Science and Innovation award 2019

Marin de Jong successfully defended her PhD thesis on remote monitoring of IBD the 4^th of June at Maastricht University with Marieke Pierik, Astrid Van Tubergen and Ad Masclee as promotion team (https://epubs.ogc.nl/?epub=marin.dejong). Tight and personalised control of inflammatory bowel disease in a traditional health care organization is challenging because of the disease complexity, high pressure on outpatient clinics, and rising incidence. The MUMC+ developed the telemedicine system, myIBDcoach, for all subtypes of IBD,  trough collaboration of the Dutch patient organization (CCUVN), gastroenterologists, IBD-nurses and Sananet.

The study group compared the effects of self-management with myIBDcoach on health-care utilisation and patient-reported quality of care versus standard care in a pragmatic randomized trial in 4 hospitals (MUMC+, Zuyderland MC, LUMC and St. Antonius Hospital). After 12 months, the mean number of outpatient visits to the gastroenterologist or nurse was 36 % and the number of hospitalization 50% lower in the telemedicine group. Patient reported treatment adherence increased and patients scored the quality of care high. The myIBDcoach study was published in the Lancet in 2017. 

Peter Paul van Benthem, board member of the federation of medical specialists, awarded the price and stated that this study has a large impact on the individual patient, but also scientifically and for health care innovation. The myIBDcoach study group showed that remote monitoring was safe and reduced outpatient visits and hospital admissions and the myIBDcoach care pathway is implemented in standard care in 12 hospitals in The Netherlands at present. This self-management tool is useful for reorganising care of inflammatory bowel disease towards personalised and value-based health care.