New grant to support youth with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

A new research study, led by Mount Sinai Hospital’s Dr. Geoffrey Nguyen, will look at how health-care professionals can best support youth patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis as they transition to adult care.

The incidence of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has been rising, particularly since 2001, and significantly so in children under the age of 10. When patients turn 18, they typically move from pediatric care to an adult treatment environment. In recognition of the need to improve the quality of health care delivered to Canadian youth living with IBD, over $220,000 has been awarded to Dr. Nguyen from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. This research grant will help Dr. Nguyen and his colleagues from partner hospitals, to explore how to ensure that patients receive the right supports as they transition to adult care.

“For teenagers with IBD, the transition of care from their pediatric gastroenterologists to their adult doctors can be a very emotionally difficult and sometimes alienating process,” said Dr. Geoffrey Nguyen, Gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital’s Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. “In our study, we will look at how to best support these patients to ensure there is continuity of care, regardless of where their adult IBD care is provided,” said Dr. Nguyen.

Recognizing the need to support these patients, last year Mount Sinai Hospital partnered with the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) to hold monthly transition clinics at SickKids, where Mount Sinai IBD clinicians meet with youth patients who will become patients at the Hospital. Approximately half of the 50 – 75 older teenagers who are transferred annually from the SickKids program are referred to one of the six gastroenterologists at the Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital.

“Through the Mount Sinai Hospital-SickKids Transition Clinic, we will explore whether regular communication with a health professional through telephone or other electronic communications can keep our IBD teenagers engaged in the health system and lead to improved health and greater patient satisfaction,” said Dr. Nguyen.

Mount Sinai Hospital’s Zane Cohen Centre is comprised of Canada’s largest, most comprehensive multidisciplinary team of IBD clinicians who care for more than 4,700 patients annually, many who come from outside of Toronto and Ontario. The Centre is also the tertiary referral centre for all of Ontario for patients with complex IBD for second opinions and/or ongoing care.