Developing and Evaluating a Bundled Digital Tool to Improve Complex Care and Self-Management of Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Protocol for a Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Study.

Background: Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) require comprehensive care to address the physical and psychosocial burden of their disease. The demand for IBD care often exceeds availability, resulting in delayed access and suboptimal management. As a result, patients with IBD are required to self-manage significant aspects of their disease between appointments with their medical team. Digital self-management tools may help address this gap by empowering patients to be more engaged in managing their disease, potentially improving outcomes and reducing the strain on the health care system.

Objective: This study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate a bundled digital health tool, MyIBDToolkit, with the overarching goal of improving the quality of care and self-management for patients with IBD in Alberta, Canada.

Methods: A bundled digital health tool, MyIBDToolkit, will be integrated into our provincial electronic health record system to ensure broad accessibility and continuity of care. We will use a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation design to evaluate both the clinical impact and real-world integration of the toolkit. We will assess effectiveness through changes in key outcomes such as health care utilization (eg, emergency visits, hospitalizations), disease burden on patients (eg, quality of life, symptom control), and burden on the health care system. These outcomes will be measured using comprehensive health care administrative data. A dual-comparison approach will be used: a within-subject comparison of health care utilization and disease burden before and after implementation of the MyIBDToolkit, and a between-group comparison of outcomes among toolkit users versus nonusers. To evaluate implementation success, we will examine reach (ie, number of patients and providers using the tool), fidelity to the planned timeline, sustained use over time, and factors influencing adoption and maintenance. Our goal is to reach 10,000 patients across Alberta, Canada, within three years.

Results: We received funding for this project in January 2023. In preparation for the pilot launch, we have identified key stakeholders, including patients, health care providers and, administrators, and developed strategies to assess their readiness for MyIBDToolkit. We are also collecting mixed-methods data from patients to explore potential barriers and facilitators to using MyIBDToolkit. The first phase of MyIBDToolkit was launched in October 2024.

Conclusions: MyIBDToolkit represents a scalable and patient-centered approach to the self-management of IBD care. By empowering patients to self-manage their disease between health care visits, we aim to reduce the burden of IBD on patients, providers, and the health care system. By evaluating the effectiveness and the implementation of the MyIBDToolkit, we aim to generate actionable and sustainable improvements to IBD care in Alberta.