Endoscopy Insights Single-Use Endoscopy

Dr. Wesley Stepp is a resident at the University of North Carolina’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. UNC is a national leader in training the next generation of ear, nose and throat surgeons and Dr. Stepp brings an interesting perspective to this kind of work.
Not just because his first exposure to otolaryngology was having sinus surgery in his teens, which proved life changing and set him on his eventual academic and professional course. But also because in his work today as a senior resident, he’s seen firsthand how single-use endoscopy technology has impacted his practice in several ways — from workflow and efficiency to information sharing and medical decision making to patient education.
We talked about all this and more with Dr. Stepp, who graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 2019 and who will take his practice to the military soon. Dr. Stepp is an Ambu consultant.
Show notes:
Bio: Dr. Wesley Stepp
Dr. Stepp’s PubMed Listing
Video: Simplifying FEES Exams with the aScope 4 RhinoLaryngo Slim
Endoscopy Insights homepage

The conventional wisdom in interventional pulmonology has long been that reusable bronchoscopes perform better than their single-use counterparts, but new research counters that thinking.
A recent study, part of a poster presentation at the World Congress for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (WCBIP) 2022 in Marseille, France, found that three of four single-use flexible bronchoscopes that were tested performed better in flexion and extension than reusable competitors.
The latest single-use flexible bronchoscopes, according to the study’s authors, are a significant advance­ment over prior generations.
One of those authors is Dr. Jonathan Kurman and he’s our guest on the latest episode of Endoscopy Insights. Dr. Kurman is an assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the director of interventional pulmonology for the Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) health network.
He completed an interventional pulmonology fellowship at the University of Chicago and pulmonary & critical care training at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is board certified in interventional pulmonology, internal medicine, pulmonary medicine and critical care.
Disclosure: Ambu provided funding for the study’s evaluation and testing, and Dr. Kurman is an Ambu consultant.
Show notes:
Poster, “A Comparison of Single-Use Bronchoscopes and Reusable Bronchoscopes for Interventional Pulmonology Applications”
Single-Use Endoscopy, “Study: Single-Use Bronchoscopes Show Better Flexion Than Reusables”
World Congress for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology 2022
Bio: Dr. Jonathan Kurman
Endoscopy Insights homepage

Dr. Marybeth Spanarkel describes GI endoscopy as a labor of love. You can hear the passion in her voice when she talks about performing a procedure and the gratification that comes from getting an immediate medical answer to the clinical question that’s being asked.
Spanarkel, however, suffered a career-ending neck injury after 28 years in private practice in North Carolina. Without full strength in her right arm, she lost the ability to perform endoscopy procedures and provide those much-needed answers to patients.
That musculoskeletal injury brought her career to an end, but it was the catalyst sending her down a new path — keeping other GI endoscopists from suffering a similar fate by educating them on the unique ergonomics challenges they face.
She discussed that and more in our first conversation for Endoscopy Insights, which you can listen to here. In this episode, we talk more about her career path, her decision to choose clinical practice over academia, her experiences as a female clinical endoscopist and some of the unique challenges she’s faced and overcome.
Show notes:
Endoscopy Insights: Dr. Marybeth Spanarkel, Part 1 Q&A: Addressing Ergonomics Challenges in Colonoscopy Survey: Are All Endoscopic-Related Musculoskeletal Injuries Created Equal? American College of Gastroenterology ColoWrap

Healthcare staff shortages, while not new, have spawned a world today where it can take five hours to get an X-ray for a dislocated elbow and another two to get pain medication for the injury. Ambulances sometimes wait eight hours to drop off a patient, and nurses work 12- to 16-hour shifts, without a break.
About 400,000 healthcare workers have left jobs since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
Throughout the pandemic, hospitals have had to implement creative approaches to soften staffing shortages. Medical device companies have also gotten innovative. Single-use endoscopes, for example, can help address staffing shortages.
They’re always available. And unlike traditional endoscopes, they don’t require extensive staffing — for preparation, transport, reprocessing, and often direct procedure support. They can be simply used once and discarded.
This dovetails with efforts by hospital administrators to alleviate workflow burdens on healthcare professionals.
These challenges and more were explored as part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu during Becker’s Hospital Review’s 12th Annual Meeting. We’re highlighting part of that conversation here in this episode of Endoscopy Insights.
Here are the experts you’ll hear from:
Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford Health Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts Show notes:
Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy” Single-Use Endoscopy: “’Perfect Storm’ of Healthcare Worker Shortages Creates Need to Alleviate Workflow Burdens” Upcoming Becker’s virtual events Listen: “Calculating the Total Cost of Care” Listen: “Leading with Value to the Patient” Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page Endoscopy Insights show page

Medical device suppliers and group purchasing organizations are teaming to bring new healthcare innovations such as single-use endoscopes to hospitals and health systems.
By creating specific single-use endoscope categories for their members, these healthcare improvement companies can help accelerate the transition from reusable devices to disposable ones. But capitalizing on an opportunity to expand capacity and avoid costly and unnecessary expenses associated with workflow management and possible patient cross-contamination comes down to more than simply making a purchase.
Rather, both sides need to approach these deals as true partnerships, hinging on performance measurements and outcome-based metrics. That was one key takeaway from a conversation that was part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu as part of Becker’s Hospital  Review’s 12th Annual Meeting.
Here are the experts you’ll hear from in this episode:
Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford Health Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts Show notes:
Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy” Upcoming Becker’s virtual events Listen: Calculating the Total Cost of Care Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page Endoscopy Insights show page

Transitioning from reusable to single-use endoscopes has obvious infection control benefits and even provides workflow and efficiency advantages — but the financial implications are usually one of the biggest hurdles to implementation.
That’s why it’s important to explore all the variables that go into achieving cost savings with single-use devices and assessing that shift within the context of other healthcare paradigm shifts. In this conversation, four experts do exactly that by exploring the elements that go into calculating the total cost of care and better understanding what they call “the math problem” at the root of this analysis.
This conversation was part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu as part of Becker’s Hospital
Review’s 12th Annual Meeting. Here are the experts you’ll hear from in this episode:
Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts.
Show notes:
Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy” Upcoming Becker’s virtual events Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page Endoscopy Insights show page