Excellence in Healthcare Collaboration and Partnerships

Summary of work

The British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) set up the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Registry to improve patient outcomes by collecting long-term data from IBD teams. A successful national IBD Audit programme was ongoing, but in 2015 NHS England withdrew its funding and recommended that future audit be done using the IBD Registry. Adapting the Registry caused delays, and the move from annual snapshot audit to continuous point-of-care data collection is a big culture change for busy clinical teams. With no NHS mandate or funding, Registry success depends entirely on gastroenterologists being convinced of its value to them and their patients. IT solutions for different parts of the NHS had to be developed, making the process of joining the Registry complex. In November 2015 Registry uptake was low, with just 8 sites. Feedback from IBD teams suggested there was a lot of confusion about the project. The IBD Registry and BSG partnered with the Royal College of Physicians, Crohn’s and Colitis UK, Janssen, Shire, Takeda and Tillotts to encourage participation through a targeted regional roadshow focused on listening to clinicians’ needs and co-designing local solutions.

By the end of 2016 the programme was back on target, with 80 live sites.

Judges' comments

The IBD Registry Roadshow achieved very impressive results, all the more so given that it was a ‘no frills’ campaign. It took a rather dry subject, where there is clearly a real need for work to be done, and harnessed strong stakeholder engagement efforts to succeed.