Response to the NEJM study suggesting that thorough colonoscopies uncover more polyps and masses. These are some things to keep in mind as you choose a gastroenterologist:

Because colonoscopy typically involves sedation, there is usually no way for a patient to tell how thorough or careful a doctor is being or how long the examination is taking. But there are ways to judge beforehand whether, in general, a doctor tends to rush procedures.

“It’s fair to ask how many procedures a doctor does in a day,” said Dr. Deborah A. Nagle, chief of the section of colon and rectal surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “If a colonoscopy is supposed to take half an hour, you don’t want someone who is doing 40 in a morning. A doctor who is doing about a dozen between 8 a.m. and noon makes sense.”