Summary of the Article: Virtual Multidisciplinary GI Clinic Improves Outcomes
This article reports on a study demonstrating the positive impact of a virtual, multidisciplinary GI clinic along with customary in-person care. Here’s a breakdown of the key findings:
* Care Model: The clinic combines telehealth visits with GI-trained advanced practice providers and in-person care with the patient’s local gastroenterologist.
* Significant Symptom Betterment: A large majority of patients (78% initially) reported moderate to severe symptoms, which considerably decreased to 28% after receiving care through this model (P < .0001). Improvements were also seen in global symptom control (14% to 90%; P < .0001) and patient satisfaction (30% to 97%; P < .0001).
* Reduced Healthcare Utilization: Patients in the study experienced fewer GI-related emergency department visits, hospital admissions, surgeries, and imaging procedures compared to a matched control group (all P values significant).
* Lower Healthcare Costs: Nine and twelve months after enrollment,patients in the virtual clinic model had significantly lower all-cause healthcare costs compared to controls ($10,700 vs. $15,275 at 9 months, and $14,412 vs.$19,449 at 12 months; P <.0001 and P = .002 respectively).
* Ongoing Research: Further studies are planned with a larger patient population (10,000-15,000) to confirm these benefits and explore outcomes in specific GI diseases.
* Crucial Note: The study does not suggest telehealth is superior to in-person care. instead, it highlights the benefits of combining virtual multidisciplinary care with traditional GI care.
Source: the study was presented at the ACG Annual scientific Meeting (Oct. 24-29, 2025) and conducted by Berry SK, et al.
contact: sameer K. Berry,MD,MBA,sameer@oshihealth.com.
