Gravina AG, Pellegrino R, Durante T, Palladino G, D'Onofrio R, Mammone S, Arboretto G, Auletta S, Imperio G, Ventura A, Romeo M, Federico A. Telemedicine in inflammatory bowel diseases: A new brick in the medicine of the future? World J Methodol 2023; 13(4): 194-209 [PMID: 37771865 DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i4.194]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via L. de Crecchio, Naples 80138, Italy. antoniettagerarda.gravina@unicampania.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Methodol. Sep 20, 2023; 13(4): 194-209 Published online Sep 20, 2023. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i4.194
Telemedicine in inflammatory bowel diseases: A new brick in the medicine of the future?
Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, Raffaele Pellegrino, Tommaso Durante, Giovanna Palladino, Rossella D'Onofrio, Simone Mammone, Giusi Arboretto, Salvatore Auletta, Giuseppe Imperio, Andrea Ventura, Mario Romeo, Alessandro Federico
Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, Raffaele Pellegrino, Giovanna Palladino, Rossella D'Onofrio, Simone Mammone, Giusi Arboretto, Salvatore Auletta, Giuseppe Imperio, Andrea Ventura, Mario Romeo, Alessandro Federico, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples 80138, Italy
Author contributions: Gravina AG and Pellegrino R collected the literature, wrote the initial manuscript, conceptualised the figures, and contributed equally to this work; All the authors conceptualised the structure of the text, critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, and read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Antonietta Gerarda Gravina, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via L. de Crecchio, Naples 80138, Italy. antoniettagerarda.gravina@unicampania.it
Received: June 22, 2023 Peer-review started: June 22, 2023 First decision: July 5, 2023 Revised: July 12, 2023 Accepted: July 31, 2023 Article in press: July 31, 2023 Published online: September 20, 2023 Processing time: 89 Days and 13.9 Hours
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.
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.
