$15 million center for ‘complex’ GI care opens at Central DuPage Hospital

At a family lunch, Wheaton dad Paul Davis struggled to get down a single bite of food.

“I had to stop the meal. I couldn’t converse because I was regurgitating in the middle of the meal,” he said.

Dr. Amrita Sethi would perform a minimally invasive procedure called POEM for his rare condition: achalasia, a disorder of the esophagus. It’s the kind of care — and expertise — offered at a new, $15 million advanced endoscopy center at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Nationwide, there are only a handful of standalone centers “that have this type of equipment, have individuals who do the techniques,” said Sethi, its new medical director.

The center and its physicians are able to diagnose early cancers, remove tumors endoscopically and treat GERD, obesity and complex pancreatic and bile duct disease.

“It’s crossing so much of what we have traditionally done in academic medicine,” said Dr. Sri Komanduri, an interventional endoscopist at the center and director of system integration for digestive health at Northwestern Medicine.

Housed in an outpatient pavilion, the center has high aspirations as a place of innovation, research and training. Hospital leaders on Thursday celebrated the center’s opening and its reach.

“The Center for Advanced Endoscopy is a state-of-the-art center unlike any other in the region, equipped with the latest technology. That includes artificial intelligence, flexible robotic endoscopy, and then this is paired with clinical trials to advance understanding of disease and bring the best outcomes to patients,” Central DuPage Hospital President Kenneth Hedley said.

With the medical talent of a metropolitan academic medical center, it’s already attracting patients from near and far.

The available techniques

The center recently handled its first case of endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, the endoscopy version of a surgical sleeve for weight loss, Komanduri said.

“The benefit to blood sugar control and reversal of diabetes is even more profound, just like we've seen with GLP-1s,” he said, referring to medications known under brand names such as Ozempic and Wegovy.

The center can provide minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic options for a long list of conditions.

“When there's obstruction at the end of the stomach or in the small intestine from tumors, for example, of the pancreas, we can go in without surgery, just using the endoscope and place a stent between the stomach and the small intestine using endoscopic ultrasound and make a new connection so patients can start to eat again,” Sethi said.

Some patients may have polyps that are difficult to remove. Traditionally, their doctors would send them to surgery to cut out a piece of the colon, Sethi said.

“Now we can go in and essentially carve out those polyps and prevent the patient from needing to actually have a piece of their colon removed, which can be a complex procedure and have other complications associated with it,” she said. “Similarly, even early cancers, we can remove those — even things that are within the wall of the GI tract — we can go in and remove those without patients having to have surgery.”

Developing the center

The genesis of the center began taking shape more than three years ago. Komanduri and his boss, Dr. John Pandolfino, thought Central DuPage Hospital “would be a great additional access point for the digestive health center downtown for patients with complex digestive diseases,” Hedley said.

The western suburbs are also a draw for a lot of other practices in the Midwest that typically would go to the Mayo Clinic, Komanduri said.

The goal was to develop not only a free-standing center outside of an academic medical center. Komanduri also wanted to address patient headaches, to provide a “true concierge” experience.

Nurse navigators are a point of contact for patients and their families, helping them schedule appointments and understand their diagnosis and treatment, Hedley said.

One arrived from a health system in Quad Cities by ambulance for an EGD, or an upper endoscopy, with a small bowel endoscopy. The patient recovered from the procedure then was transferred back to the Quad Cities.

“And I really couldn't be more proud of the team that was able to support this level of care,” Hedley said.

Sethi was recruited to build the program with her credentials from Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York.

“There's not a lot of places that can accommodate this, and also have supporting teams to be able to manage all the patients that we're going to be treating,” said Sethi, who is also medical director of innovation and training for the Northwestern Medicine Digestive Health Institute.

She has the ability to implement academic and educational programs, support clinical trials and broadcast endoscopy conferences from the hospital, Hedley said.

“So all of this will ultimately enable Northwestern to help set the future of advanced care in GI,” he said.

A ‘huge deal’

A father of three, Davis was diagnosed with Type 2 achalasia. Trouble swallowing, regurgitation and weight loss are among its classic symptoms. Davis had the POEM procedure in February.

“We're cutting muscle within the esophageal wall, but we're doing it all with the endoscope. So no surgery is necessary, no incisions are necessary,” Sethi said. “Patients are able to go home, sometimes the same day or the next day.”

The results, Davis said, were “incredible.” Quasi-retired from professional services consulting, he looked forward to a large conference in Florida and going out to dinner.

“That’s where you’re meeting, greeting and finding your business for the next several years,” he said. “And so not having to worry about swallowing, having to run away from the table for a brief bit, is a huge deal for me.”