Demand for GI care is rising as colorectal cancer screening expands to younger patients, but the specialist workforce isn’t keeping pace.
For GI practices, that capacity crunch could also point to one of the industry’s biggest untapped growth opportunities in access expansion and productivity increase.
Shaibal Mazumdar, MD, a gastroenterologist in Milwaukee, Wis., recently joined Becker’s to identify the biggest opportunities for growth in the specialty and what is holding practices back from seizing them.
Editor’s note: This response has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What is the biggest missed growth opportunity for GI practices right now?
Dr. Shaibal Mazumdar: Expanding capacity through advanced practice providers, optimized scheduling, and ASC partnerships to capture rising screening demand (especially post-age-45 guidelines) while addressing geographic access gaps that leave nearly half of Americans distant from a GI specialist. At Digestive Disease Week 2025 in San Diego, Thomas Imperiale, MD (Lawrence Lumeng Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Indiana University School of Medicine) addressed this issue.
He specifically addressed the growing colonoscopy capacity shortfall driven by insufficient numbers of gastroenterologists. Key points from coverage of his presentation:
• Roughly 40 million Americans are eligible for colorectal cancer screening.
• Only about 9 million screening colonoscopies are performed annually.
• This leaves a large gap (estimated ~19 million people still needing access).
• Using Health Resources and Services Administration data, he calculated the GI workforce is already short by about 1,630 full-time equivalent gastroenterologists.
• The gap between supply and demand is expected to widen further into the 2030s due to rising demand (screening age lowered to 45, aging population) and limited training pipeline growth.
He argued that colonoscopy remains the gold standard but cannot scale indefinitely under current workforce constraints, and that noninvasive tests need a larger role.
Q: What is the biggest factor impeding your facility’s ability to grow and expand right now?
SM: The gastroenterologist shortage — projected to widen, with nearly 70% of U.S. counties lacking a practicing GI and open positions often taking months to fill. GI practices are adopting AI to augment productivity and improving work flow with better cost, quality and outcomes initiatives.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
