. The GI GeniusTM module employs artificial intelligence (AI) to help physicians detect polyps—a powerful new ally in the fight against colorectal cancer. The Fort Meade VA Medical Center is the ONLY facility in South Dakota offering this new technology.
The GI GeniusTM module uses advanced AI software to highlight suspicious polyps with a visual marker in real-time—serving as the gastroenterologist’s ever-vigilant second observer with a sensitivity rate per lesion of 99.7%. Studies have shown that AI-assisted colonoscopy can increase polyp detection rates, and every 1% increase in adenoma detection rate reduces the risk of colorectal cancer by 3%. Colorectal cancer is the third most common form of cancer diagnosed in the U.S., with almost 150,000 new cases every year.
VA Black Hills Health Care System is focused on meeting the medical needs of the community by providing its expert staff with the latest technologies and procedures. The GI GeniusTM module is the first and only AI system for the detection of colonic polyps in the United States and we are proud to offer it to our patients.
Background: VA Black Hills provides primary, surgical, behavioral health, Community Living Centers, and Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program (RRTP) care. The health care system consists of two medical centers located at Hot Springs, established in 1930, and Fort Meade, opened in 1946, and a VA staffed Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) located in Rapid City, SD. Contract CBOCs are in Pierre, SD; Winner, SD; and Scottsbluff, NE. Outpatient Clinics operate in Pine Ridge, SD; Eagle Butte, SD; Fort Yates, ND; Gordon, NE; and Newcastle, WY.