Integrating Adolescents and Young Adults into Adult-Centered Care for IBD

Planned healthcare transition, initiated in pediatric care, is a gradual process aimed at fostering the adolescent patient’s disease knowledge and skills with the ultimate objective of preparing patients and families for adult-centered care. The process is critical in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) where there is an increased risk of non-adherence, hospitalizations, and emergency department use as young adult patients graduate from pediatric to adult-centered care. While evidence for healthcare transition in IBD is mounting, important gaps remain in the understanding of this process from the perspective of the adult gastroenterologist. This paper summarizes what is known about healthcare transition in IBD and explores the unanswered questions—a conceptual and methodological framework for transition interventions, relevant outcomes that define successful transition, and key stakeholder perspectives. For the adult gastroenterologist managing the young adult patient population, this paper presents the paradigm of “care integration”—a process of ongoing, multi-modality support for the patient, initiated in the adult care setting, with the goal of improving self-management skills and active participation in medical decision-making.