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Lieven Pouillon, Eveline Hoefkens, Veronique Verheyen, Michiel Bronswijk, August Van Olmen, Suzanne Van Dessel, Nancy Siborgs, Peter Bossuyt, Letter to the Editor: Feasibility and Efficiency of an E-Health Preadmission Assessment System for Intravenous Therapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Volume 26, Issue 2, February 2020, Pages e11–e12, https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izz304
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To the Editors,
Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) predominantly affect young people and often require regular administration of intravenous (IV) therapy.1 This negatively impacts work productivity and social functioning.2 The advent of new IV therapies for IBD leads to an increased workload at the IBD infusion unit and the hospital pharmacy and therefore demands a more efficient organization. Electronic-health technologies (e-health) have the potential to optimize workflow and facilitate ambulatory care of IBD patients.3
We developed a platform online to order IV biologic therapy in collaboration with the IT department of Imelda General Hospital (Bonheiden, Belgium) and Agfa HealthCare NV (Mortsel, Belgium). Through an integration in the digital calendar of our IBD ambulatory clinic, an automated e-mail is sent to all patients 1 day before their scheduled appointment. With the concealed link in this e-mail, patients can answer both red flag and open questions about their well-being since the previous therapy (Supplementary Material 1). The IBD team (both nurse and physician) then revise the answers. If no concerns arise, biologic therapy is authorized for preparation and immediate administration when the patient arrives at the IBD infusion unit the next day. This encrypted e-health system is in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines.