Foundation and PRIME Present Poster at Crohn’s and Colitis Congress

AMCP Foundation staff and researchers from PRIME last month presented a poster on advances in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment at the Crohn’s and Colitis Congress in Las Vegas. The poster, “Tethered IBD Tools to Support Patients and Providers in Shared Decision-Making and Therapy Access,” described how progress in IBD treatment has improved patient outcomes, but that certain barriers at the patient, provider and system level often limit the extent to which patients benefit from IBD treatments. These include:

Suboptimal patient and provider knowledge about evidence-based IBD treatment;
Inaccurate, misleading, or outdated medical information accessed by patients online;
Discordance between patient and provider attitudes and perceptions on IBD care and treatment; and
Challenges in navigating managed care processes for therapy access.

Effective tools are needed to support IBD patients and providers in shared decision-making (SDM) and navigating access to appropriate therapies, the research concluded. Researchers developed and evaluated patient and provider educational online apps that present aligned content designed to close gaps in shared decision-making (SDM) and timely treatment. Key findings from the baseline patient and provider survey items include:

Providers underestimated the proportion of patients who would like to be highly involved in IBD treatment decisions
While providers recognized that using evidence-based pathways is important for making informed decisions, a minority used or planned to use the AGA Care Pathways
Patients and providers had limited confidence in and understanding of managed care processes
Patients reported experiencing barriers to accessing needed IBD therapies, including denials of prescribed therapy and delays in therapy approval.

Web apps present a model for patient and provider education aligned with the principles of SDM, and may be useful to encourage adoption of treatment guidelines in PAs, electronic PAs, and EHR management. Read the study poster and visit the Foundation web tools, now available in three disease states:

A satellite symposium at AMCP Annual featured the dyslipidemia tools: SS2: Headlights Through the Fog: How New Lipid Guidelines & Cardiovascular Evidence are Redefining Lipid Management. The free satellite was held Monday, March 25 at 11:00 am.