Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 14, 2026 2 min read
Add topic to email alerts
Receive an email when new articles are posted on
Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . “
data-action=”subscribe”>
Subscribe
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Rural gastroenterologists performed more general endoscopies but fewer advanced procedures than their urban counterparts. Stagnant rural GI workforce growth threatens to widen gaps in advanced procedure access. NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 Gastroenterologists in rural areas performed 37% more general endoscopies per physician than their urban peers, but 14% fewer advanced procedures, according to a study presented at ACG Annual Scientific Meeting. Despite performing more endoscopic procedures per physician, rural gastroenterologists saw workforce growth stagnate over 11 years, rising just 8% compared with 18% growth in the urban gastroenterologist workforce.
\u201cThese findings suggest that workforce planning should consider not only how many gastroenterologists we have, but also where they practice and what procedural expertise is available in those communities,\u201d Priya Kumari Maheshwari, MD, an incoming hospitalist at HCA Florida Capital Hospital, told Healio. Approximately 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, but only 7.7% of gastroenterologists practice there, according to study background. Although prior research has shown geographic disparities in GI workforce, less is known about how these gaps affect procedural workloads per physician and whether the burden varies by endoscopic procedure type. To investigate, Maheshwari and colleagues analyzed longitudinal trends in general and advanced endoscopic procedures per gastroenterologist, comparing rural and urban practices. The researchers used data from CMS and the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System to analyze gastroenterologists\u2019 procedural volumes by provider ZIP codes across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., from 2013 to 2024. The analysis included 143,670 total gastroenterologist-year observations. Primary outcomes included procedural volume, gastroenterologist workforce distribution, advanced procedures and geographic variation. In 2024, rural gastroenterologists performed 37% more general endoscopic procedures per physician than their urban counterparts (308 vs. 225). \u201cHowever, we saw the opposite pattern with advanced endoscopy,\u201d Maheshwari told Healio. \u201cUrban gastroenterologists performed approximately 75 advanced procedures per physician compared with approximately 66 in rural practice \u2014 about 14% more. Advanced procedures also accounted for 4.1% of urban endoscopic volume compared with 2.2% of rural volume in 2024.\u201d The researchers acknowledged that the study was limited to Medicare fee-for-service data and did not capture procedures performed for patients with private insurance or other coverage, potentially limiting the findings\u2019 generalizability. From 2013 to 2024, the total U.S. gastroenterologist workforce grew from 11,954 to 13,936. However, during that time, the rural proportion of the workforce declined from 5.5% to 4.6%. \u201cThese findings highlight the importance of targeted rural workforce planning and recruitment as well as potentially expanding advanced endoscopy training opportunities in underserved areas,\u201d Maheshwari told Healio. \u201cSupporting rural gastroenterologists and expanding training opportunities in underserved areas may be an important step toward improving geographic access to both general and advanced procedures.\u201d For more information: Priya Kumari Maheshwari, MD, can be reached at priyakmaheshwari@outlook.com. Published by: Sources\/Disclosures Source: Maheshwari PK, et al. Disparities in general and advanced endoscopic procedures between rural and urban gastroenterologists in the United States. Presented at: ACG Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct. 9-14, 2026; Nashville, Tenn. (hybrid meeting).
Disclosures:
Maheshwari reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors\u2019 relevant financial disclosures.
Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge base.
PubMed, enrolling\/recruiting trials, guidelines
Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news
Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data
Learn more
Add topic to email alerts
Receive an email when new articles are posted on
Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . “
data-action=”subscribe”>
Subscribe
We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Source link<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Healio](\"https:\/\/www.healio.com\/~\/media\/h5\/feature\/news\/publogos\/hgld\/healio_gastro.svg?la=en&h=40&w=152&hash=2C654A538F2E250F5183D42A89FE0EC0\")
\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n