Placing Value on Telemedicine for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Telemedicine can take a number of forms. A popular approach is the use of telemonitoring, which takes advantage of available technology to follow patients remotely. Cross and colleagues present the results of a well-done randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of a telemonitoring program for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. They did not show a difference in disease activity, but this study leads us to question whether we know the appropriate outcomes to follow for telemedicine interventions. If we can show that telemedicine maintains quality of care at lower costs, the value of these types of interventions will ultimately be increased.