Polyp-Alert: Near real-time feedback during colonoscopy

•We surveyed recent research in polyp detection in screening colonoscopy.•We introduced a fast polyp detection algorithm cable of running at 10 frames per second on an off-the-shelf workstation. It correctly detects 97.7% of polyp shots in our data set.•We evaluated our technique on 53 video files of procedures performed using Olympus and Fujinon scopes.•Real-time polyp detection and feedback potentially help to reduce polyp miss rates to improve quality of care and quality of documentation.•The proposed polyp detection algorithm is fast, effective, and potentially useful for improving quality of colonoscopy.

We present a software system called “Polyp-Alert” to assist the endoscopist find polyps by providing visual feedback during colonoscopy. Polyp-Alert employs our previous edge-cross-section visual features and a rule-based classifier to detect a polyp edge—an edge along the contour of a polyp. The technique employs tracking of detected polyp edge(s) to group a sequence of images covering the same polyp(s) as one polyp shot. In our experiments, the software correctly detected 97.7% (42 of 43) of polyp shots on 53 randomly selected video files of entire colonoscopy procedures. However, Polyp-Alert incorrectly marked only 4.3% of a full-length colonoscopy procedure as showing a polyp when they do not. The test data set consists of about 18 h worth of video data from Olympus and Fujinon endoscopes. The technique is extensible to other brands of colonoscopes. Furthermore, Polyp-Alert can provide as high as ten feedbacks per second for a smooth display of feedback. The performance of our system is by far the most promising to potentially assist the endoscopist find more polyps in clinical practice during a routine screening colonoscopy.