Identifying Care Challenges as Opportunities for Research and Education in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in South Asia

Nov 2022 | Publications

Authors: Madhura Balasubramaniam, Neilanjan Nandi, Tina Aswani Omprakash, Shaji Sebastian, Vishal Sharma, Parakkal Deepak

Journals: Dual publication in Gastroenterology and Clinical Gastroenterology & Hepatology

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2022.08.051

Identifying Care Challenges as Opportunities for Research and Education in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in South Asia highlights the several unique barriers to delivering quality IBD care in resource-limited settings of South Asia. These include challenges in timely diagnosis due to low availability of IBD specialists, diagnostic confusion in the setting of Gastrointestinal Tuberculosis, cost of monitoring tests and medication, consequent challenges to implementing Treat-to-Target strategies and cultural barriers against acceptance of disease and treatment. The article identifies these challenges as opportunities for education and research to develop better understanding of disease pathogenesis and make high-quality IBD care equitably accessible for the underserved South Asian population.