Abstract
BACKGROUND: We aim to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions on gastroenterologists providing care to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in Canada. METHODS: We invited 28 Canadian gastroenterology societies, 14 academic centres and 101 community hospitals and private clinics to have their gastroenterologists engage in an online mixed methods survey from December 2020 - March 2021. The survey explored the impact of pandemic-related restrictions on gastroenterologists managing IBD patients and the impact on clinical decision-making, rates of consultation, investigations and endoscopies conducted before and during the pandemic. RESULTS: 59 gastroenterologists (59.3% male) participated in our study with 40.7% having completed additional training in IBD. Respondents mean age was 43.7 years with 30.5% practising independently for a duration of less than or equal to 5 years. The majority of respondents were from Ontario (43.1%), Quebec (31%) and British Columbia (13.8%) with 62.7% practising primarily at an academic centre. 93.2% of respondents reported that their practice was affected by the pandemic. 44.6% note a reduction in the number of total consultations completed. Only 60% were able to arrange endoscopies for patients in an active IBD flare at an appropriate time interval compared to their pre-COVID practice. During the pandemic, 87.3% reported a reduction in the total endoscopies performed, with 43.8% of those individuals noting a minimum reduction of 25% of previous volumes. The following barriers attributed to the decrease in endoscopies performed during the pandemic: institutional-imposed restriction on daily allowed endoscopies (97.9%), indication for endoscopy was non-urgent (68.8%) and patient-requested cancellation due to a fear of contracting COVID-19 (87.5%). 63.6% of respondents were able to arrange outpatient laboratory investigations in less than 1-week prior to the pandemic vs. 41.8% arranging similar tests in 1–2 weeks during the pandemic. 50.9% were able to arrange diagnostic investigations in 1–2 months before the pandemic vs. 65% arranging similar tests in 3-months or more during the pandemic. When advancing drug therapy in IBD patients before versus during the pandemic, respondents reported the following factors as playing a crucial role in clinical decision making: patient symptomatology (87% vs. 79.3%), laboratory investigations (94.8% vs. 96.6%), diagnostic imaging (89.7% vs. 81%) and endoscopy findings (89.7% vs 72.4%). CONCLUSION: We illustrate that Canadian gastroenterologists have been affected by the pandemic, with decreases in endoscopy performance related to access and patient preference and less decision-making guided by endoscopy. Outpatient access to urgent investigations was reduced.