P393 Can teledietetics improve access to specialist dietitians for patients with IBD

BackgroundSpecialist dietitian input, while an important part of IBD management, is often difficult for patients to access due to long wait times. Moreover, a number of dietitians are interested in part-time work, which is often not feasible in a hospital environment. We have developed a virtual dietetics platform, Mangetoo, as a way to increase flexibility for dietitians and improve patient access to IBD specialists.MethodsWe performed a patient and public involvement (PPI) exercise with IBD patients sampled from Crohn’s and Colitis UK to demonstrate the functionality of the platform. Following the exercise, attendants were sent a questionnaire about their views on dietetics, and whether they would be open to using the teledietetics service.ResultsWe received a total of 46 responses to our questionnaire. Of the patients who had previously seen a dietitian (52%), only 20% found the interaction helpful, mostly due to seeing a generalist rather than an IBD specialist. The majority of patients (70%) listed access to an IBD subspecialist as their most important factor in choosing a dietitian, ahead of location/access (15%) and reputation (9%). 80% of respondents said they were interested in using a teledietetics service, with their main concerns being availability of a specialist dietitian, accessibility, and cost.ConclusionsOur exercise has shown that the top priority for IBD patients in engaging with dietetics was access to a subspecialist IBD dietitian. As long as a virtual dietetic platform could provide access to specialist dietitians, IBD patients would be interested in engaging with the service. Having determined IBD patients are interested in the service in principle, we will now trial the platform, Mangetoo, using actual IBD patients and dietitians to evaluate its efficacy in replacing face-to-face dietetics consultations in practice.