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Meet the 5 finalists to compete in the 2021 AGA Shark Tank

Watch 1-minute video pitches on each innovation, which range from an enhanced EUS-access needle to a new patient engagement platform.
2021 AGA Tech Summit Finalist
2021 AGA Tech Summit Finalist

Looking for new insights and the latest in the future of GI care? Don’t miss the 2021 AGA Shark Tank Pitch Competition during the AGA Virtual Tech Summit (April 29-30, 2021). It offers an array of exciting innovations and technologies with potential to improve patient care. The finalists for this year’s competition include these visionary products:

Fecobionics

Chronic constipation and fecal incontinence are disorders affecting about 25% of the U.S. population and this is expected to increase as the nation’s population ages. Innovators at the California Medical Innovations Institute have developed Fecobionics to better understand continence mechanisms and defecation patterns in subjects suffering from functional anorectal symptoms. The device records pressures, cross-sectional area, orientation, bending, shape, and viscoelastic properties simultaneously of the rectum and anal canal.

EUS access needle

Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) failure leads to delays in care, need for repeated procedures, or referral for more targeted interventions such as radiology. Innovators at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, Phoenix, have developed an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) access needle that is simple and affordable to use to allow biliary access of rendezvous procedures or direct biliary intervention, and is being coined as an ideal back up procedure for failed ERCPs. 

TAGSS

The Transabdominal Gastric Surgical System (TAGSS), developed by endo-TAGSS, LLC, is an intragastric trocar that provides access for standard laparoscopic instruments to enable combined endoscopic and laparoscopic surgical approaches for GERD, delayed gastric emptying, achalasia, gastric tumors, and obesity. TAGSS allows most therapeutic procedures to be accomplished in outpatient settings to enhance safety and reduced costs. 

Healthswim

For patients seeking to better understand their GI symptoms, online resources can often be outdated or misleading. Healthswim, LLC, has produced a subscription-based platform where health care professionals can load curated content and links for patients that is up-to-date and credible in order to improve engagement and compliance. Delivery of reliable information occurs at every point of patient intervention from initial clinic visit to pre-op, post-op and beyond. Updates posted in disease specific channels are received by patients even if they are not being actively seen.

Endoscope Basket

The increasing prevalence of eosinophilic esophagitis over the past two decades has made food impactions an important challenge for GIs. When performing endoscopic procedures, the risk of esophageal perforation increases if the food bolus is pushed into the stomach. Innovators at Advanced Gastroenterology & Endoscopy, PC, have built a manually controlled endoscope basket to improve the safety of esophageal food bolus removals, reduce perforation risk and incidents of patient intubation.

Learn more about the 2021 Virtual AGA Tech Summit and register today.

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AGA Center for GI Innovation and Technology

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