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 organisationwhich was established in 2011 to develop clinical administration softwarespecifically for the UK,designing web-based, patient, referral, management and engagement systems across a number of disciplines.Cievert’sspecialist oncology tertiary referral software has been adopted across theUK,andit 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) guidelinesrecommendthat patients with coeliac diseaseare offered an annual review.In this project,researchersadapted Cievert’s existingcancer patient management softwareto supportpeople 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, theanswerwasflagged tospecialistcliniciansin Sheffieldfor 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 originallyplannedto recruit. Despite the challenges, the software wassuccessfullyadaptedto be suitable for use with patients withcoeliac disease andfeedback from participantssuggest that thesoftwarecould be used to safely and remotely support patients with coeliac diseasesuccessfullyassessingdietaryadherence andmonitoringongoing symptoms.The software has the potential to ensure patientswho require medical carearegiven 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 arealso many individual and organisation barriers that must beovercome.

The development and testing of the application for coeliac disease would not have been possible without the funding, providedjointly 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.