January 24, 2011

Drexel Medicine's Center for Digestive Health has been recognized for quality and safety by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). The ASGE recognition is the latest accolade for the Center for Digestive Health, which offers routine outpatient endoscopy procedures at the Drexel Medicine Center City office building, located at 219 N. Broad Street.

Endoscopy is performed by specially-trained physicians using the most current technology to diagnose and treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Using flexible, thin tubes called endoscopes, doctors are able to access the human digestive tracts without incisions.

Joyann Kroser, MD, medical director of the Drexel Center for Digestive Health and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Drexel University College of Medicine, explains: "We do two basic types of endoscopy. One is an upper endoscopy in which we look at the esophagus, stomach, and the first part of the small intestine. This can help to diagnose, for example, ulcer disease. We do another type of scope called colonoscopy, in which we can look inside the large intestine and help to prevent colon cancer."

The Drexel Center for Digestive Health also offers capsule endoscopy, in which patients swallow a vitamin-sized capsule that contains a camera which takes pictures of the small intestine.

For more information about endoscopy and other areas of digestive health, click here to listen to a podcast featuring Dr. Kroser.