Telemedicine and Remote Screening for COVID-19 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients: Results From the SoCOVID-19 Survey

To the Editors, The global spreading of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection1–3 has led to a deep reorganization of hospital services affecting inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) units activity worldwide.4,5 In many cases, scheduled follow-up visits were cancelled or rescheduled, and access to outpatient clinics was limited to unstable and relapsing patients. A delay in scheduled therapeutic infusions was also reported due to patient’s decision or practical issues.6 Inflammatory bowel disease patients, especially those under biological and immunosuppressive therapies, are believed to have a higher risk to be infected by SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, early treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with better outcomes.7 For these reasons, in a context of strongly limited interactions between IBD patients and IBD care providers, many referral centers started to screen patients for COVID-19-related symptoms by phone or video call interviews. To quantify the capacity of such an approach to identify early stages of COVID-19, the SoCOVID-19 survey, which contained 11 questions related to the activity of remote screening for COVID-19-related symptoms and signs (Table 1) was sent by the Italian Group for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IG-IBD) to all Italian referral centers for the diagnosis and therapy of IBD.