Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 2, 2024
Date Accepted: Feb 21, 2025
Application of Internet Hospital in the Disease Management of Ulcerative Colitis Patients: Retrospective Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic disease that is prone to relapse and requires long-term management, thus consuming a lot of medical and social resources. This study aimed to validate the advantages of the intelligent diagnosis and treatment model of internet hospital in UC management service.
Objective:
To compare and analyze the diagnosis and treatment data of UC in physical hospital and internet hospital, and explore the advantages of the intelligent diagnosis and treatment service of internet hospital.
Methods:
We collected data on the visits of patients with UC in the Department of Gastroenterology of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital. A total of 852 UC patients were included between July 1, 2020, and June 31, 2023. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the medical preferences and the medical expenses of UC patients.
Results:
We found that internet hospital and physical hospital presented different medical service models due to the different distribution of medical needs and patient groups. Patients who chose internet hospital focused on disease consultation and prescribing medicine (3295/3528, 93.39%). Patients’ medical preferences gradually transformed to online service of internet hospital. 58.57% (270/461) of patients chose online service or a combination of online and offline service as UC diagnosis and treatment mode by time. The visits number of combination of online and offline service mode was highest (Mean 13.83, SD 11.07), and young patients were inclined to visit internet hospital (49.66% >34.71%). Additionally, compared with physical hospitals, there was no difference in testing fees and examination fees for UC patients in Internet hospitals, but medicine fees were less.
Conclusions:
Internet hospital can effectively provide a series of services related to online UC management. The UC intelligent diagnosis and treatment service mode of internet hospital highlights the advantages of practicability, accessibility, convenience, and economics.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.