Home treatment is not always the best thing

Prior to treatment and outpatient check-ups, patients with inflammatory bowel disease must submit stool samples. A larger clinical study has shown certain effects of patients themselves being responsible for part of the monitoring of their disease, as well as implementing part of the treatment.

The patients experienced the previous practice as logistically heavy and inflexible, as the stool sample must be analysed no later than seven days after it has been taken, while the shipment itself can take up to seven days. In addition, according to the patients, the sample must be sent so that the department has received it before a weekend or on a Monday. Getting the sample delivered to the hospital within the deadlines has made strict demands on planning and can create uncomfortable situations.

A kit was therefore tested so that the patients could carry out the test at home. What was new about this practice was that the patient was the first to read the result in the My Hospital app, where it was also available to the hospital. However, the home test presented some challenges for the patients.

Some experienced technical problems or had difficulty finding their way around the various guides they had been given. If the test result was too high, it could cause confusion or worry for the patients, who felt they had a different responsibility when they had to do the reading themselves.

The test takes 17-18 minutes, and it can be a practical challenge if several people share the same toilet.

The assessment was carried out by postdoc Kathrine Rayce. She says: "Treatment at home is often described as something that takes place in calm and safe surroundings. But the home is not a neutral base, and frameworks, roles and agendas in the home become part of the measurements, and often patients and relatives are given more responsibility".

After the assessment, the Department of Gastroenterology decided to rethink things. They imagine that there must be a home solution for patients who want to monitor the condition themselves. At the same time, they believe that it would be beneficial to have staff in the day hospital who can use the home kit (or similar POC test) for the measurement of calprotectin, and the patient can thus be satisfied with coming in with a sample, so that they can get a quick answer without having to bear the responsibility themselves.