The role of the transition clinic from pediatric to adult inflammatory bowel disease care.

Abstract

The transition of patients from pediatric to adult centered care represents not only the means to transfer medical care to a group of providers who specialize in adult care but also is part of the process of the transfer of healthcare responsibility from the family to a patient. The intent of this review is to provide a summary of some of the important studies published in the past 2 years that advance this knowledge. Progress has been made in the recognition of the process of transition, including developing tools to assess transition readiness, improving routes of communication along with patient education. Other studies provided information on patients' preferences for information seeking, types of family interactions, and factors that improved transition success. In general, reported clinics and programs did demonstrate improvements in adherence, clinic retention, and even quality of life. Further studies should focus on clinical outcomes of transition programs and risk assessment for transitioning patients.