Telemedicine in inflammatory bowel diseases: A new brick in the medicine of the future?

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic digestive disease that requires continuous monitoring by healthcare professionals to determine the appropriate therapy and monitor short-term and long-term complications. The progressive development of information technology has enabled healthcare personnel to deliver care services to patients remotely. Therefore, various applications of telemedicine in IBD management have evolved, including telemonitoring, teleconsulting, teleducation, telenursing, telenutrition, and telepathology. While evidence has been provided for some telemedicine applications, targeted studies are still required. This review summarises the major studies that have evaluated telemedicine and its application in the management of IBD.

Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease; Crohn’s disease; Ulcerative colitis; Telemedicine; Telemonitoring; Telenutrition; Telepathology; Teleducation; Telepsychology

Core Tip: The progressive development of technology has provided new telehealth tools for gastroenterologists to manage patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Through online platforms, simple e-mails, phone calls, and websites, physicians can monitor patients, adapt therapies, summon patients in case of alerts or red flags, and communicate with them. However, there is a need to scientifically test these methods by comparing them with the standard of care to determine whether these forms of care are superimposable, or at least comparable.