Dr. Sabha Ganai

Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor And Family History

A member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Sabha Ganai MD is a gastrointestinal surgical oncologist at Sanford Health. Dr Sabha Ganai is experienced in minimally invasive surgery and has treated gastrointestinal stromal tumors and disorders of the parathyroid and thyroid glands.

A type of tumor that often affects adults between 40 and 70 years old, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is characterized by abnormal overgrowth in any tissue along the gastrointestinal tract. Often, the tumors are found in the stomach or small intestine, and they can be malignant (able to spread to other parts of the body) or benign (remain in place). At the early stage (when the tumor is small), GIST cause no symptoms. With time, however, a person with GIST may experience weight loss, nausea, swelling, or pain in the abdomen, nausea, and loss of appetite. In some cases, the tumor may result in internal bleeding (causing black stool or blood vomit), which can cause low RBC counts (anemia) and associated fatigue.

Often, when GIST occurs in a person with no family history of the disease, only one tumor is seen. This is called sporadic GIST. In people with a family history of GIST, however, multiple tumors are often seen along with hyperplasia (non-cancerous overgrowth) of many cells along the gastrointestinal tract.

AMA Reports Use of Digital Health Tools Growing

Dr. Sabha Ganai has spent more than 20 years working in surgical oncology and medical ethics and has authored more than 50 publications. Over the years, Dr. Sabha Ganai has belonged to various medical organizations, including the American Medical Association.

The AMA recently undertook a Digital Health Research initiative that examined the most recent three years of data concerning the rate at which doctors are adopting digital health tools. The study also looked at how physicians feel about these tools and how they expect them to change the field.

One area that saw significant growth was telemedicine – the practice of doctors seeing patients virtually rather than meeting them in person. Only 14 percent of doctors used telemedicine in 2016, but that number doubled to 28 percent by 2019. This makes telemedicine the largest growing trend in the digital medicine field.

The second biggest growth area was in remote monitoring. In remote monitoring, patients interact with a mobile app or connected device that collects information about the patient’s health, such as blood pressure, glucose levels, weight, etc.

These digital tools are typically used for patients with chronic health conditions, and the data is sent electronically to their physicians. Only 13 percent of doctors used remote monitoring in 2016, but by 2019, that number was up to 22 percent.

Communication-The Key to Navigating Cross-Cultural Relationships

Dr. Sabha Ganai’s extensive experience in the medical profession includes teaching at Southern Illinois University and working as a senior ethics fellow at MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. As a fellow, Dr. Sabha Ganai is involved with scholarship related to promoting ethics in clinical research and practical medicine. One of the major topics in clinical medical ethics relates to conflicts that arise between caregivers and people from other cultures.

The United States is a pluralistic society comprised of many nations, languages, and cultural practices. While this has always been true, in recent times, the medical community has made facilitating positive relationships between physicians and their patients a priority. More than just creating a safe space for patients to seek treatment, there are ethical considerations behind cultivating these relationships.

Communication is key to creating productive doctor-patient relationships. When Western physicians treat patients from other backgrounds, miscommunication and lack of understanding between the two parties can hinder patient progress, which is the ultimate goal of treatment. For instance, a physician listens to a patient and feels that the patient is not complying with directions but does not understand that there might be a number of reasons the patient is not following doctor’s orders (i.e. too tired after working all day). Other common issues that might arise relate to the way in which the patient views his/her own health and the roles other family members play in their own care.

Communication is a very important component of ethical patient care, because to cure a person there has to be mutual understanding and respect for values that govern the patient’s attitude toward their own health. The medical field’s role in building this relationship with their patients include knowing about the patient’s cultural norms and values. Armed with this information, physicians can discuss medical care and treatment with their patients without the cultural barriers that usually impede understanding and progress.