Telemedicine To Provide Inflammatory Bowel Disease Outpatient Care

VA Palo Alto Health Care System34 enrolled

Overview

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.

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.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Ulcerative Colitis Crohn's Disease

Interventions

Collaborative ImagingDEVICE

Hardware and software communication tools to provide clinical care from a distance.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

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

Locations (1)

Veterans Affairs Palo Alto

Palo Alto, California, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

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.

Time frame: Clinic Visit

Secondary Outcomes

Clinic Appointment Duration

The investigators recorded appointment duration in minutes.

Time frame: Clinic Visit

Clinic Appointment Wait Time

The investigators recorded clinic appointment wait time duration in minutes

Time frame: Clinic Visit

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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