Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SCCAI) and future patient-centered telemedical care of Ulcerative Colitis patients

Abstract

Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon of increasing prevalence characterised by periods of remission and activity. Compared to Crohn"s Disease (CD) symptom-based disease activity indices correlate fairly well with endoscopic and biometric grading of activity 1, 2, 3, 4 We review the mounting number of studies that show that the "Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index" (SCCAI), originally developed as a physician-completed tool, is the most robust disease activity index when completed by the patient themselves 5. With the expansion of telemedicine there is increasing evidence to support the novel use of web-based applications to improve outcomes in UC 6. An example of this is the mobile-phone application "IBDSmart TM ", which is currently being piloted in Auckland, New Zealand 7 .