Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Information Technology Course code- COMP 4013 Student- Viveak Kaul

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a group of disorders that cause the sections of the gastrointestinal tract to become inflamed and ulcerated. An abnormal response of the body’s immune system plays a role in each of the two main forms of IBD- namely Crohn’s disease( CD) and Ulcerative colitis( UC). Most often, these are lifelong diseases, usually starting in early adulthood in otherwise healthy, active individuals. The main difference between CD and UC is the location and nature of the inflammatory changes. The main symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, sever internal cramps/ muscle spasms in the region of pelvis and weight loss. However the most important extra intestinal complication is Anemia. According to the figures of Ministry of Health there are almost 201,000 Canadians living with IBD: 112,000 with CD and 88,500 with UC. Over 9,200 new cases are diagnosed every year. Canada has among the highest reported prevalence and incidence of IBD in the world. People with IBD have an elevated risk of developing colorectal cancer. IBD is as common as Type 1 diabetes or epilepsy. The economic costs for IBD are conservatively estimated at $1.8 billion per year in Canada in 2008. In this article we would be reviewing the data collection techniques and review sampling of the study by Winkelman et al(2005)- Patient perceived usefulness of online medical records. Employing grounded Theory in the Development of Information and communication Technologies for use by Patients Living with Chronic Illness. This was a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive study using in- depth interviews and focus groups of a total of 12 patients with IBD of at least one- year duration at University Health Network, a tertiary care center in Toronto, ON. The study used a systematic, non probabilistic sampling procedure. Informants were chosen if it was thought they were likely to possess experiential knowledge of living with chronic illness. Subjects were required to have lived with long- term incurable illness for at least one- year. There were no restriction on age and gender nor was computer, technology or Internet experience a requirement for entry. Subjects were told that the interview was part of hospital- based initiative to develop access to patient records over Internet, but previous experience with medical records was not specified as a criterion for study entry. The initial focus on patients with IBD was considered “ convenience based” because one of the researchers, a practicing gastroenterologist, facilitated access to a subject population. However, remaining with patients with IBD was a purposeful sampling decision because IBD fits all the characteristics of a prototypical chronic illness. Thereafter the sampling strategy evolved into a theoretically driven sampling process. After the initial focus groups,