The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) recently developed a guide to assist gastroenterologists in the diagnosis and treatment choices for Crohn’s disease patients, as well as to help them support their clinical decisions, called “Identification, Assessment, and Initial Medical Treatment in Crohn’s Disease Clinical Decision Support Tool.” The GI’s guide was recently published in the official journal of the AGA, the Gastroenterology journal.

The “Identification, Assessment, and Initial Medical Treatment in Crohn’s Disease Clinical Decision Support Tool” is the result of a workgroup that reviewed literature on the disease in order to develop a practical algorithm and synthesize the most recent research findings on the assessment and treatment of Crohn’s disease patients.

One of the authors of the AGA clinical decision tool, Dr. William J. Sandborn, MD, from the division of gastroenterology at the University of San Diego in La Jolla, California explained that “as health-care systems move towards providing better quality care, it is important for gastroenterologists to have clinical support tools that will help them treat underlying disease, as well as the whole person.”

“This clinical support tool represents a big step forward for the treatment of Crohn’s disease and was created using a rigorous review process,” he added. The guide is designed to help physicians evaluate patients for active inflammation, as well as the presence of complications and co-morbid conditions, stratify the patients’ risk, determine the most effective treatments, and assess the level of therapy of the patients’ inflammations.

The “Identification, Assessment, and Initial Medical Treatment in Crohn’s Disease Clinical Decision Support Tool” is the most recent clinical decision support guide, however, it is no innovation, since AGA had already published other tools like this one regarding important GI subjects, such as biologics for Crohn’s disease, colonoscopy surveillance and hepatitis C screening and evaluation.