Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) of Hyderabad has set up a new Gastro Intestinal (GI) Endoscopy training center in the city with an investment of Rs. 2 crore, which it claims to be the largest centre in Asia.

The gastrointestinal diseases like ulcers in stomach, gall- stones, jaundice, pancreatitis and GI cancers are extremely common in the country. The diagnosis and treatment has been revolutionised with the introduction of the GI Endoscopy. These long fine tubes attached with a computer chip at the tip can be put through the mouth into any part of the gastrointestinal tract, the liver and pancreas and the disease is diagnosed and treated effectively, Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, director and chief gastroenterologist, AIG said.

In the last decade there has been tremendous technological advances in the field which has resulted in these scopes becoming more and more sophisticated and capable of doing diagnosis and treatment even by remote control without the need of going for surgery, anesthesia and X-Rays.

Dr Reddy mentioned that in advanced countries like USA, Europe and Japan where there is one Endoscopist for every 20,000 people, respective governments have made it mandatory for the people above the age of 50 years to get screened by Endoscopy for early detection of gastric and colon cancers, which has resulted in decrease of incidence of gastrointestinal cancer in Japan and USA. On the contrary, there are few dedicated training centers in India.

There are only 800 registered members of Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India. Similarly, there are only 4000 GI Endoscopists for 1 billion population of the country. There are only 50 endoscopy centres carrying out Therapeutic Endoscopy, he added.

The new center at AIG would offer training in diagnosis and treatment of various GI diseases like peptic ulcers, jaundice and GI cancers, an animal lab for dvanced Endocopy and Laparoscopy training, a digital library with over thousand video Endoscopy procedures.

It will also have international tie-ups with centres in Hong-Kong, Boston, Los-Angeles and in Germany through dedicated 2 MB and ISD lines for extending training programme. The training centre will train not only the Indian gastroenterologists, but also those from all over Asia Pacific region, Dr Reddy added.

The Endoscopy machine has been acquired from Olympus Corporation, a leading medical systems group based in Tokyo, Japan.