Impact of Digital Health Monitoring in the Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Technological advances now permit self-management strategies using mobile applications which could greatly benefit patient care. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) digital health monitoring platform, HealthPROMISE, leads to better quality of care and improved health outcomes in IBD patients. IBD patients were recruited in gastroenterology clinics and asked to install the HealthPROMISE application onto their smartphones. Patient satisfaction, quality of care, quality of life, patient symptoms, and resource utilization metrics were collected throughout the study and sent directly to their healthcare teams. Patients with abnormal symptom/SIBDQ scores were flagged for their physicians to follow up. After one-year, patient outcome metrics were compared to baseline values. Overall, out of 59 patients enrolled in the study, 32 patients (54%) logged into the application at least once during the study period. The number of IBDrelated ER visits/hospitalizations in the year of use compared to the prior year demonstrated a significant decrease from 25% of patients (8/32) to 3% (1/32) (p = 0.03). Patients also reported an increase in their understanding of the nature/causes of their condition after using the application (p = 0.026). No significant changes were observed in the number of quality indicators met (p = 0.67) or in SIBDQ scores (p = 0.48). Given the significant burden of IBD, there is a need to develop effective management strategies. This study demonstrated that digital health monitoring platforms may aid in reducing the number of ER visits and hospitalizations in IBD patients.

Role of Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Scoping Review

“…Led to a significant reduction in hospitalizations and emergency room visits within one year among IBD patients compared to those who received standard care [80]. TELE-IBD TELE-IBD groups experienced a decline in IBD-related hospitalizations, with a significant decrease when receiving TELE-IBD messages weekly compared to standard care.…”

“…At baseline, 25% of participants received hospital care, whereas after 12 months, there was only one visit recorded (3% of participants) (p = 0.03). This decrease in visits can be explained by the fact that the scores from the questionnaires incited the med-ical team to anticipate a decline in patients' health earlier, preventing visits to the hospital, demonstrating the preventative potential of DH approaches [80].…”

“…Another study with 59 participants found that DH platforms help patients gain an understanding of their disease and reduce healthcare utilization compared to standard care [80]. In the health monitoring application HealthPROMISE, patients could record and monitor their symptoms, medications, QoL scores measured by the Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (SIBDQ), emergency room visits, and hospitalizations.…”

“…Telemedicine technologies that promote web-based and distance management of IBD enable longitudinal disease monitoring, which has improved the QoL and remission rates of patients while reducing the need for clinic visits and hospitalization [49]. Furthermore, through telemanagement and -monitoring, a variety of positive outcomes have been relayed, such as improved disease activity [48], prevention of hospitalizations [80,81], and monetary savings from virtual appointments [79]. Although not all DH technologies provide equal benefit or improvements compared to standard care, the quality of care that these tools can provide demonstrates their viability as a strong alternative to traditional clinic visits, reducing healthcare utilization and loss of productivity, among several other advantages to patients and healthcare systems.…”

Is Digital Health Intervention Effective in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients?

“…With the development of technology in the field of health and the spread of treatments on the digital platform due to COVID-19, interventions related to effective self-management strategies for outpatient care have become more important. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of HealthPROMISE -an IBD health monitoring platformfor use in clinical practice and to evaluate whether its use leads to better quality of care and improved health outcomes [2].…”