Electronic Linkage for Inflammatory Bowel Disease to Deliver Joint Access to Health Reports

Chronic illness is a major cause of health problems. Self-management programmes can improve care and reduce healthcare resource use, but rely on well educated patients who are able to take responsibility for their care, have effective communication with health care providers, and easy access to appropriately triaged services. This study utilised Inflammatory Bowel Disease as an exemplar of chronic disease management. To inform the intervention the investigators held a focus group with patients who told the investigators about their concerns relating to education, care planning and communication about their condition. The participants expressed a preference for individualised information about their care, and plans of what to do if symptoms increase. The investigators departmental electronic patient record (GeneCIS), was extended to provide personalised, educationally enriched information to each participant about their Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The investigators customised GeneCIS to develop output reports i.e.: "My History", "My plan" and "My Update", that attach specific educational information to the detailed, structured clinical data held on the system, and shared this with participants and their General Practitioner.