Improving the long-term management of coeliac disease

Project Title: Using software to improve the long-term management of people affected by coeliac disease 

Chris Kennelly, founder and CEO of Cievert Ltd., a digital health organisation which was established in 2011 to develop clinical administration software specifically for the UK, designing web-based, patient, referral, management and engagement systems across a number of disciplines. Cievert’s specialist oncology tertiary referral software has been adopted across theUK, and it was the first company to develop and launch vaccine booking software during the pandemic by adapting its flu vaccine booking system.For this project, Chris Kennelly partnered with the Sheffield gastroenterology department.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend that patients with coeliac disease are offered an annual review.In this project, researchers adapted Cievert’s existing cancer patient management software to support people diagnosed with coeliac disease.

They then invited adults to test and evaluate the system.Adults with a diagnosis of coeliac disease were prompted via email to answer an online questionnaire on three separate occasions during a 12 month period. The questions were based on guidelines from the British Society of Gastroenterology(BSG)and NICE. Ifa patient response indicated an issue or that they may require support, the answer was flagged to specialist clinicians in Sheffield for further inspection. If necessary, the clinician would then contact the patient.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the way this work was carried out and there were fewer participants than the study had originally planned to recruit. Despite the challenges, the software was successfully adapted to be suitable for use with patients with coeliac disease and feedback from participants suggest that the software could be used to safely and remotely support patients with coeliac disease successfully assessing dietary adherence and monitoring ongoing symptoms.The software has the potential to ensure patients who require medical care are given the correct support in a timely manner.

For this software to be rolled out more widely, and made accessible to NHS patients, the evaluation study would need to be replicated with a larger number of patients and in different areas around the UK. There are also many individual and organisation barriers that must be overcome.

The development and testing of the application for coeliac disease would not have been possible without the funding, provided jointly by Coeliac UK and Innovate UK. Innovate UK is an organisation within the UK government’s national research and funding agency that invests in science and research.