Case Histories of Significant Medical Advances: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy

Abstract

We describe how endoscopy transformed the diagnosis of ulcers, cancerous polyps and other diseases of the alimentary canal and enabled “minimally invasive” surgeries to treat such diseases. Specifically, we chronicle how: 1) flexible glass fiber endoscopes developed in the 1950s and 1960s provided the foundation; 2) technical advances – promoted by evangelical innovators – in the 1970s and early 1980s enabled new diagnostic techniques and minimally invasive abdominal surgeries; 3) radical and incremental improvements through the end of the 20th century sustained growth – although they did not enable many new procedures; and, 4) capsule endoscopes containing miniaturized cameras that patients swallowed provided another breakthrough in the first decade of the 21st century.

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment, Technological Innovation, Innovation Strategy, Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention, Innovation and Invention, Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms