Artificial intelligence and e-health for inflammatory bowel diseases: The quest to enhance patient experiences, outcomes and costs

Zand, A. (2020)

Doctoral Thesis

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are chronic immunological digestive diseases with a progressive character and associated with significant healthcare costs.  Different solutions have been proposed such as innovation in care monitoring or implementation of electronic health (eHealth). IBD is one of many chronic diseases that could benefit from eHealth, adding smartphone applications to the toolbox for care management has the potential improve disease understanding, enhance medication adherence, improve patient-physician communications, and for earlier interventions by medical professionals when problems arise. Furthermore, the accessibility to Big Data and increased computational resources have paved the way for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide potential solutions for the management of prototypical complex diseases with advanced heterogeneity and alternating disease states, like IBD. In this thesis we assessed the current economic and psychosocial impact of IBD by assessing its effect on indirect costs, productivity and caregiving. Furthermore, we observed if we can proactively identify IBD patients’ needs using eHealth and Artificial Intelligence. Lastly, we analyze the impact of monitoring IBD patients using eHealth interventions in order to facilitate the delivery of high-value care.

• IBD
• Artificial intelligence
• Big data
• eHealth
• Value-based healthcare
• Crohn disease
• Ulcerative colitis
• AI
• Machine learning

• All authors: Zand, A.
• Supervisor: Hommes, D.W.
• Co-supervisor: Deen, W.K. van
• Committee: Rabelink, A.J.; Bussemaker, M.; Biesman, D.H.; Vermeire, S.; Bemelman, W.A.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Medicine, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden University
• Date: 2020-12-10
• ISBN (print): 9789464230390