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E ‐Health and remote management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease: lessons from Denmark in a time of need
Author(s) -
Ankersen Dorit V.,
Noack Savannah,
Munkholm Pia,
Sparrow Miles P.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/imj.15132
Subject(s) - medicine , telehealth , health care , inflammatory bowel disease , population , telemedicine , disease , disease management , ambulatory care , digital health , family medicine , medical emergency , environmental health , parkinson's disease , economics , economic growth
In Denmark, remote monitoring and management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) started two decades ago with the web application Constant Care. The disease monitoring in Constant Care consists of simple disease activity questionnaires and home measurement of faecal calprotectin, a stool biomarker for inflammation. It has now been implemented in clinical practice at North Zealand University Hospital in Denmark. Digital health care solutions facilitate remote contact between patients and healthcare providers and have been shown to reduce time to remission, outpatient visits and hospital admissions, and increase adherence to medical therapy, quality of life and disease and treatment knowledge. In Australia, E ‐Health is an area of increasing interest, particularly given the significant distances travelled by rural patients to access specialist care. There are several foreseeable benefits to incorporating E ‐Health/remote monitoring into Australian IBD management, including reduced burdens of time and cost on rural patients, and more efficient management of well outpatients, thereby increasing clinic availability for acutely unwell patients. The significant portion of IBD patients managed in private practice in Australia, and the infrastructure within private practice that is well suited to implementation of E ‐Health makes Australia a viable setting for an E ‐Health IBD management model like Denmark's Constant Care model. One pilot study is currently underway investigating the feasibility of rapid and remote IBD monitoring and E ‐Health in an Australian IBD population. The current COVID‐19 pandemic has further illustrated the importance of telehealth as a means of maintaining health services to patients in geographic, or social, isolation.