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

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 themselves⁵. With the expansion of telemedicine there is increasing evidence to support novel the use of web-based applications to improve outcomes in UC⁶. An example of this is the mobile-phone application “IBDSmart^TM”, which is currently being piloted in Auckland, New Zealand⁷.