S2378 Acute Hemorrhagic Rectal Ulcer Syndrome: A Known yet Often Overlooked Etiology of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Chronically Ill Patients

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Adherence constitutes a great challenge for disease management, particularly when treating chronically ill patients facing an extensive, complex and long-term therapy. Earlier studies emphasize the relevance of adherence for improving therapy benefits. Besides the positive impact of increased patient support, the use of mobile health applications has gained importance in disease management. Objective: We aimed to develop a software application providing innovative features to simplify the contact between patients and treating physicians in order to overcome adherence barriers, to implement risk management plans and to collect patient reported outcome data. Methods: A novel software application ensuring data security was developed. Various innovative modules have been implemented, enabling bidirectional communication between treating physicians and patients, supporting therapy monitoring and management and allowing the collection of large sets of anonymous patient data. Results: The PatientConcept app is freely available for download and is tested since 2016, with more than 1800 generated patient IDs and 279 patients documenting health data according to risk management plans online in 2017. The impact on adherence issues is currently tested in larger patient populations. Conclusion: This innovative app provides a feasible and cost-optimized possibility to intensify and simplify the communication between patients and their treating physicians across indications, thus promising an exceptional benefit to both. It may not only support chronically ill patients in managing their daily life and improving adherence, but can also facilitate the implementation of risk management plans through automated monitoring, thus supporting physicians in their daily routine. Furthermore, patient reported outcome data can be collected. Importantly, a secure ID-associated data management ensures patient anonymity complying with highest data safety standards.

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Understanding care transition notifications for chronically ill patients

IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering ◽

10.1080/24725579.2021.1912217 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Sarah Kianfar ◽

Ann Schoofs Hundt ◽

Peter L.T. Hoonakker ◽

Doreen Salek ◽

Janet Tomcavage ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronically Ill ◽

Care Transition ◽

Chronically Ill Patients

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Attitudes to and experience of disease management programs in primary care—an exploratory survey of general practitioners in Germany

Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift ◽

10.1007/s10354-021-00867-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Julian Wangler ◽

Michael Jansky

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Disease Management ◽

Patient Care ◽

General Practitioners ◽

Linear Regression Analysis ◽

Chronically Ill ◽

Disease Management Programs ◽

Federal States ◽

Set Up ◽

Chronically Ill Patients

Summary Background Disease management programs (DMPs) were set up in Germany in 2003 to improve outpatient care of chronically ill patients. The present study looks at the attitudes and experiences of general practitioners (GPs) in relation to DMPs, how they rate them almost 20 years after their introduction and where they see a need for improvement. Methods A total of 1504 GPs in the Federal States of Rhineland Palatinate, Saarland and Hesse were surveyed between December 2019 and March 2020 using a written questionnaire. Results In total, 58% of respondents rate DMPs positively and regard them as making a useful contribution to primary care. The guarantee of regular, structured patient care and greater compliance are regarded as particularly positive aspects. It was also established that diagnostic and therapeutic knowledge was expanded through participation in DMPs. 57% essentially follow the DMP recommendations for (drug) treatment. Despite positive experiences of DMPs in patient care, the GPs surveyed mention various challenges (documentation requirements, frequent changes to the programmes, inflexibility). Univariant linear regression analysis revealed factors influencing the satisfaction with DMPs, such as improvement of compliance and clearly defined procedures in medical care. Conclusion Most of the GPs surveyed consider the combination of continuous patient care and evidence-based diagnosis and treatment to be a great advantage. To better adapt DMPs to the conditions of primary care, it makes sense to simplify the documentation requirements, to regulate cooperation with other healthcare levels more clearly and to give GPs more decision-making flexibility. Increased inclusion of GP experience in the process of developing and refining DMPs can be helpful.

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