Authors:
Caterina Lia
1
;
Matteo Bonina
1
;
Marco Daperno
2
;
Valeria Figini
3
;
Flavio Martinez De Carnero
1
and
Guido Pagana
1
Affiliations:
1
Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
;
2
Department of Gastroenterology of Mauriziano Hospital, Turin, Italy
;
3
LINKS Foundation, Turin, Italy
Keyword(s):
Telemedicine, e-Health, Telemonitoring, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Questionnaires.
Abstract:
Telemedicine brings numerous benefits to healthcare as a support to traditional medicine. On this basis, IBD Tool was developed. It consists of a web-app through which some of the patients suffering from Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) of the Mauriziano Hospital of Turin are followed. Thanks to IBD Tool, physicians can follow the evolution of the disease over time, having the ability to identify periods of remission and relapse and to reduce hospitalization’s frequency of patients. Furthermore, IBD Tool is a powerful tool also for patients, who thanks to the web-app are always in close contact with the healthcare staff and do not feel neglected in the months that normally elapse between a visit and the other. In this first year of use of the platform, telemedicine has proved to be a valid support for the treatment of chronic intestinal diseases, providing clinicians a versatile telemonitoring tool. Considering the current health situation, it is increasingly evident that the health
system cannot ignore telemedicine. In this study, we have investigated the results collected in this first period of use of the platform, monitoring the activity state of the web-app and patients’ evaluations about the tool.
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