News

New patient guides on colonoscopy and bowel cancer screening

Four plain English guides for patients: what a colonoscopy involves and costs, how the national screening program works, what a positive screening test means and why bowel cancer in people under 50 needs to be taken seriously.

Read more: New patient guides on colonoscopy and bowel cancer screening

Concord and Macquarie teams at Australian Gastroenterology Week 2026

Awards and the largest number of abstract submissions of any centre, from the Concord, Macquarie and IBD Sydney groups at the national gastroenterology meeting in Perth, including 22 abstracts co-authored by A/Prof Kariyawasam.

Read more: Concord and Macquarie teams at Australian Gastroenterology Week 2026

We are part of the answer, not the problem

On proposals to cap specialist fees, written for a medical readership. What a cap would mean in practice for the staff a clinic can keep and the time a consultation can run, and why setting patients against their doctors does not fix a funding problem.

Genetics, geography and inflammatory bowel disease, at the GESQ Noosa Update

An invited talk at the Gastroenterological Society of Queensland meeting in Noosa on how genetics, geography and migration shape inflammatory bowel disease and what that means for the people being diagnosed here now.

Read more: Genetics, geography and inflammatory bowel disease, at the GESQ Noosa Update

After 17 years of pain: access to newer Crohn's disease therapies

A report by Briana Domjen on a Sydney man who has lived with Crohn's disease since he was nine and now faces the cost of a therapy that is not subsidised here. A/Prof Kariyawasam was one of the specialists asked about access to newer treatments and about how much of this disease goes unseen. Published in print on 23 May 2026, in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney and the Mercury in Hobart, and not available online.

Behind the scenes these people have a very debilitating condition the outside world doesn't even see or understand.

Chairing the World IBD Day meeting in Sydney: ECCO and DDW 2026 highlights

A/Prof Kariyawasam chaired the limbic LIVE inflammatory bowel disease meeting in Sydney on World IBD Day, where four speakers took the room through what came out of the year's two main international meetings and what it means for practice here.

Read more: Chairing the World IBD Day meeting in Sydney: ECCO and DDW 2026 highlights

Comment: Don't create another divide in healthcare

Written as an AMA (NSW) councillor on proposals to cap specialist fees, arguing that the Medicare rebate has not kept pace with the cost of care and that capping charges masks the underlying problem.

Aussie dad's symptom that revealed colorectal cancer now surging in young people

On the rise in bowel cancer among Australians in their thirties, the symptoms that are too often dismissed in younger patients and the case for screening earlier than the current starting age.

If you have any symptoms that persist for more than four to six weeks, you should see your GP.

Young 'healthy' dad lists the three symptoms every Australian should look out for

A report by Cindy Tran on a Sydney father diagnosed with bowel cancer at 34 with no family history. A/Prof Kariyawasam was asked what is behind the rise in diagnoses under 50, why younger patients tend to be found later and at a more advanced stage and which symptoms get put down to stress, diet, haemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome.

While overall bowel cancer rates in older populations have stabilised or fallen due to screening, younger age groups are often being diagnosed later and at more advanced stages.

An inflammatory bowel disease update for the Central Coast

An evening update for the gastroenterology department at Gosford Hospital, where A/Prof Kariyawasam trained, on where inflammatory bowel disease treatment has moved and what it means for a regional service.

Read more: An inflammatory bowel disease update for the Central Coast

IBD School 2025, the tenth anniversary of the course

The tenth IBD School ran over two days in Sydney, with more than 160 delegates. A/Prof Kariyawasam co-founded the course and sits on its steering committee.

Read more: IBD School 2025, the tenth anniversary of the course

MJA Podcasts 2025, Episode 12: Inflammatory bowel disease and bowel cancer screening

In conversation with Dr Brandon Baraty on advances in inflammatory bowel disease management and on bowel cancer screening.

On the investigator panel for two international inflammatory bowel disease trials

A/Prof Kariyawasam represented Macquarie University Hospital at the international investigator meeting for the AMETRINE and SIBERITE studies in Singapore, on a panel about recruiting and running the trials well.

Read more: On the investigator panel for two international inflammatory bowel disease trials

ECCO and DDW 2024: highlights through an Australian lens, Sydney

A panel on what the year's two main international meetings, the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation congress and Digestive Disease Week, mean for Australian practice. A/Prof Kariyawasam took part in the Sydney panel, hosted by Professor Rupert Leong. The recording is available on the limbic to registered health professionals.

The tiny capsule helping Australians slash their body weight

A report on the swallowable gastric balloon, how the procedure works alongside diet, activity and medical follow-up and who it suits.

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Deciding how urgently a colonoscopy is needed: the NSW categorisation guide

A/Prof Kariyawasam sat on the working group behind the NSW colonoscopy categorisation clinical practice guide, which sets out how urgently a referral for colonoscopy should be seen in the New South Wales public system: within 30, 90 or 365 days depending on what the referral says.

Read more: Deciding how urgently a colonoscopy is needed: the NSW categorisation guide

Contributing to Australia's surveillance colonoscopy guidelines

A/Prof Kariyawasam was part of the working party behind the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Surveillance Colonoscopy, approved by the NHMRC, working on the section covering surveillance and the management of dysplasia in inflammatory bowel disease.

Read more: Contributing to Australia's surveillance colonoscopy guidelines