Telemedicine To Provide Inflammatory Bowel Disease Outpatient Care

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The investigators hypothesize that outpatient clinical care of Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients may be provided using a new computerized system over standard network - called Collaborative Imaging - with similar patient experience compared to a conventional clinic visit.

Detailed Description
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Significant advances in gastroenterology have led the field to grow into a number of advanced subspecialties: inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), motility, therapeutic endoscopy, and transplant hepatology. Telemedicine, the application of information technology in support of health care delivery from a distance, has been employed with good success in various chronic conditions with excellent patient satisfaction. Primary Aim: Our primary study endpoint was measuring patient clinical experience between two groups: A telemedicine remote clinic visit and a standard in-house visit. Secondary Aim: To compare standard clinic metrics including clinic wait time, patient throughput, and appointment time between the two groups.

Official Title
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A Randomized Controlled Pilot: Use of Telemedicine To Provide Inflammatory Bowel Disease Outpatient Care

Conditions
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Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease

Intervention / Treatment
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* Device: Collaborative Imaging


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Adult (> 18 years old) outpatient IBD patients in the Veterans Affairs medical system Exclusion Criteria: VA patients without IBD Hospitalized IBD patients

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Standard encounter<br>Standard in-house clinical visit between patient and physician. | |
| Experimental: Telemedicine Encounter<br>Remote clinical appointment between patient and physician. | Device: Collaborative Imaging<br>* Hardware and software communication tools to provide clinical care from a distance.<br>* Other names: Telemedicine;|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Patient Clinical Experience | We used a validated Ware Specific Visit Questionnaire to assess patients' satisfaction with their clinic-visit encounter. This is a 14-item questionnaire on doctor-patient interaction including factors such as attention to complaints, technical skills, and personal manner (courtesy,and ease of appointment scheduling and is based on a five-point Likert scale (1 excellent to 5 poor). Patients completed the questionnaire at the time of the visit. The 14 item scores were individually scored and then averaged to provide the final overall value. | Clinic Visit | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Clinic Appointment Duration | The investigators recorded appointment duration in minutes. | Clinic Visit | 
| Clinic Appointment Wait Time | The investigators recorded clinic appointment wait time duration in minutes | Clinic Visit | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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telemedicine, remote consultation, telehealth, ehealth, image archiving, inflammatory bowel disease