©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 21, 2015; 21(15): 4457-4465
Published online Apr 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i15.4457
Published online Apr 21, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i15.4457
Tools for primary care management of inflammatory bowel disease: Do they exist?
Alice L Bennett, Jane M Andrews, Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Alice L Bennett, Jane M Andrews, School of Medicine, University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
Pia Munkholm, Department of Gastroenterology, Northsealand Hospital, 1165 Copenhagen, Denmark
Author contributions: Bennett AL, Andrews JM and Munkholm P solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: We declare that we have no conflicts of interest.
Correspondence to: Alice L Bennett, MBBS, FRACP, Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Level Q7, North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia. alicebennett14@hotmail.com
Telephone: +61-8-82225207 Fax: +61-8-82222414
Received: November 25, 2014
Peer-review started: November 25, 2014
First decision: January 22, 2015
Revised: February 9, 2015
Accepted: March 12, 2015
Article in press: March 12, 2015
Published online: April 21, 2015
Processing time: 146 Days and 5.8 Hours
Peer-review started: November 25, 2014
First decision: January 22, 2015
Revised: February 9, 2015
Accepted: March 12, 2015
Article in press: March 12, 2015
Published online: April 21, 2015
Processing time: 146 Days and 5.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Much inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care could be delivered in the outpatient setting by primary care physicians. Whilst guidelines for IBD treatment exist, they are intended to support specialist practice and are not designed to use in the primary care setting. Our systematic reviewed found that a striking paucity of IBD outpatient supportive/educational tools for primary healthcare practitioners currently exists. This is despite good evidence of acceptability and usefulness of such tools in other chronic diseases. Developing and evaluating IBD-specific tools for primary care use may improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.