My Medical Record – Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects one in every 250 people in the UK. The two most common forms of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – both are lifelong conditions with no cure, and have a significant impact on people’s quality of life.

The majority of IBD patients are managed in secondary care and, because of the unpredictability of the condition and the need for cancer surveillance, are kept under review.

This project by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust looked to improve care for IBD patients at the Trust and increase capacity to manage long-term conditions.

A virtual supported self-management pathway was introduced, using My Medical Record (MyMR), a cloud-based online system. It connects to the Trust’s systems and pushes digital information into the patient’s record, for example, results and letters.

The project aimed to transition 10% of appointments that are currently provided as telephone follow up onto MyMR. The patients are those who are not seen face to face in the clinic, but who are reviewed on an annual basis.

MyMR helps IBD staff to manage their patient cohort and their current status and empowers patients to effectively self-manage their condition.

There are now over 450 IBD patients registered with MyMR and patient log-ins to the system have continued to increase.

The main challenges faced were around making contact with the patients to engage them with the project, and also issues around data collation, privacy and consent.

The project now forms part of an overall Trust strategy to implement virtual supported self-management for follow-up care.

Contact information

For more information about this project, please contact Kevin Hamer, IT Development Service Manager, Southampton General Hospital.