Rationale: The years marking the transition from pediatric-to-adult transition can be particularly difficult and transitioning patients with IBD may be at increased risk for loss to follow-up. As patient advocates, we need an intervention that would enable continuity of care especially among young adults who may face obstacles in accessing regular office visits. An intervention such as regular email contact with an IBD nurse may especially benefit those who are transitioning to community gastroenterology practices or to geographic regions where there is difficulty in accessing gastroenterology care. The lack of continuity of care may lead to delayed treatment which may be associated with poor clinical outcomes.
Research Question and Hypothesis: Our primary question is whether regular email contact with an IBD nurse can improve health outcomes. We hypothesize that such interaction, through augmented continuity of care will lead to increased patient satisfaction, increased medical adherence, improved transition readiness, decreased disease activity, and consequently decreased costly visits to the emergency department and hospitalizations.
Study Design: Multi-center randomized controlled clinical trial
Study population and inclusion/exclusion criteria: This study comprise adolescent subjects recruited from the IBD clinics of the Hospital for Sick Children, McMaster Children's Hospital or Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario who meet the following inclusion criteria: (1) diagnosis of IBD; (2) at least age 16 years or older; (3) planning to undergo transition of care and will be followed by a gastroenterologist in either an academic center or the community; (4) have access to email or other means of telecommunication. We will exclude any subjects who will not be residing in Canada or who will not be enrolled in the Ontario Health Insurance Plan after exiting pediatric care. Registration with OHIP, even if residing in a different province, is required for monitoring of health utilization.
Health Implications: Our study may demonstrate cost-savings from decreased non-routine healthcare utilization coupled with improvement in health outcomes that may support the more widespread use of routine email-based interactions with IBD allied health providers in the pediatric-adult transition period.
