Future expectations in digestive endoscopy: Competition with other novel imaging techniques

This article reviews the diagnostic and therapeutic role of digestive endoscopy and future directions of digestive endoscopy are discussed. Digestive endoscopy is also compared with emerging novel imaging techniques in gastrointestinal diseases such as capsule endoscopy and CT colonography. The fact that digestive endoscopy has become a multidisciplinary specialty combining advances in all fields (radiology, bioengineering, surgery and gastroenterology) is highlighted.