Televisit outpatient care feasible for inflammatory bowel disease

Televisit-delivered outpatient care for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is not associated with a higher risk for IBD-related hospitalization, according to a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Shirley Cohen-Mekelburg, M.D., from the VA Center for Clinical Management Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and colleagues examined the association between outpatient IBD care delivered through televisit (video or phone) and IBD-related hospitalizations. The analysis included 534 patients with an IBD-related hospitalization and 534 matched controls without an IBD-related hospitalization (April 2021 and July 2022).

The researchers found that IBD patients with a higher percentage of televisit-delivered outpatient care were less likely to be hospitalized during the study period versus patients receiving in-person care (for every 10 percent increase in televisit use: odds ratio, 0.97; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.94 to 1.00; P = 0.03).

"These findings may reassure clinicians that televisit-delivered outpatient care is appropriate for patients with complex chronic diseases such as IBD," the authors write. "Future work should focus on better understanding the optimal number of annual televisit-delivered outpatient encounters, which types of visits and which patients may benefit most from televisit-delivered care, and generalizing these findings to diverse populations."

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