MyIBD Care - Feasibility Study

15 million people in the England suffer from long term conditions (LTCs). Furthermore, the number of people with three or more LTC's has risen from 1.9 million people in 2008 to 2.9 million in 2018. And with the growing number of people suffering from these conditions, the pressure grows for health care providers to provide long term solutions to meet this increase in demand.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is an exemplar for LTCs, requiring frequent routine appointments, an ongoing testing regimen and costly pharmacological intervention. Moreover, people living with Crohn's disease (CD) or Ulcerative Colitis (UC) are often young and report that their condition leads to a significant reduction in quality of life (QOL) even when symptoms are relatively well-controlled. Patients present with diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss and other symptoms that have a significant impact on quality of life (taking into account social functioning, employment status, psychological distress). The condition has an estimated prevalence of 0.3% in North America, Northern Europe and Oceania (1) with a substantial direct and indirect costs. The majority of patients require lifelong medication and are followed up in secondary care. Like many immune mediated inflammatory conditions, it is a disease of relapse and remission. At times of relapse patients require rapid access to specialist advice, managing flares early leads to better outcomes such as returning to work or daily activities and avoids costly admission to hospital.

Up to 76% of patients with CD and 51% with UC, will need immunomodulators (thiopurines or methotrexate) which require regular blood monitoring at minimum 4 times per year to screen for side effects of myeloid and hepatotoxicity (2). Patients on sub-cutaneous biologic medications such as adalimumab, golimumab and Ustekinumab also require regular blood monitoring which often necessitates clinic visits. In a recent nationwide survey of 2400 consecutive outpatient appointments in a wide variety of hospitals throughout England and Scotland up to 75% of patients were deemed to be in a quiescent or mildly active phase of disease (2). The majority of those patients are being seen in outpatients based on an antiquated model of routine follow up appointments, with dates of 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12-month intervals chosen either to have safety-based blood tests or a date arbitrarily chosen by clinician or patient. Appointments such as these rarely reflect a clinical need and lead to an inflexible system in which patients Clinicians at King's College Hospital wanted to explore whether digital self-management could be an effective way of reducing the burden the condition places on the patient and on the health system. Using the My IBD Care app, they provided patients with a convenient digital touchpoint for their treatment, facilitating easy access to information, including their care plan, health record and self-management content; and digital contact with hospital staff via an app.

From a hospital perspective, self-managing patients cost less to treat and place less of a burden on hospital appointments, thereby contributing to shorter waiting times. Moreover, My IBD Care allows patients to submit PROMs to their clinical teams remotely and in real time, allowing clinical staff to monitor their status and intervene as required.

Scientifically validated digital therapeutics exist for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and sleeping disorders, however there are none addressing the complex, costly challenges of inflammatory conditions.

In the context of these conditions - which include Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory arthritis and psoriasis (UK TAM c3.5m people) - a digital therapeutic is digitally-supported behaviour change, tailored to the alleviation of symptoms such as pain, fatigue and anxiety. Importantly, for a therapeutic to be accepted as such, an evidence-based approach is required.