Rice is located just across the street from the Texas Medical Center. We decided to make the most of our proximity and to reach out to gastroenterologists from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
We wanted to be sure that we included the perspectives of these major stakeholders in discussions about our project.
We met with Dr. Bhutani who holds a dual appointment in the Departments of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition, and Cancer Systems Imaging. He is the director of Endoscopic Research and Development at MD Anderson.
During our meeting we discussed the current diagnostic tools (endoscopies) and his impression of our approach. He was very encouraging and enthusiastic. He believes that our project has great potential as a colonoscopy pre-screening tool or even as a way for people to have checkups between regularly scheduled colonoscopies. We particularly appreciated his insight because he has experience advancing the field; he pioneered endoscopic ultrasonography.
Dr. Bhutani was also generous enough to invite us to observe him perform a colonoscopy. This gave us a much more comprehensive understanding of what the procedure is like.
We will be meeting with Dr. Raju who also holds an appointment in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition. We look forward to receiving another perspective on the potential translational potential of our E. colinoscopies.
