29 August 2014

United Kingdom, 18th August 2014 – This year the SAGE Award (Shire Award for Gastrointestinal Excellence) first place has been presented to a team of clinicians from the Luton & Dunstable University Hospital for their project, Inflammatory Bowel Disease – Supported Self Help and Management Programme (IBD-SSHAMP) during the British Society of Gastroenterology Annual meeting held this year in Manchester. The project has shown considerable innovation and excellence in gastrointestinal care and will receive a grant of £10,000 for furthering and enhancing the development of the project. IBD-SSHAMP is the UK’s first patient friendly, internet based, remote management service for IBD patients. It aims to provide every one of its IBD patients with their own disease specific personalised website. The websites provide patients with a direct access between themselves and hospital specialists. Patients can access the service from anywhere in the world provided they have internet access. The site contains a symptomatic disease activity index which encourages patients to score their condition. Depending on their results an appropriate set of self management advice is then automatically sent back. The hospital IBD team are instantly notified if a patient scores badly, and they can then contact the patient to optimise their therapy. Patients are also able to contact the IBD team directly if they need support, help and advice in other areas or if they require an urgent outpatient appointment. The site also contains a growing library of information for patients to access. Dr Matthew Johnson, Consultant Gastroenterologist, commented, “We are delighted to receive this award and to be recognised for our commitment to improving IBD patient management. We aim to provide an alternative safe and efficient way of monitoring and managing our more stable IBD patients, by empowering them with the confidence and knowledge to help manage their condition better themselves. So far we have 520 patients on IBD-SSHAMP and hope to be able to roll this out across the UK.” The SAGE Award second place was awarded to a team from Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, led by Dr Alan Lobo for their project Gastroenterology Without Walls a multi-faceted project combined of 3 services – a community gastroenterology service, a gastroenterology ambulatory service and an emergency consultant led gastrointestinal haemorrhage service. Third place was awarded to a team at the liver unit, Freeman Hospital led by Dr Stuart McPherson for their project, CHASE-B: Chinese Hepatitis B – Awareness, Survey and Education. The project carried out screening amongst the Chinese community for Hepatitis C and provides educational materials to help manage the condition. The SAGE Awards 2015 will be open to entries in the autumn of 2014.

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